| A | B |
|---|
| robber barons | Negative term describing the captains of industry as exploiters of the poor. |
| assembly line | Each worker performs a specialized operation in assembling the work as it passes along on a conveyor belt or truck. |
| corporation | Organization owned by many people but treated by law as though it were a person. |
| monopoly | company that has complete control of the market |
| industrial giants | Business leaders that accumulated great wealth and exercised tremendous power. |
| captains of industry | Some of the industrial giants returned parts of their fortunes to society by philanthropic acts. |
| Cornelius Vanderbilt | Acquired a fortune in railroads. |
| Andrew Carnegie | Made a fortune on steel. |
| John D. Rockefeller | Made a fortune in the petroleum industry. He founded Standard Oil. |
| J.P. Morgan | Investment banker, also made a fortune in railroads. |
| Alexander Graham Bell | Invented the first telephone. |
| Thomas Alva Edison | Invented the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph, Wizard of Menlo Park |
| Sherman Anti-Trust Act | Prevented the creation of monopolies |
| Interstate Commerce Commission | Act that required railroad rates to be reasonable and just |
| entrepreneurs | risk takers who start their own businesses |
| capitalism | economic system in which most businesses are owned by private individuals |
| laissez-faire | "the invisible hand," companies operate without government intervention |
| social Darwinism | a system of unrestrained competition will ensure the survival of the fittest |
| Dawes Act | Law that was intended to "Americanize" Native Americans by distributing reservations to individual owners. |
| business consolidation | Number of businesses that combine to form one unit. |
| trust | another name for a monopoly |
