SAQs relating to the Gilded Age

1870s to 1900

It’s undeniable. To do well on any end-of-year APUSH Exam, students need to know about the Gilded Age — with students having mastered the content when they can:

Describe America in the years leading up to the Gilded Age. This description should include mention of:

• The First Industrial Revolution
• Reconstruction and the New South
• The Progressive Era
• Westward expansion in terms of economic development
• Westward expansion in terms of social development

Describe the laborer force during the Gilded Age. This description should include mention of:

• The external and internal migration that took place during the Gilded Age and how it resulted in the creation of a “diverse labor force.”
• The child labor that took place during the Gilded Age and some of the industries best known for having employed child labor
• Some of the more historically noteworthy “goods” that were produced by laborers during the Gilded Age.
• Some of the goods and services that laborers had access to during the Gilded Age.
• Some of the leisure time activities that laborers could enjoy during the Gilded Age.
• Some of the unions that were created during the Gilded Age and how they sought to directly confront business leaders in hopes of an increase in wage and/or better working conditions.
• The gap between rich and poor (aka laborers) that developed during the Gilded Age and how “Social Darwinism” and the government’s policy of laissez-faire made it possible for some Americans to distance themselves from the poor when it came to the acquisition of wealth.
• The fact that real wages increased during the Gilded Age

Describe the internal migration that took place during the Gilded Age.

• Those who migrated from the farms to the cities
• Those who migrated north during the Great Migration
• Those who migrated west of the Mississippi River to acquire free land under the Homestead Act.

Describe the external migration that took place during the Gilded Age. This description should include mention of:

• The New Immigrants
• The Chinese who immigrated to the US after the completion of the first transcontinental railroad

Describe America’s response to the external migration that took place during the Gilded Age? This description should include mention of:

• Nativism
• The Chinese Exclusion Act
• The Immigration Act of 1882
• The Settlement Movement.
• Political Machines.
• Some of the laws and business practices prevented external immigrants from joining labor unions.
• The call for corporation managers and businesses leaders to teach immigrants how to become someone who shares American values, beliefs, and customs
• The use of immigrants as strikebreakers
• Catholics who were awestruck at the increase of non-Protestant believers.
• Those who feared the genetic outcome of the eventual pooling of these new (immigrant) bloods.
• The increasing debate over questions relating to assimilation and Americanization
• Corporate managers and business owners who greeted the rush of cheap labor with zeal.
• The Statue of Liberty beckoning the world’s “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This beckoning resulted in America, some would say, turning into a melting pot.

Describe the distinctive middle class that emerged during the Gilded Age. This description should include mention of:

• The need of corporations and factory owners for “managers.”
• The need of corporations and factory owners for “clerical help.”
• The increase in access to educational institutions.
• The invention of an “indispensable clerical tool” and its effect on women
• The development of certain leisure activities.
• Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth and its effect on members of the middle class who found their way into the upper-middle class (and beyond)
• The development of a “consumer culture.”

Describe the various calls for reform that took place during the Gilded Age. This description should include mention of:

• The term muckrackers
• Jane Addams, her work at Hull House, and the related Settlement Movement.
• Jacob Riis and his publication of How the Other Half Lives.
• Andrew Carnegie and his publication of The Gospel of Wealth.
• Jacob Coxey and his “march” to Washington D.C.
• Washington Gladden and his founding of the Social Gospel Movement.
• President James Garfield and his signing of the Pendleton Act.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony and their founding of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
• Samuel Gompers and his founding the American Federation of Labor.
• The western farmers and their founding of the Populist Party.
• Annie Wittenmyer and other Christian women and their founding of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

Describe the controversies over the role of government that took place during the Gilded Age. This description should include mention of:

• The controversy relating to the question of whether the government should increasingly look outside the U.S. borders in an effort to gain greater influence and control over markets and natural resources in the Pacific Rim, Asia, and Latin America.
• The controversy relating to the question of whether the government should intervene to alleviate suffering during economic downturns.

Describe the various political perspectives that emerged during the Gilded Age. This description should include mention of:

• The Democratic Party, its founding, and what it stood for.
• The Republican Party, its founding, and what it stood for.
• The Populist Party, its founding, and what it stood for.

GILDED AGE SAQS

Below are forty (40) SAQs relating to the Gilded Age (1870–1900.) If you have some SAQs that you would like to see added to this list, feel free to send your questions to me at ppaccone@smusd.us.

LABOR

• Briefly explain ONE specific way in which laborers sought to directly confront business leaders during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly explain ONE specific outcome of the fact that during the Gilded Age the standard of living improved for many laborers.
• Briefly describe ONE specific New Deal response to the child labor of the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe ONE major difference between the labor force of the Gilded Age and the labor force of the time period 1800–1865.

INTERNAL MIGRATION

• Briefly describe ONE major similarity between the whites and blacks who migrated northward during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe a SECOND major similarity between whites and blacks who migrated northward during the Gilded Age
• Briefly explain ONE historical effect of those who migrated westward during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly explain a SECOND historical effect of those who migrated westward during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly explain a THIRD historical effect of those who migrated westward during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly explain ONE historical effect of the African Americans who migrated northward during the Gilded Age.

EXTERNAL MIGRATION

• Briefly describe ONE major difference between those who immigrated to the US during the Gilded Age and those who immigrated in the decades leading up to the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe a SECOND major difference between those who immigrated to the US during the Gilded Age and those who immigrated in the decades leading up to the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe ONE major difference between those who immigrated to the US during the Gilded Age and those who immigrated in the decades leading up to the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe ONE major similarity between those who immigrated to the US during the Gilded Age and those who immigrated in the decades leading up to the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe a SECOND major similarity between those who immigrated to the US during the Gilded Age and those who immigrated in the decades leading up to the Gilded Age.

AMERICA’S RESPONSE TO THE EXTERNAL MIGRATION

• Briefly explain ONE historical effect of those who immigrated to the United States during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly explain a SECOND historical effect of those who immigrated to the United States during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly explain a THIRD historical effect of those who immigrated to the United States during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe ONE major difference between the Chinese Exclusion Act that was passed during the Gilded Age and the laws relating to immigration that were passed in the years immediately following the Gilded Age.

THE MIDDLE CLASS

• Briefly explain ONE specific outcome relating to the emergence of a distinctive middle class during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly explain a SECOND specific outcome relating to the emergence of a distinctive middle class during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly explain a THIRD specific outcome relating to the emergence of a distinctive middle class during the Gilded Age.

THE CALL FOR REFORM

• Briefly describe ONE major difference between the Social Gospel and the Gospel of Wealth
• Briefly describe ONE major similarity between Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives and Uptown Sinclair’s The Jungle
• Briefly explain ONE major similarity between Jacob Coxey’s march to Washington D.C. and Samuel Gompers founding of the American Federation of Labor.
• Briefly describe one similarity between Jane Addam’s Hull House and Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth.

THE CONTROVERSIES OVER THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT DURING

• Briefly describe ONE perspective relating to the role of government during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe a SECOND perspective relating to the role of government during the Gilded Age.

THE POLITICAL PARTIES

• Briefly describe ONE major difference between the Democrats and the Republicans during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe a SECOND major difference between the Democrats and the Republicans during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe a THIRD major difference between the Democrats and the Republicans during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly explain ONE reason for the founding of the Populist Party
• Briefly explain a SECOND reason for the founding of the Populist Party
• Briefly explain ONE specific result of the founding of the Populist Party.

MISC

• Briefly describe ONE reason for the inequalities that existed during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe a SECOND reason for the inequalities that existed during the Gilded Age.
• Briefly describe ONE major similarity between laissez-faire ideology and Social Darwinism.
• Briefly describe ONE major difference between laissez-faire ideology and Social Darwinism.