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Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin -
Mass Production
production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines -
Bessemer Process
first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron -
John D. Rockefeller
American industrialist and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy -
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ICC
regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including interstate bus lines and telephone companies -
Labor Union
organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals such as protecting the integrity of its trade, achieving higher pay, increasing the number of employees an employer hires, and better working conditions -
Knights of Labor
largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence V. Powderly -
Pullman Strike
nationwide conflict between the new American Railway Union (ARU) and railroads that occurred in the United States in summer 1894. It shut down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit -
Haymarket Riot
refers to the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square[3] in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day -
Homestead Riot
industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. The battle was the second largest and one of the most serious disputes in U.S. labor history second only to the Battle of Blair Mountain -
Eugene V. Debs
American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States -
Laissez Faire
economic environment in which transactions between private parties are free from tariffs, government subsidies, and enforced monopolies, with only enough government regulations sufficient to protect property rights against theft and aggression. -
Thomas Edison
American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb -
Andrew Carnegie
Scottish-American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He was also one of the most important philanthropists of his era. -
Tenement
substandard multi-family dwelling in the urban core, usually old and occupied by the poor -
Urbanization
physical growth of urban areas as a result of rural migration and even suburban concentration into cities, particularly the very largest ones -
Sherman Antitrust Act
is a landmark federal statute on competition law passed by Congress in 1890. It prohibits certain business activities that reduce competition in the marketplace, and requires the United States federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies, and organizations suspected of being in violation -
Monopoly
exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity -
Samuel Gompers
English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history -
AFL
one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers of the Cigar Makers' International Union was elected president of the Federation at its founding convention and was reelected every year except one until his death in 1924. -
Means Production
physical, non-human inputs used in production—the factories, machines, and tools used to produce wealth -
Patent
form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention -
Entrepreneur
an enterprising individual who builds capital through risk and/or initiative -
Enterprise
business or company -
Capital
the area of a country, province, region, or state, regarded as enjoying primary status, usually but not always the seat of the government -
Socialism
economic system characterised by social ownership, control of the means of production through cooperative management of the economy, and a political philosophy advocating such a system -
Communism
revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, moneyless, and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production, as well as a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of this social order -
Social Democracy
political ideology that considers itself to be a form of reformist democratic socialism -
Collective Bargaining
process of negotiations between employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions
