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Unit 6, Period 6 (1865 to 1898): The Gilded Age

7 dot points across 7 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

What broad forces transformed the United States from a war-torn agrarian republic into an industrial and urban power between 1865 and 1898?

Topic 6.1 Contextualizing Period 6: the industrial, demographic, and political forces that reshaped the United States during the Gilded Age between 1865 and 1898.
Sets the scene for AP US History Period 6, covering the rise of industrial capitalism, the settlement of the West, mass immigration and urban growth, the new conflicts over labor and the role of government, and how to write contextualization for a DBQ or LEQ on the Gilded Age.
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What changed and what stayed the same in the United States across the Gilded Age, and how do you turn that into a continuity and change argument?

Topic 6.14 Continuity and Change in Period 6: using the historical reasoning skill of continuity and change over time to analyze the transformations of the Gilded Age.
A focused answer to AP US History Topic 6.14, teaching the historical reasoning skill of continuity and change over time through Period 6: what the Gilded Age transformed (the economy, cities, the West) and what persisted (racial inequality, laissez-faire politics), and how to frame a continuity and change essay.
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How did mass immigration and rapid urban growth transform American society, and how did Americans respond to the newcomers?

Topics 6.8 and 6.9 Immigration, Urbanization, and Responses: the new immigration, the growth of cities, the rise of a middle class, and the nativist reaction between 1865 and 1898.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 6.8 and 6.9, covering immigration and urbanization in the Gilded Age: the new immigration from southern and eastern Europe, the growth and problems of cities, the rise of the middle class, political machines, and the nativist reaction including the Chinese Exclusion Act.
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How did industrial workers respond to the harsh conditions of the Gilded Age, and why did organized labor make so little progress?

Topic 6.7 Labor in the Gilded Age: working conditions, the rise of labor unions, the great strikes, and the obstacles that limited the labor movement between 1865 and 1898.
A focused answer to AP US History Topic 6.7, covering labor in the Gilded Age: factory conditions, the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, the great strikes from the Great Railroad Strike to Haymarket, Homestead, and Pullman, and why organized labor made limited gains.
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Why was Gilded Age politics so corrupt and closely divided, and how did the Populist movement challenge the economic order?

Topics 6.11 to 6.13 Reform, the Role of Government, and Politics: Gilded Age party politics, debates over the role of government, the agrarian revolt, and the rise and fall of Populism between 1865 and 1898.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 6.11 to 6.13, covering Gilded Age politics: party machines and corruption, civil service and tariff debates over the role of government, the agrarian revolt and the Populist movement, the Omaha Platform and free silver, and the pivotal election of 1896.
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How did technological innovation and new forms of business organization create industrial capitalism in the Gilded Age?

Topics 6.5 and 6.6 Technological Innovation and the Rise of Industrial Capitalism: the new technologies, business structures, and ideologies that drove the United States to global industrial leadership between 1865 and 1898.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 6.5 and 6.6, covering the rise of industrial capitalism: new technologies and the railroads, Carnegie and Rockefeller, vertical and horizontal integration and trusts, Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth, and the first federal response in the Sherman Antitrust Act.
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How did the settlement of the West reshape the economy and the nation, and what did it cost American Indians?

Topics 6.2 and 6.3 Westward Expansion: the economic, social, and cultural development of the West, federal land policy, and the dispossession of American Indians between 1865 and 1898.
A focused answer to AP US History Topics 6.2 and 6.3, covering western settlement: the railroads, the Homestead Act, mining, ranching, and farming, the closing of the frontier, and the dispossession of American Indians through reservations, the Dawes Act, and Wounded Knee.
12 min answer →