period 6 people

• Ulysses S. Grant


  18th president of the U.S. Was a successful Civil War general for the Union and known for his shady dealings while in office (ex: Whiskey Ring)
• Cornelius Vanderbilt


  Made a huge fortune in the railroading business. Popularized the use of steel rails
• Andrew Carnegie


  King of the steel industry in the Gilded Age. Set up his steel business in Pittsburgh and utilized the practice of vertical integration. Popularized the Bessemer process for making steel and amassed a huge fortune from it. Gave his money away to charity before he died.
• John D. Rockefeller


  Dominated the oil industry in the Gilded Age. Created the Standard Oil Company in Ohio in 1870. Utilized the practice of horizontal integration to squeeze out his competitors. Owned 95% of all the oil refineries in the country
• J.P. Morgan


  Made his name by financing the reorganization of railroads, insurance companies, and banks. While he started the manufacture of steel tubing, he clashed with Carnegie but sorted out to buy Carnegie's holdings for $400 million. He then rapidly expanded Carnegie's former empire to create the US Steel Corporation which was America's first billion-dollar corpoartion.
• Alexander Graham Bell


  Known for inventing the first telephone in 1876
• Thomas Edison


  Famous inventor and patented over 1,000 inventions including the phonograph and the electric light bulb
• Eugene Debs


  Charismatic labor leader who organized the American Railway Union and led the Pullman strike in 1894. He eventually would go on to lead the socialist movement in the US.
• John Muir


  Preservationist and naturalist that worked alongside Teddy Roosevelt to preserve the unspoiled nature in the US
• James Garfield 


  20th president of the US. Was known for not much of anythign except for being shot by CHarles Guiteau in a railroad station then died 11 weeks later
• Rutherford B. Hayes


  19th president of the US. Ironically known as "The Great Unknown" Originated in Ohio. Elected by the Compromise of 1877 and took office as Reconstruction ended. Abandoned by his party and held office for only one term
• Chester Arthur


  21st president of the US. Only president to serve 2 non-consecutive terms. Took office after Garfield died and was the unlikely instrument of reform. His integrity was good for the nation but offended too many Republicans and he was also abandoned by his party
• Grover Cleveland


  22nd and 24th president of the US. Noted Democratic reformer. Squeaky clean except for an affair in Buffalo. First Democrat to take office since Buchanan. Favored laissez-faire. Narrowed North and South chasm when he elected 2 Confederates to his cabinet. President during the depression of 1893. Could not cope with the depression and damaged the Democrat reputation
• William Jennings Byran


  Populist known for his skills as an orator. Ran for president 3 times on the platform of re-coinage of silver. Delivered the Cross of Gold speech in first attempt.
• William McKinley 


  25th president of the US. He gave businesses free reign and allowed trusts to build up. Brought a period of prosperity with his election and he passed the Gold Standard Act in 1900. Wanted a peaceful take-over of Cuba but eventually asked to declare war to free Cubans
• Samuel Gompers


  Founder of the American Federation of Labor. Bitter foe of socialism and demanded a fairer share for labor. Promoted "pure and simple" unionism. One of his major goals was to authorize all-union labor
• Thorsten Veblen


  Novelist who wrote Theory of the Leisure Class in 1890, these works undermined the reputation of the industrial elite and stimulated pressures for tougher regulation of business. The Theory of the Leisure lass was a devastating critique of "conspicuous consumption" (spending money to demonstrate wealth)
• Edward Bellamy

  Journalist-reformer in Massachusetts. Published a socialist novel "Looking Backward". Grew in fame for the attack on social and economic injustices
• Henry Ford


  American businessman, founder of Ford Motor Company, father of modern assembly lines, and inventor
• Emilio Aguinaldo


  Leader of the Filipino independence movement against Spain, proclaimed the independence of the Philippines in 1899, but his movement was crushed and he was captured by the US Army
• Alfred T. Mahan


  Navy officer whose ideas of naval warfare and the importance of sea-power changed how American viewed its navy. Wrote "The influence of Sea Power upon History"
• Benjamin Harrison


  23rd president of the US
• Marcus A. Hanna


  A former businessman who raised money and devised strategy for McKinley's winning bid for the White House. Industrialist and Republican politician from Ohio, coined the "Front Porch" campaign
• General "Butcher" Weyler


  Spanish general who tried to crush the Cuban rebellion by putting them in barbed wire reconcentration camps
• Frederick Law Olmsted and Calbert Vaux

  landscape designers that promoted city parks as a refuge and designed NY's central Park
• Jacob Riis


  Danish immigrant and NY photographer, wrote the book "How the Other Half Lives" w/ descriptions and pictures of tenements
• Theodore Dreiser


  Wrote the novel, "Sister Carrie" about single women without support in the city
• William M. Tweed


  boss of NYC's Tammany Hall (1860s-70s), NYC's powerful democratic political machine in 1868, used public funds extravagantly and voting intimidation, went to jail in 1872
• Stephen Crane


  An American poet and novelist who wrote notable works in teh Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism. Wrote "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" (1893) and "The Red Badge of Courage" (1896) abt how a brutal environment (cities) could destroy the lives of people
• Winslow Homer


  painted New England Maritime life
• James McNeill Whistler


  introduced oriental themes in art, born in Massachusetts, studied color
• Uriah S. Stephens 


  founded the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor
• Gustavus Swift


  founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late 19th century, refrigerator car
• General Stephen Kearny

  American general who had commanded troops in New Mexico. He tried to establish a territorial government in the region, ignoring the majority Hispanics.

  -Taos Indians rebelled, killing Kearny and other Anglo-American officials
• Juan Cortina


  led angry Mexicans in raiding the jail in Brownsville and freed all Mexican prisoners inside (little long-term effect)
• Mark Twain 


  portrayed the romantic vision of the west in his works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
• Theodore Roosevelt



  -also romanticized the west by traveling to the Dakota Badlands after the tragic passing of his wife

  -published The Winning of the West
• Frederick Jackson Turner


  Wrote the Significance of the American Frontier, claiming that the experience of western expansion had stimulated individualism, nationalism, and democracy making Americans distinctly American
• Joseph H Glidden 


  developed and marketed the barbed wire
• Hamlin Garland


  reflected on the growing disillusionment of the west in his novel Jason Edwards (1891)