Key Terms

anarchism

an ideology advocating that government be abolished

contract labor

a system in which people sign contracts promising to perform work in exchange for a fee

debt bondage

a system in which a person who owes money works (or provides someone else to work) for the creditor until the debt has been repaid

demographic transition

a reduction in family size in the late 1800s caused by falling birth rates in industrialized nations

labor union

an association that organizes workers of all kinds, both skilled and unskilled

naturalism

a literary style that emphasized realistic, detached, impersonal depictions of characters whose actions were molded by their environment in ways they often had no ability to control

penal labor

forced labor assigned as punishment to those convicted of crimes

pogroms

violent attacks on Jewish people in the Russian empire

real wages

wages measured in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be purchased with them

realism

a literary and artistic style that realistically depicted everyday life in the contemporary world

romanticism

an artistic movement formed in response to the Industrial Revolution that prized emotion and imagination and took as its subjects the themes of nature, the ordinary person, the exotic, the ancient, and the supernatural

social democrat

people who favor the creation of a socialist society through democratic means

Taylorism

a system of management that sought to improve workers’ productivity by curbing wasteful movements

trade union

an association that organizes workers in a particular craft or industry