The Arrival of Modern America: Industrial Revolution and Urbanization

INDUUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Tuesday, Jan. 31st; Industrial Growth: Read 530-545
1. In what ways and to what extent did the economy change from 1865-1900?
2. How did new ways of organizing business help create this change?
3. How did new technologies and inventions help create this change?
4. How and why did railroads lead this change?
5. What were the costs and benefits of industrialism?
6. What were the arguments of its supporters and critics?

Wednesday, Feb, 1st;  Industrial Workers and the Economy: Read 545-557
1. How did industrial work change the lives and culture of American workers?
2. How did industrialism affect immigration rates and experiences?
3. Did industrialism improve their lives?
4. Did industrialism provide an avenue for Americans to pursue the “American Dream?”
5. What successes did the labor movement achieve, and why were its successes limited?
6. Why did the Knights of Labor fail?
7. Why was the American Federation of Labor more successful than the Knights of Labor?

Know the significance of the following:
Scientists and Industrialists: George Washington Carver; Thomas Alva Edison; Alexander Graham Bell; Henry Bessemer; Henry Ford; Frederick Winslow Taylor; Leland Stanford; Cornelius Vanderbilt; Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Steel; John D. Rockefeller & Standard Oil; J.P. Morgan & U.S. Steel

Social Theories: Herbert Spencer & Social Darwinism; Andrew Carnegie & Gospel of Wealth; Russell Conwell & Acres of Diamonds; Henry Ward Beecher & Protestant Ethic

New Business Organizations: vertical integration; horizontal integration; corporations; pools; trusts; holding companies; interlocking directorate

Labor Movement: Eugene V. Debs; Samuel Gompers; Terence Powderly; Molly Maguires; Knights of Labor; American Federation of Labor; Haymarket Square Riot; Homestead Strike; Pullman Strike; Railroad strike of 1877

URBANIZATION
Thursday, February 2nd; Immigration: Read 558-572

1. How did immigration change from 1865-1920?
2.What were the cultural, material and social difficulties that immigrants and migrants faced when they migrated to American cities? What attempts were made to stop immigration?
3. Why was transportation so important to the growth of cities? What were the most important new technologies of transportation?
4. What were the challenges in housing the new urban population? Were they successfully met?

Friday, Feb. 3rd; Responses to Strains of Urban Life: Read 572-582
1. How did the cities attempt to solve the problems of urban poverty? Were they successful? Why?
2. How did different reformers respond to the problems of the city?  Was these attempts at liberation or control of the working class?  were they succesfull in tehir reforms?
3. (This topic will be covered in class)What was machine politics? Why did it develop and why was it so succesful? Was machine politics a successful response to the challenges of governing a city?

Monday, Feb. 6; High Culture &The Rise of Mass Consumption in Age of the City : Read 582-593.
1. How did industrialism and urbanization affect th epress, education and literature?
2. How did art portray this new urban culture?
3. How did urbanization and industrialization affect women and the family?
4.What is “mass consumption?” What are some good examples of it? How did it change American culture? Did it improve American life?

Know the significance of the following:
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives; Jane Addams; Hull House;  the social gospel; Boss Tweed; Tammany Hall; settlement houses; Mark Twain; Theodore Dreiser; Upton Sinclair; The Ashcan School

Ric Burns' New York Documentary on NYC in this era:

Railroads, Mining, Ranching and Farming in the West

For Wednesday, 1/25; Railroads Open the West: Read pages 530-538 & 604-611.
1. What effect did railroads have on populating the West and promoting the economy there.
2. How did the government enable and support the railroads?
3. How did railroads abuse their clients, investors, and the government?
4. How did the government try to control these abuses? Were they successful?
5. How and why did cattle-raising evolve from the “Long Drive” to an organized “big business?”
6. What were the factors that led farmers to settle the West? How did government laws, the military, railroads, economic and environmental factors impact this movement?
7. Was the Homestead Act successful? Why?
8. What obstacles did the western environment present to farmers? How were they overcome? What problems were not overcome?
9. What was Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier thesis?” Was it a realistic and accurate explanation of American history?


For Thursday, 1/26; Success and Defeat for the American Farmer:  Read 612-625.
1. How and why did farming become an “industrialized” big business? What effect did this have on farmers and farming?
2. How did immigration affect the West? From what countries did immigrants to the West come?
3. Why did so many farmers get caught up in a cycle of debt that they could not get out of?
4. How and why did farmers organize themselves for their benefit?
5. Were the National Grange, the Farmer’s Alliance and the Populists successful? Why?


Know the significance of the following:
Union Pacific Railroad; Central pacific Railroad; Land grants; Credit Mobilier scandal; Cornelius Vanderbilt; Wabash case; Interstate Commerce Commission; “49ers”; Comstock Lode; “Long Drive”; Homestead Act; 100th Meridian; dry farming; “sooners”; Frederick Jackson Turner; Montgomery Ward Catalog; “combine” harvester; “bonanza farms”; National Grange; Farmer’s Alliance; Populist Party; William McKinley; William Jennings Bryant; Cross of Gold Speech; “gold standard

Anglo-Indian Conflict and the "Settling" of the West

For Friday: Read the wikipedia article on the Sand Creek Massacre.  As you read, consider the following questions for a discussion on Friday.
1. Why did the Sand Creek Massacre occur?
2. What does this tell you about the nature of Anglo-Indian conflict in the West?
3. What does it tell you about the nature of ethnic conflict through history and in the present?

You might also view the brief documentary segments below:






For Tuesday, 1/24; Anglo-Indian Conflict in the Trans-Mississippi Westl: Read 594-604.
Anglo-Indian Conflict in the West:


1. After reading the handout write a brief reflection on the Sand Creek Massacre. Why do you think this happened? Could it happen today in the United States? Does the Massacre inform you in any way about your world today?
2. What was the relationship between the Plains Indians and the buffalo?
3. Was there always conflict on the Plains between whites and Indians? Why was there eventual conflict between the two?
4. Why did the Sioux go to war with the United States in 1876? What was the result? Why did the Sioux and other tribes eventually loose to the United States?
5. What was the Dawes Severalty Act? Who supported it and why? What was the effect on the tribes and on their land?
6. What was the Ghost Dance? Why did Indians follow this new religion? Why is Wounded Knee significant?
7. What was the overall effect of reservations on Indian society and culture?

Know the significance of the following:
Sand Creek Massacre; Red Cloud; Crazy Horse; Sitting Bull; Col. George Armstrong Custer; Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876; “Custer’s Last Stand”; Geronimo; Chief Joseph; Dawes Severalty Act, 1887; Ghost Dance; Wounded Knee, 1890

Reconstruction Assignments

For Wednesday:
The Problems of Peace-Making & Radical Reconstruction: 479-492
1. What were the general goals and obstacles to Reconstruction?
2. Describe both Lincoln's and Johnson's Reconstruction plans. What were their different goals, strong points and failings? Why was each opposed by Congress?
3. What were the Black Codes and why were they so odious to Northern Congressmen?
4. Why was there so much conflict between Johnson and Congress?
5. What is your opinion of Johnson?
6. What is your opinion of the Republican Congressional leaders?

For Thursday:
The South in Reconstruction: 492-501
1. What were the successes and failures of the Reconstruction governments in the South?
2. How did Reconstruction change the lives of African-Americans?
3. How did Reconstruction change the lives of white southerners?
4. What methods did white southerners use to keep black southerners in the same economic, social, and political position?
5. How did northern politics and economic issues affect Reconstruction?
6. Did he deserve to be impeached and removed from office?
7. Why was Reconstruction abandoned? Who was responsible for the end of Reconstruction?
8. Was Reconstruction successful? Who was responsible for its successes and failures? Could Reconstruction have fully succeeded?

Know the significance of the following: Lincoln’s 10% Plan; Andrew Johnson; Johnson’s Restoration Plan; “Black Codes”; Radical Republicans; Charles Sumner; William Seward; Thaddeus Stevens; Wade-Davis Bill; Freedman’s Bureau; 13th Amendment; 14th Amendment; 15th Amendment; Military Reconstruction; Tenure of Office Act; Edwin Stanton; Johnson’s impeachment; Scalawags; Carpetbaggers; Ku Klux Klan; White League; sharecropping; crop-lien system; poll tax; literacy tests; President Grant; Horace Greeley; Compromise of 1877; Rutherford B. Hayes; Samuel Tilden

Paper due Monday: "In what ways and to what extent did constitutional and social developments between 1860 and 1877 amount to a revolution?"

Assignments: 1/4-1/6

Wednesday, 1/4: the Civil War I; Read pages 434-447.
1. How did each side finance the war? Is there anything problematic with these methods? In what ways were they similar?
2. How did each side raise their armies? Is there anything problematic with these methods? In what ways were they similar?
3. Why did the South need and expect help from Great Britain and France? Why did they fail to gain help?
4. Did Lincoln violate the Constitution to win the war? Was he right to do so?
5. What advantages did each side have at the outbreak of war? Who should have won?
6. What was different about the Civil War? What new technologies were used and what effects did they have on the war?

Thursday, 1/5: Civil War II; Read 448-463.
1. Who had the upper hand in the first two years of the war? Why?
2. Why was the Battle of Antietam important?
3. What were the US policies towards slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation? What did the Proclamation do for slaves? Why did Lincoln choose that moment to change his policies? Were the proclamation and its timing wise?
4. What was life like for African-Americans during the war? What effect did African-Americans have on the war’s outcome?

Friday, 1/6: Civil War III; Read 464-478.
1. What was the turning point of the war? Why do historians consider this to be the turning point?
2. Why was the siege of Vicksburg important?
3. Why was Grant a successful general when so many earlier generals were unsuccessful?
4. What was the effect of Sherman’s “March to the Sea” on the South?
5. Why did Lincoln almost loose the election of 1864? Who opposed him? Why did Lincoln win?
6. How did Grant finally defeat Lee? What was his treatment of Lee and the Confederate soldiers like? Why did he treat his adversaries that way?

Know the significance of the following:
Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, Salmon Chase, William Seward, Andrew Johnson, Conscription Act, 20-Negro Law, Trent affair, the Alabama, Laird Rams, Confiscation Act, Emancipation Proclamation, Copperheads, Peace Democrats, New York Draft Riot,Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), Battle of Antietam, Battle of Fredericksburg, Anaconda Plan, blockade, border states, Invasion of New Orleans, Siege of Vicksburg, Battle of Gettysburg, Sherman’s March to the Sea, Appomattox Courthouse, USS Monitor, CSS Virginia (Merrimack), Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, George B. McClellan, George G. Meade, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Admiral David Farragut, John Wilkes Booth, Gettysburg Address