Gilded Age Politics

Monday, 2/25: 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?

Tuesday, 2/26: National Politics in the Gilded Age: Read 515-529.
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


Wednesday, 2/27; Test on Chapters 22-26 - Reconstruction, the West, Insutrialization, Urbanization & the Politics of the Gilded Age.

The Arrival of Modern America: The Industrial and Urban Revolution

INDUUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Monday, Feb. 11; 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, 12th; 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 13th; 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. 14th; 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. 15th; 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:

Farming, Ranching and Mining 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

For Tuesday: 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 Wednesday, 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

New York Draft Riots

Gettysburg - Little Round Top

 

Reconstruction

For Friday: 1/25
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 Monday: 1/28
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 Friday for peer review 2/1: "In what ways and to what extent did constitutional and social developments between 1860 and 1877 amount to a revolution?"