Warm-up How might expansion into the West help to define or redefine the national identity? How do interactions with native Americans shape national identity?

The Gilded Age Rise of industry/ Economics Ch.3

Industrialization Abundance of natural resources Large workforce – LARGE FAMILIES – IMMIGRANTS GNP – Gross National Product – the total value of all goods and services that a country produces during a year Increasing GNP

Free Enterprise System In many respects the United States practiced Laissez-Faire– “Let Do” Economics Rise of the entrepreneurs – people who risk their capital in organizing and running a business Reliance on supply and demand rather the Government intervention and regulation How might laissez-faire policies during a peak impact the American economy? Why? How might laissez-faire policies during a recession impact the American economy? Why?

Railroads Railroad industry booms by 1862 with Pacific Railway Act and spurs economic growth – creation of the Transcontinental Railroad Integrated railway systems – more efficient and cheaper method Land grants – federal govt. gave land to many railroad companies, they in turn sold it to others; helps close the frontier

Robber Barons Wealthy railroad entrepreneurs with a reputation of swindling investors, bribing government officials, and cheating on their contracts and debts. – Jay Gould – most well known of the robber barons, practiced “insider trading” and manipulated stock prices

Robber Barons The Credit Mobilier Scandal – railroad construction company, secretly set up by the Union Pacific Railroad, tried to get Congress to give the railroad more grants. The Great Northern Railroad – became the most successful transcontinental railroads and one of the few railroads that didn’t go bankrupt

Big Business By 1900 Big business dominated the economy, operating vast complexes of factories, warehouse, offices and distribution facilities. Andrew Carnegie – Steel industry – Invented a new process for making high quality steel efficiently and cheaply John D Rockefeller – Standard Oil Company

Vertical integration- owns all of the different business it depends on for its operation Horizontal integration- combining many firms engaged in same type of business Monopoly – total control of a type of industry by one person or one company Trusts – a combination of firms or corporations formed by a legal agreement, especially to reduce competition Holding companies – doesn’t produce anything but instead holds stock in companies that do Most successful was J.P. Morgan and his United States Steel Company

Unions Working conditions: – Monotonous, unhealthy, dangerous – deflation – Uneven distribution of income  Leads to Formation of Trade Unions and Industrial Unions

Union opposition Industry opposes unions – Blacklist – Lockout – Strikebreakers Does this happen today? Marxism: argues class struggle would lead to revolution where government would seize all property and equally distribute it.

Worker’s Rights Great railroad strike of 1877 Knights of Labor The Haymarket Riot The Pullman Strike AFL (American Federation of labor) Samuel Gompers

The Great Railroad strike of 1877

Haymarket riot Chicago, Protest led to bomb explosion- 11 dead

Pros and Cons of Big Business? ProsCons

Innovation Alexander Graham Bell – Telephone Thomas Edison – Phonograph – Light bulb – Electric generator Orville and Wilbur Wright What Opportunities arise from changes in technologies? What Problems Arise from changes in technology?