A2 - Grandfather clause - In an attempt to prevent
African-Americans
from voting, Louisiana tried literacy tests and poll taxes. In
1896,
Louisana
wrote a new state constitution that said if your grandfather could vote
in previous years, then you could too. Because the majority of
the
black population didn't have grandfathers that were able to vote, then
naturally, they would be excluded. The Supreme Court ruled this
(and the other methods) unconstitutional. Today, we call any new
law that allows
people already breaking the law to continue breaking the law without
punishment a "Grandfather Clause".
B2 - Boll weevil - Insects that came from Mexico and infested bolls of cotton making cotton crops die out and many cotton farmers lose profit. Ironically, it caused many farmers to benefit in the long run, since they turned to soybeans, a much more reliable and profitable crop.
C2 - Piecework - Method of paying employees for how
productive
they are. The more "pieces" you produce, the more money you'll
make.
Named from shirt factory workers, who were paid by the collar, sleeve,
or seam.
A3 - Trust - A business
organization in which all prices are set through the collusion of
various owners, ensuring minimum cost and risk with maximum
profits. Trusts were widespread, with some estimates claiming
that there were literally thousands, but the most notorious and
pervasive were the beef, sugar, and railroad trusts. Many small
businessmen were driven from the field thanks to a variety of
unscrupulous practices from the trusts. (Ask about the long &
short-haul problem, or the price below production cost problem.)
B3 - Mark Hanna - He was the Republican "boss" of the state
of Ohio. He told
William McKinley what to do in order to win the presidency in
1896.
He ran the political machine that got McKinley elected.
A5 - Xenophobia - Fear of foreigners in your country. The
Chinese were fearful of the foreigners from the US, France, Britain, Germany, and Russia
in their country making money and destroying their culture. The Boxer Rebellion occurred as a
result.
A6 - White slavery - Basically prostitution. Young
girls
would move to the "Big City" trying to become wealthy or famous. Some girls
were
kidnapped and shipped to other countries, where they were sought after
because of their unique appearance. Addiction to drugs was often
used to keep them dependent on their "owners". In an effort to
stop this practice, the Mann Act made it illegal to transport women
across state lines for immoral purposes.
C7 - Melting pot - Referring to the United States, described
how
diverse the US was with different ethnic groups. Important
because a
lot of immigrants were coming to America during this time.
D7 - J.P. Morgan - He was a rich banker who handled money
for other rich people such as Andrew Carnegie and John D.
Rockefeller. Morgan
handled
the money when Carnegie's US Steel was sold for $500 million dollars and
once
donated that amount to Theodore Roosevelt (as President of the US) to
help the suffering US
economy.
A8 - Pogrom - This is a government act, particularly in
Russia, taken against a specific
ethnic group. It is usually used to make the group a scapegoat
for difficult national problems (like a recession or policy
failure). The Russian Czar conducted a pogrom against the
Jews during this time period.
B9 - Niagra Movement - A civil rights movement for blacks in
America, begun as a meeting of wealthy and successful black
Americans.
The first college for blacks was opened as a result of the first
meeting (Storer College) and the National Association
for
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was created.
C9 - Anna Jarvis - She started Mother's Day, in Grafton, West
Virginia.
D9 - Typhoid Mary - Contracted typhus and spread it through
public
kitchens in which she worked. She passed the disease through
contaminated water (human
waste), and eventually had to be jailed to prevent her from continuing
to do so. She is now a cultural cliche for anyone who spreads an
epidemic (literally or figuratively).
A12 - John Dewey - He is considered the first true American
philosopher.
He created the idea that Americans are totally different from other
cultures, and so must be educated differently. He
believed
that people should educate themselves to be a
specialist
in a certain field, and proposed the idea of vocational education
(training to fit the job).
C12 - Alfred Nobel - He is the inventor of trinitrotoluene
which
is known as TNT and is used in the manufacture of dynamite. He
created a special award now
known
as the "Nobel Prize," possibly because of the guilt he suffered after
his
brother was killed by dynamite. Nobel Prizes continue to be
awarded in fields as diverse as Physics, Literature, Economics, and
Chemistry.
B14 - Arthur Conan Doyle - An English author who came up with
the Sherlock Holmes series. In reality, Doyle grew tired of his
creation
because people paid more attention to Sherlock than the man who
invented
him. Doyle placed himself in the stories as Holmes' sidekick,
Dr. Watson. Doyle eventually killed Holmes off because he hated
trying to live up to people's standards for what a genius Holmes
was. The public became angry, so he eventually wrote more stories
about Sherlock, this time in the form of diaries by Dr. Watson, which
function as a prologue to the originals. In the era of our unit,
he began
the new series with The
Hound of the Baskervilles.
C14 - Jack London - American author who wrote White Fang,
and
Call of the Wild.
He originally went as a newspaperman to cover the
Klondike
Gold Rush but ended up enjoying the adventurous outdoor lifestyle so much that he wrote
several books
about it and was considered quite bold.
D14 - Zane Grey - A famous Wild West novelist though he had
never been to the West, Grey was still very accurate in his portrayals. Though a
New
York dentist, he wrote the Western classic, Riders
of the Purple Sage. He was related the to Zane
family who settled early in Wheeling, WV (on the Island) before moving
to Zanesville, OH.
A16 - Konstantin Stanislavski - A Russian acting
specialist.
He created "Method" acting, which taught people to play their parts as
though the incidents were actually happening in their lives, so it
would seem real and believable. Jack Nicholson, Robert De
Niro,
and Marlon Brando are considered "Method" actors.
A17 - Enrico Caruso - An Italian opera singer. He was
the most outstanding tenor (often the hero in an opera) of his day, and
was a major celebrity. During a visit to the US during this time
period, he was recorded at the Metropolitan Opera, one of the first of
the new audio recordings to be made on plastic disks, and making great
music available to all people, not just those who could afford to
attend the opera. This was his final trip to America. The
"Great Caruso" remains an archetype for male opera singers, especially
tenors.
C17 - Tinker to Evers to Chance - The Chicago Cubs Shortstop,
2nd Baseman, and 1st Baseman (and Manager), the most famous double play
combination
of their time. They provoked Grantland Rice to write a famous
poem about how deadly they were to opponents' hopes for victory.
Comp 6 - How difficult was the work done by Robert Peary and
Roald Amundsen? - Considering that they were in the first
expeditions to reach the Poles, we'd say "pretty difficult".
Peary went to the North Pole, though it is his companion Matthew Henson
who probably reached the Pole first. Since Peary was the leader
of his expedition (and perhaps since Henson was black), Peary gets the
credit in most history books. Amundsen's party found their trek
to the South Pole more difficult, since Antarctica contains a land
mass, and is thus much colder. More of his party died during the
journey.
App 3 - How did Ida Tarbell's History of Standard Oil change
the face of American business? - The book recorded how oil
executives, particularly John D. Rockefeller,
rose
to the top. It exposed the social injustices and business tricks
perpetrated by entrepreneurs in the name of profit. She tried to
make the
average citizen aware of what was really going on and the government
got
more strict in enforcing anti-trust legislation.
App 10 - What characteristics made "The Great Train
Robbery"
such
an important film? - It was the first film to ever have a full story
line, which allowed viewers to follow the characters through a robbery,
posse formation, chase scene, and gunfight. The directors used
unique ways of "zooming" in and out to show characters and scenes, and
used a mobile camera to shoot particular scenes. They also had
certain scenes painted cel by cel to give a colorful effect to gunshots.