The Gilded Age: Short Answer Assignment

Please answer the following questions using your readings, the lecture, and the presentation for this week. Responses should be 2-3 complete and grammatically correct sentences at minimum. (10 Points Each)

1. What was Social Darwinism and how did it negatively impact Americans during this period?

2. What were the key elements for industrialization that the United States developed during and after the American Civil War?

3. What was the "New South" and what industries did southern states introduce during the 1880s to 1900?

4. How were the resources and people of the frontier west exploited by the growth of the United States during industrialization?

5. Three years after the western frontier was closed, a "financial panic" set in and lasted until 1897. Why did that panic occur and what were its effects?

6. What were some of the types of responses used by the U.S. government in response to strikes organized by Labor Unions and associated groups?

7. What were some of the laws and policies instituted by the states and the U.S. government that negatively impacted African American civil rights?

8. What was "Nativism" and what did its followers want?

9. How did the new literary genres of Science Fiction and "Rags to Riches" dime novels help determine American cultural attitudes?

10. How did the inventions, entertainments, and literature of the Gilded Age affect American culture?