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How did plastic revolutionize modern life?

Since first being produced in 1909, plastic (any synthetic organic material that can be molded under heat and pressure to retain a shape) has had an impact on industries and consumers throughout the world. True to its name—plastic is defined as "capable of being molded or modeled"—the substance can be adapted to countless uses, both for the production of goods and as a material in finished goods. In 1909 Bakelite plastic was introduced and over the next three decades the plastics industry grew. Acrylic, nylon, polystyrene, and vinyl (polyvinyl chloride or PVC) were developed in the 1930s, and polyesters were produced in the 1940s. By the end of the twentieth century plastic was being used in nearly all manufactured products: from household items such as hosiery, clocks, radios, toys, flooring, food containers, bags, electric plugs, and garden hoses, to commercial...

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1. Systems And Terms
   1. What is laissez-faire capitalism?
   2. What is mercantilism?
   3. Why do economists still regard Adam Smith so highly?
   4. What is Keynesian economics?
   5. What were indentured servants?
   6. What was triangular trade?
   7. How were finished goods made before the Industrial Revolution?
   8. When was the New York Stock Exchange founded?
   9. What is the system of scientific management?
   10. Who invented the assembly line?
   11. What is a robber baron?
   12. What is a Horatio Alger story?
   13. What was Black Tuesday?
   14. What was the New Deal?
   15. Why was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act important?
   16. What is e-commerce?
2. Money
   1. What was a piece of eight?
   2. What was rag money?
   3. What were wildcat banks?
   4. What were greenbacks?
   5. What were Continentals?
   6. When was the U.S. income tax system established?
   7. When was the Interstate Commerce Commission established?
3. Industries
   1. What was the National Bank Act?
   2. What is the Federal Reserve?
   3. How did the American tobacco industry begin?
   4. What were the Navigation Acts?
   5. What was the Cumberland Road?
   6. What was the Pony Express?
   7. How did the invention of barbed wire change the West?
   8. When was the biggest gold rush in U.S. history?
   9. What was the Comstock Lode?
   10. What is black gold?
   11. When did diamond mining begin in Africa?
   12. How did the American textile industry begin?
   13. How did Eli Whitney happen to invent the cotton gin?
   14. What was "king cotton"?
   15. How did the invention of the reaper change America?
   16. What were bonanza farms?
   17. How did the American cattle industry get started?
   18. What is Bessemer process?
   19. When did chain stores begin?
   20. When did department stores begin?
   21. How has the mail-order business changed since the nineteenth century?
   22. Who was Rosie the Riveter?
   23. Why was Ford's Model T so important to American history?
   24. How did plastic revolutionize modern life?
   25. How long ago was computer giant Microsoft founded?

1. Industrial Revolution