Ch.

28 Luck or Pluck

1. This chapter points out that the previous four chapters have shown the United States being
“made over” in almost a revolutionary way. Make a list of your “top five” biggest changes
described in those chapters.
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2. Those four chapters have said almost nothing about politics during these years. What was
one important reason why government seemed so unimportant?
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3. What is the moral lesson that Horatio Alger’s stories seem to be teaching? How does that
lesson fit comfortably with the idea of laissez-faire?
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4. What was Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution? How did the idea of“survival of the fittest” fit
into his theory?
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5. How did philosophers like Herbert Spencer and business people like John D. Rockefeller use
the idea of “survival of the fittest”? How did that idea fit comfortably with the philosophy of
laissez-faire?
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6. How did Andrew Carnegie’s career resemble that of a Horatio Alger story? What did Carnegie
think of Herbert Spencer and his teachings about evolution?
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7. What was the problem with the idea that people would always be rewarded for striving and
succeeding? Or that the “fittest” would always survive and prosper?
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8. Why did the Homestead steelworkers go on strike? What did the government do about the
dispute? Do you think it followed a policy of laissez-faire?
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9. The Homestead strike took place in July 1892. Six months later, what happened to make
matters worse for ordinary folk?
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10. Why did Jacob Coxey march on Washington? What was the response he and his followers
received from Congress?
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