Courtney Sever
Period 2
Chapter 11: Robber Barons and Rebels
Main Ideas
- Businessmen monopolized the markets (railroads and steel are two good examples) in exchange for “economic stability” to ensure that they had control over the full market. They would then change prices as they pleased to drive out their competition.
- Many workers in the South organized strikes, asking for higher wages. Most of these workers were black or members of the Knights of Labor. These strikes were met by violence and gunfire, with one battle seeing about 30 black men dying in one night and only 2 white men dying in the same evening.
- There was a crazy movement where people realized that Wall Street owned most of the nation and the farm/industry workers had to work for Wall Street to have any kind of income. This is why many people decided to go on strike/protest. Similar to the current Occupy Wall Street Protests.
- The Populist movement was popular because it looked to pressure the banks/economists with an agricultural movement. The Populist movement finds its peak in 1892-1896 and rapidly fades away. This party endorses William Jennings Bryan.
- The Populist/Democratic party was defeated by William McKinley, who brought in the first massive use of money to win the election. He also used the idea of patriotism and, doing as promised with patriotism, he declared war on Spain in 1898, lasting until the turn of the century.
Quotes
- “Meanwhile, the government of the United States was behaving almost exactly as Karl Marx described a capitalist state: pretending neutrality to maintain order, but serving the interests of the rich (Zinn 258).”. The U.S.A. tried to distance themselves from Marxist ideas, when in reality they fell into the mold of Marxist capitalism.
-“The development of a factory-like system in the nineteenth-century schoolroom was not accidental (Zinn 263).” I find this quote interesting because it highlights the importance of the Industrial