America’s History 8th Edition, Ch 19 Key Terms & People – Flashcards
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Chicago school
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A school of architecture dedicated to the design of buildings whose form expressed, rather than masked, their structure and function.
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mutual aid society
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An urban society that served members of an ethnic immigrant group, usually those from a particular province or town. The societies functioned as fraternal clubs that collected dues from members in order to pay support in case of death or disability.
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race riot
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A term for an attack on African Americans by white mobs, triggered by political conflicts, street altercations, or rumors of crime. In some cases, such events were not spontaneous but planned in advance by a group of leaders seeking to enforce white supremacy.
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tenement
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A high-density, cheap, five- or six-story housing unit designed for working-class urban populations. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they became a symbol of urban immigrant poverty.
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vaudeville
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A professional stage show popular in the 1880s and 1890s that included singing, dancing, and comedy routines; it created a form of family entertainment for the urban masses that deeply influenced later forms, such as radio shows and television sitcoms.
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ragtime
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A form of music that became wildly popular in the early twentieth century among audiences of all classes and races and that ushered in an urban dance craze. It was an important form of "cross-over" music, borrowed from working-class African Americans by enthusiasts who were white and middle class.
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blues
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A form of American music that originated in the Deep South, especially from the black workers in the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta.
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yellow journalism
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A derogatory term for newspapers that specialize in sensationalistic reporting. This term is associated with the inflammatory reporting by the Hearst and Pulitzer newspapers leading up to the Spanish-American War in 1898.
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muckrakers
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A critical term for investigative journalists who published exposés of political scandals and industrial abuses.
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political machine
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A complex, hierarchical party organization such as New York's Tammany Hall, whose candidates remained in office on the strength of their political organization and their personal relationship with voters, especially working-class immigrants who had little alternative access to political power.
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National Municipal League
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A political reform organization that advised cities to elect small councils and hire professional city managers who would direct operations like a corporate executive.
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progressivism
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A loose term for political reformers (especially those from the elite and middle classes) who worked to improve the political system, fight poverty, conserve environmental resources, and increase government involvement in the economy. Such reformers were often prompted to act by the fear that mass, radical protests by farmers and workers would spread, as well as their desire to enhance social welfare and social justice.
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"City Beautiful" movement
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A turn-of-the-twentieth century movement that advocated landscape beautification, playgrounds, and more and better urban parks.
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social settlement
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A community welfare center that investigated the plight of the urban poor, raised funds to address urgent needs, and helped neighborhood residents advocate for themselves. It became a nationally recognized reform strategy during the Progressive Era.
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Hull House
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One of the first and most famous social settlements, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and her companion Ellen Gates Starr in an impoverished, largely Italian immigrant neighborhood on Chicago's West Side.
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Pure Food and Drug Act
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A 1906 law regulating the conditions in the food and drug industries to ensure a safe supply of food and medicine.
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National Consumers' League
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A national progressive organization that encouraged women, through their shopping decisions, to support fair wages and working conditions for industrial laborers.
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Women's Trade Union League
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A labor organization for women founded in 1903 that brought elite, middle-class, and working-class women together as allies. This organization supported union organizing efforts among garment workers.
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Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
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A devastating fire that quickly spread through a company in New York City in 1911, killing 146 people. 56 state laws were passed dealing with safety hazards (fires, machines), and wages and working hours for women and children. The fire also provided a national impetus for industrial reform.
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Scott Joplin
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A black ragtime composer who sought to elevate African-American music and secure a broad national audience. His warning to not play ragtime music fast was largely ignored.
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Tom Johnson
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The reform-minded mayor of Cleveland (1901-1909) who advocated publicly-owned utilities and a tax system in which rich people paid the most. His election made the Democrats Cleveland's leading reform party again.
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Jacob Riis
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The journalist who exposed the deplorable living conditions of tenements in his book, How the Other Half Lives. He influenced Theodore Roosevelt, to whom he gave tours of the tenements.
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Jane Addams
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A middle-class reformer who saw her Hull House as a bridge between the classes. She helped the people in her social settlements advocate for themselves and gave them resources.
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Margaret Sanger
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A New York nurse who launched a campaign for birth control that led to a national movement.
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Upton Sinclair
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Author of The Jungle, which exposed the horrors of the meat-packing industry.
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Florence Kelley
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Leader of the National Consumers' League, who believed that only government oversight could protect workers. She made the NCL one of the most powerful progressive organizations advocating worker protection laws.
