Gilded Age Politics

Wednesday, 2/26: Race, Ethnicity and the Bloody Shirt in Urban and National Politics: Read 502-514
1. What was machine politics? Why did it develop and why was it politically successful? Was it a successful response to the challenges of governing a city?
2. How did blacks fare politically in the 1880s and 1890s?
3. How was the Civil War used by politicians throughout this period?

Thursday, 2/27: National Politics in the Gilded Age: Read 515-529. Review pages 618-624.
1. Why did the authors choose this title for this chapter? Is it appropriate? Why?
2. What was different about politics during the Gilded Age?
3. What were the political strengths, strategies, and platforms of each party?
4. Who were the populists? To whom did they appeal? What was their platform? Why did they fail to win a presidential election?
6. Explain the conflict over monetization of silver and gold.
7. What is your personal opinion of politics and political leaders in the Gilded Age?

Know the significance of the following: Grantism; Schuyler Colfax; Credit Mobilier; Liberal Republicans; Horace Greeley; Panic of 1873; Rutherford B. Hayes; Election of 1876; “the bloody shirt”; Grand Army of the Republic; Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 1890; Stalwarts; Roscoe Conkling; James A Garfield; Half-Breeds; James G. Blaine; Pendleton Civil Service Act, 1883; Chester A. Arthur; Grover Cleveland; Benjamin Harrison; im Crow Laws; lynchings; Plessy v Feguson(1896); Civil Rights Cases, 1883; Depression of 1893; Coxey’s Army ; Greenback-Labor Party; Populists; James Weaver; William McKinley; William Jennings Bryan; Cross of Gold Speech

Making Modern America: Industrialization and Urbanization

INDUUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Monday, Feb. 10; 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?

Tuesday, Feb, 11th; 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
Wednesday, February 12th; 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?

Thursday, Feb. 13th; 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?

Friday, Feb. 14th; 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: