Course Content
Lesson Plans
The American Nation: A History of the United States ©2000
by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes
Focus Lesson 14
Chapter 18: "An Industrial Giant"
AP* Course Description
- Industrialization and Corporate Consolidation
- Industrial growth: railroads, iron, coal, electricity, steel, oil, banks
- Effects of technological development on worker/workplace
- Union movement
- Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor
- Haymarket, Homestead, and Pullman
Key Components
- Instructor's Manual: pp. 177–185
- Study Guide, Vol. II: pp. 33–49
- Test Bank: pp. 297–313
Key Web Sites
Given the changing nature of the Internet, you may wish to preview these sites. Check the Online Companion Web site for updated links to U.S. history sites.
- Carnegie Corporation of New York
- John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company
- American Labor History: An Online Study Guide
- The Gilded Age WebQuest: Documenting Industrialization in America
- Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives
Key Words and Terms
- Bonsack machine
- feeder lines
- rebates
- "Morganization"
- utopian
- injunction
- New York Central
- Kelly-Bessemer process
- Western Union
- General Electric
- Progess and Poverty
- National Grange
- Knights of Labor
- Pullman strike
- Jay Gould
- George Westinghouse
- Alexander Graham Bell
- Andrew Carnegie
- John Wanamaker
- Terence V. Powderly
- Henry Clay Frick
- air brake
- long-haul/short-haul inequity
- trust
- "unearned increment"
- "Granger laws"
- collective bargaining
- Great Northern
- Mesabi range
- Standard Oil
- U.S. Steel
- Wealth Against Commonwealth
- Interstate Commerce Commission
- Homestead strike
- Thomas A. Scott
- George Pullman
- Edwin L. Drake
- J. Pierpont Morgan
- John D. Rockefeller
- Edward Bellamy
- Samuel Gompers
Suggested Pacing
Given the amount of political, economic, and social history of the years between 1877 and 1900, students may find it difficult to absorb all the material. A thematic approach works well. The American Nation takes the major themes of the period amd devotes one chapter to each from Chapter 18 through 21. You will need to determine the number of class sessions needed based on your students and your school schedule, but approximately three-and-a-half weeks including testing is a good framework for the four chapters.
Test Strategy
Building on the test-taking tip in the Focus Lesson 13 about question clusters, have students learn the Presidents in order, along with the years they were in office and their political party. Learning this information will help students place events in their proper chronological order since so much of U.S. history revolves around Presidencies. Knowing the time frame for events will help students in determining time frame for multiple-choice questions on the AP* exam.
Key Concepts
- Sherman Antitrust Act
Although enacted to control corporate business practices that worked to the detriment of small businesses and the public, the Sherman Antitrust Act was used against labor unions to curtail efforts to organize. The major problem in enforcing the law against big business was the vagueness of the law's language. As a result, few successful prosecutions were brought against giant corporations. - Business practices
The late-nineteenth century saw a series of economic depressions that wiped out weaker competitors and allowed a few businesses to gain the majority of their markets. These businesses used two strategies: vertical integration and horizontal combinations. The first practice allowed a company to control all aspects of the production of its goods. The second made it possible for a company to gain control of a market. The Standard Oil Trust, built by John D. Rockefeller, is an example of the latter.
Summing Up Student Understanding
Divide the class into three groups and assign each group one of the following examples of late-nineteenth century labor unrest to research: Haymarket riot, Homestead strike, and Pullman strike. You may wish to divide the groups into smaller teams of two or three students depending on the size of the class. Each team is to do research about its topic and then create a front page (or Web site home page) describing the event, the participants, the force used against the workers, and the outcome—long-term and short-term.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
You might also find these additional readings useful in developing students' background knowledge or for DBQ activities:
- American Issues: Vol. II Since 1865, edited by Unger and Tomes—Chapter 2
- The Power of Words: Vol. II From 1865, edited by Breen—Chapter 3
- Constructing the American Past, Vol. II, edited by Gorn, Roberts, and Bilhartz—Chapter 2