Subscribe

8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 2 of 15

Industrial America

Big business, cities and workers

What your child practices

Industry, railroads and inventors after the Civil War, big business and monopolies, new immigrants and growing cities, child labor and unions, farmers' movements, and federal Indian policy on the Plains.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 8.2a; 8.2c; 8.2d; 8.3a · industry, big business, new immigrants, workers and unions, and federal policy toward Plains nations after the Civil War

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. After the Civil War, big business grew: railways, steel and oil.
  2. Inventors changed life: Alexander Graham Bell (telephone), Thomas Edison (light bulb), Henry Ford’s moving assembly line (cheaper cars).
  3. A monopoly is one company controlling a whole industry. Workers formed unions for better pay and conditions.

Example: What is a monopoly? Usually several companies compete. Sometimes one company buys or beats all the others. Then one company controls the whole industry. Answer: one company controlling a whole industry

Industrial America in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 2 of 15 in 8th grade Social Studies, after Reconstruction and before Immigrants & the Growing City.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Henry Ford's moving assembly line made cars…

    • faster and cheaper to build
    • only for kings
    • more expensive
    • by hand one at a time

  2. Question 2

    The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 tried to…

    • raise tariffs
    • end immigration
    • build railroads
    • break up monopolies and protect competition

  3. Question 3

    George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla helped spread…

    • the cotton gin
    • the telegraph
    • the steam engine
    • alternating current (AC) electricity

  4. Question 4

    After the Civil War, US industry grew because of…

    • fewer workers
    • less trade
    • no new machines
    • railroads, natural resources and new inventions

  5. Question 5

    Tenements were…

    • crowded, unsafe apartment buildings
    • factories
    • railroad cars
    • large farms

  6. Question 6

    The Pullman Strike of 1894 began when the Pullman Company…

    • hired more children
    • raised wages
    • cut wages but not rents in its company town
    • closed all railroads

More 8th grade