20th Century History (Unit 1)
        20th Century History - Unit 1
1896-1912

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 SageHe 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.