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Grover Cleveland

He was the first Democratic president elected after the Civil War and the only person ever to be elected to non-consecutive terms in office. A bachelor when he was elected to his first term, he became ... read this biography

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Buffalo Bill Cody

For a century the conquest of the western frontier has been a source of popular entertainment It has also been an explanation for who Americans are as a people. Our individualism, our propensity for v ... read this biography

Eugene Debs

He led the drive for one big union embracing all rail workers. In his early twenties, he had become an official of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, a bastion of crafts separatism. He started out ... read this biography

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Mother Jones

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was a legendary union organizer and strike leader. Born in Ireland in 1830, she migrated to the United States at the age of eight, and died in 1930. During her lon ... read this biography

Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis was born in Ribe, Denmark in 1849, and immigrated to New York in 1870. Unable to find work, he soon found himself living in police lodging houses, and begging for food. The conditions in th ... read this biography

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Thomas Edison

He was hailed as "The Wizard of Menlo Park." The New York World, in 1901, called him "Our Greatest Living American, The Foremost Creative and Constructive Mind of This Country, Our True ... read this biography

Henry George

Henry George wrote the most influential American economic treatise of the nineteenth century. Entitled Progress and Poverty, and published in 1879, it was translated into 25 languages, outsold Karl Ma ... read this biography

Jay Gould

He was the prototype for the "Robber Baron" and the corrupt railroad king. The railroad "pirate" Jay Gould stirred up the most enmity. He was painted as an unscrupulous pirate who ... read this biography

J.P. Morgan

During the Gilded Age, J.P. Morgan stood astride the nation's financial world like a colossus. His banking house erected the structure of the most prominent American industries in the Gilded Age begin ... read this biography

Boss Tweed

To many late nineteenth century Americans, he personified public corruption. In the late 1860s, William M. Tweed was the New York City's political boss. His headquarters, located on East 14th Street, ... read this biography

Emma Lazarus

On a tablet on the pedestal of the statue of liberty is inscribed a poem. Entitled "The New Colossus," it contains the famous words, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses ... read this biography

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Emma Goldman

She was synonymous with radicalism. Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was born in Russia and moved to the United States in 1886. She was soon caught up in a swirl of radical movements--feminism, birth control, ... read this biography

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Booker T. Washington

As the plight of African Americans in the South was beginning to worsen, Booker T. Washington, principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, was invited to speak before a bi-racial audience a ... read this biography

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