THE GILDED AGE

Gilded Age - Mark Twain used this phrase to describe the United States during the 1870's and 1880's. He called it Gilded rather than Golden because it was only shiny on the surface. Beneath the surface was a seamy side to the age, full of graft and corruption. Civil War eroded commitment to the common good - do what you can get away with Corporations were impersonal didn't usually know victims

Chapter 6 Urban American Society

(1865 - 1900)

I. The Rise of American Cities

perhaps the most important development of the age
1776 - 5% urban
1876 - 33% urban
1920 - 50% urban (South was only 20% urban in 1910)

A. The Geography of Urban Growth

Geography played a major role in determining which towns succeeded and which failed
- Before civil war the largest 5 cities were port cities
- After civil war cities with ties to industry benefited most
  - cities on major transportation lines benefited from industrial growth
  - NYC and Chicago combined
    - manufacturing
    - railroads
    - shipping

B. How Cities Grew

Skyscrapers - steel made it possible to build up
- Bessemer Process
- Elisha Otis - elevator - 1857 (1889 - first electric elevator)
Mass Transit - allowed cities to spread outward
- San Francisco - cable cars - 1873
- Brooklyn Bridge - 1883 - John Roebling
  - 13 years
  - $15 million
- Richmond - trolley cars - 1887
- Boston - subway - 1897

C. Providing City Services

Disease - garbage, spoiled food, pollution, sewage
- no regular garbage pickup
- no regulations
Crime
- street lighting
- better trained police departments
Fire
- regular fire departments
- fire hydrants
- steam-powered steam engines

D. Patterns of Urban Growth

Series of rings of settlement

E. Peopling the Cities

Many new residents were farmers
- Bankruptcy
- Excitement
Immigrants
Reasons
- jobs - industrial revolution
- social and cultural attractions enticed people living in a strict culture
DISCUSS VICTORIAN MORALITY
- improved transportation and communication systems
- decreasing farm population due to lure of city
- blacks escaping the south
- suburbs as we think of them develop later with the invention of the automobile

II. The New Americans

A. The New Immigration - All came in search of economic opportunity

Old Immigration
- before 1880 - 10 million
- Reasons for coming - farming, rr workers, factories
  - Farmers - settled mainly in the Midwest and the Great Plains
- Origin - Northern and Western Europe
- Location of Settlement - the West
- Public Reaction - considered them an asset - labor, market, skills
- Assimilation - similar traditions to those already here
  - Protestant Christians
  - West made adjustment necessary for survival
- Advancement - West provided no barriers for immigrants
New Immigration
- after 1880 - 15 million - 72% of total
- Reasons for coming - jobs in factories
- Origin - Southern and Eastern Europe
- Location of Settlement - cities
- Public Reaction - negative
  - they were competition for jobs and they were different in their customs
  - they brought few skills and were not well educated
  - Catholics and Jews
  - no need to assimilate
- Assimilation - difficult - settled in ghettos and kept their culture which differed from those already there
  - Mostly Catholic and Jewish
  - most settled in the cities (frontier closed in 1890) and took unskilled factory jobs
  - Most landed in NYC
    - Statue of Liberty
    - Ellis Island - 1892 - immigration center
- Advancement - very difficult

B. The Immigrant Experience

Generation gap
- new immigrants clung to their old ways
  - ethnic neighborhoods
  - Parochial schools - religious schools - helped to maintain unity of community
- children became more American - slowly

C. Help From the Bosses

City leaders were known as Bosses - they created Political Machines - to control politics
Illegal activities used under Grant
- Bribery - law enforcement officials looked the other way allowing illegal activity
- Influence Peddling - buying judges decisions
- Kickbacks - high bids with government officials getting a percentage if accepted
- Sandbagging - allowing projects to be built a little at a time
  - charging the companies over and over for the same job
  - or paying to stop competing construction
- Giving salaries for nonexistent jobs
- Ballot box stuffing or multiple voting - rigged elections
- Recruited immigrant supporters on the docks when they landed
Social services offered (no welfare or unemployment insurance)
- Coal to keep poor warm in winter in exchange for votes
- Free gifts on weddings and births
- Parties at taxpayers expense
- Gave real jobs to the poor
- paid for funerals
- food during hard times

D. The Nativist Reaction

Nativism - hostility from native-born Americans
- revived calls fro restricting the flow of immigrants
- based mainly on economics
  - taking jobs from natives
  - willing to work for low wages and under poor conditions
- complained that they were coming to make quick money and then return to Europe
- nativists complained that New Immigrants failed to assimilate
  - Catholic or Jewish instead of Protestant
  - many did not speak English
  - ethnic neighborhoods - proof that they didn't intend to become like us
- religious prejudice
- racial prejudice
  - Chinese immigrants
    - Chinese Exclusion Act - 1882
  - 1885 - forbade American companies to bring in skilled workers under contract
  - Foran Act

E. Building Modern America

Irving Berlin - "God Bless America"
- Russian immigrant
Immigrants helped to make America #1

III. City Life and Leisure - OMIT

A. Chain and Department Stores

B. Advertising: Inventing Demand

C. The Popular Press

D. Education for the Masses

E. Women in the Work Force

F. Leisure Time

G. New Trends in the Arts

Chapter 7

Society and Politics in the Gilded Age

(1865 - 1893)

I. The New Rich

America divided into a land of fit and unfit

A. A Philosophy of Wealth - Justification for "Big Business"

In 1861 US had 3 millionaires
In 1900 US had 3,800 millionaires - and some approaching billionaires
- Vanderbilt - RR
- Rockefeller - Oil
- Morgan - Finance
- Carnegie - Steel

Adam Smith - economic law of supply and demand (Classical Economics)

Defense or Justification needed to be added to his classical ideas

Darwinism

Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) - The Origin of Species - 1859
- Theory of Natural Selection - three main points
  - competition for survival
  - evolution - improvement of species over time (genetics)
  - superior traits help species survive

Social Darwinism - defenders of Big Business

Herbert Spencer - 1850 - Social Statistics - applied Darwin's theories to society
- Expanded Darwin's "natural selection" to include "survival of the fittest"
  - In every human activity we compete for success (through competition)
    - unfit lose
    - fit win - make up the upper class
  - With competition the best rise to the top.
    - (Social Darwinism) justified what Americans were doing
    - Strongest societies, ideas, and nations survive
- Shouldn't "fit" rule?
  - government can't do anything to make the unfit fit
  - it can prevent the unfit from stealing from the fit
  - did believe that the fit had duties to the less fortunate
- Wealth - best evidence of "fitness" (in a capitalist system)
- reinforced the idea of Laissez Faire - government should not intefere with free enterprise
- Wealthy government officials used these ideas to oppose government relief for the poor

B. Advocates of Social Darwinism

Spencer sold 350,000 copies by 1900
John D. Rockefeller - "the growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest"
William Graham Sumner - Yale professor well-known defender of these ideas, including:
- no relief to the poor because it allows the weak to survive and keeps them from getting stronger
- no regulation of business because this would prevent competition.
  - gov't interference against the "laws of nature"
  - This included no protective tariffs.
- Defender of Laissez Faire
Horatio Alger (in children's stories)
- wrote books which had a "rags to riches" theme.
- hard work and a little bit of luck is all it takes
- His main character - Ragged Dick worked hard and eventually was rewarded with millions.
- America = land of opportunity for all
  - Horatio Alger donated millions to house the homeless.
- This rarely happened in reality, but millions bought these books and believed.
- Opportunity actually decreased for the individual with the disappearance of the West
Russell H. Conwell (1843 - 1925) - Baptist minister
- Acres of Diamonds
  - lecture
  - given over 6,000 times in 55 years
  - earned him $8 million
  - "Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it. You ought because you can do more good with it than you could without it...It is an awful mistake of these pious people to think you must be awfully poor in order to be pious."
- my uncle gave me a copy when I was a small child

C. The Gospel of Wealth - 1889

Andrew Carnegie
- Did say wealthy owed society (philanthropy); most agreed (at least in spirit)
  - "Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community."
  - Called on the wealthy to "set an example of modest...living."
    - most ignored him
  - believed that the wealthy were the most fit judges of what society needed
  - give opportunity to compete - not money
    - jobs
    - education
      - if you wanted it bad enough(free libraries - teach yourself)
      - if you earned it (scholarships to major universities)
    - Giving money made the poor lazy and dependent
- Carnegie became a philanthropist, trying to give away all his money
  - did give away $350 million by his death in 1919
  - built over 2,500 libraries
  - established several schools - Carnegie-Mellon University
  - Carnegie foundation - to promote world peace
  - Carnegie Hall
  - Rockefeller donated millions to Universities, libraries, and other institutions
    - only after his reputation as America's most hated man
  - Temple and Stanford are two among many Universities created by millionaires of the Gilded Age.
- Identified wealth with traditional American values of
  - hard work
  - equal opportunity
  - progress
- a defense of laissez-faire

D. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

The Very Rich
- Stephen Girard - 1837 - died the richest man in the U.S. worth $7 million. Gave all of his money to aid society (philanthropy).
- John Jacob Astor - died a decade later - worth $40 million.
  - He left it all to his son.
  - He was criticized for mocking equality and hard work.
  - After the Civil War this example was followed.
- 1892 - 4000+ millionaires - 1/5 of public were wealthy
  - Vanderbilt left son $100 million which doubled in 8 years.
  - Carnegie worth more than $500 million
Thorstein Veblen - sociologist
- Theory of the Leisure Class
- "One Upmanship"
- Conspicuous Consumption - spending money to prove you have it.
  - parties
    - spending $10,000 on a party for 72 people
    - when the average unskilled worker made $100 a year
  - palaces like the Breakers
    - Vanderbilt mansion
    - 70 rooms
  - yachts
  - Conspicuous Waste - throwing money away.
- Saw capitalists as "parasites", not the result of the laws of nature
- Offered no real solutions, but influenced many

E. The Dangers of Wealth - not all believed in Social Darwinism

Rutherford B. Hayes - 1881
- "Great wealth in the hands of the few means extreme poverty, ignorance, vice, and wretchedness as the lot of the many."
New Wealth or Industrial Wealth was not limited to the amount of land available, however the big fear of the past remained concentration of wealth into the hands of a few.
- 10% owned 90% / 90% owned 10%
- 1904 - 1/8th or 10 million people lived in poverty
- Average person became concerned about the government's inability to respond to problems
- Public Reaction
  - Resentment (Robber Barons) - social immorality
  - Money seemed to create government by the rich for the rich - corrupt
  - Envy (Captains of Industry) - The very best in society.
"Reform Darwinism" (Lester Frank Ward)
- Evidence of cooperation as well as competition in nature
  - cooperation is higher on the evolutionary chain
- "Human will" can intervene in human affairs
- Improve society through gov't intervention in business affairs
Henry George - Progress and Poverty (1879)
- Progress (for landowners) and poverty (for tenants) created inequality in American society
  - compared the life of luxury to the harsh conditions of the average worker.
  - Did not blame the rich
- Productive use of the land is what made progress
- Speculators made "unearned" fortunes
- Solution - "Single Tax" (on land and increased worth when development occurs)
  - abolish all taxes except one on the rich which would take away all income earned from investment.
  - Rich could only continue to make money by developing new contributions for American society.
  - Very popular idea, opposed by the wealthy who were quite powerful.
  - Never tried
- Could eliminate monopolies and poverty (more equal distribution of wealth)
- Offered an alternative view of the laws of nature and laissez-faire
- ideas later used to justify taxing wealth
Edward Bellamy - 1888 - Looking Backward
- proposed eliminating competition creating socialism.
It would take time for Americans to want the gov't to curb business activities, there were, however a couple of early efforts
- Interstate Commerce Act - 1887
- Sherman Antitrust Act -1890
- Real efforts came in the Progressive Era (later unit)
There would be several "responses" to the rapid industrialization of the United States

II. The Urban Poor

A. The Tenements

Two problems in housing
- Growing population caused property values to skyrocket
- Growing population of poor workers insured demand for low-cost housing
Landlords and their solutions
- Tenement - an apartment building designed to house large numbers of people as cheaply as possible
  - introduced in 1850
  - a step of for the homeless or those used to rural shacks
  - lacked light and fresh air
  - poor plumbing
  - poor sanitation
New York City had the worst conditions
- 1894 - almost 50% of the population of NYC lived in tenaments
- 1890 - Jacob Riis - How the Other Half Lives

B. Making Ends Meet

Conditions at work similar to conditions at home
- 10-12 hour days X 6 (7) days / week = 60 - 72 = hrs./week
- pay averaged $2 - $3 / day - but was less for many
- work = operating dangerous machines - boring/tedious
  - speed over safety
    - Dangerous -1888 - 100 died each day!
    - 1913 - 25,000 died, 1 million injured on the job (no disability!)
  - poorly ventilated factories - sweatshops
  - child labor was common
New Business Practices
- Workers no longer knew owners/bosses (often far - removed)
- Led to feelings of alienation
- Competitive Marketing
  - slice wages to compete
  - especially during economic slumps like Depression of 1873
- Playing Factions (men vs. women, black vs. white, etc.) - increased tensions - Nativism
  - 20% women in labor force by 1900
  - 20% of all kids btwn 10-14 by 1880, some as young as 7 years old!
Work conditions led to Organized Labor
- Mechanization - "Technological Unemployment" and "Speed-Ups"
- By 1880, 5 million laborers!
  - they had little control
- Some spectacular accidents (NY's Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire, killed 146
  - mostly women) ("sweatshop")

C. Private Aid to the Poor

D. The Social Gospel

Urban Reform

Social Gospel
- Salvation Army
- Jane Addams
Other Social Responses
- Education
- Leisure
- Art and Literature (age of Mark Twain, Stephen Crain)
- Realism - reflected what was happening in America
- Mass Journalism
- Pop Culture ("Mass Culture")

III. Corruption in Party Politics

A. Corruption in the Cities

Tammany Hall - controlled NYC in the 1860's and 1870's
- Boss William Marcy Tweed (D) - Tweed Ring
  - "As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?"
  - senator in New York legislature
  - became a multimillionaire as dictator of NYC using above tactics
  - cost the city $200 million between 1868 and 1871
  - city almost went bankrupt before the ring was broken up in 1872
  - eventually went to jail but many went free
- Effectiveness?
  - Gave honest voters what they wanted
  - Usually defeated reformers without trickery
  - Immigrants from Europe were used to corruption - wanted to get ahead
  - helped immigrants to assimilate
- Other cities had the same problem
Reaction to corruption
- Thomas Nast
  - Political Cartoonist who attacked and destroyed Tammany Hall in the 1872 elections
  - Aroused popular support for the Goo-goos
  - Harper's Weekly
- Goo-goos
  - middle class taxpayers who hated the waste
  - offered no alternative to the services offered
  - inexpensive government = honest government
  - often attacked immigrant groups

B. Trouble in Washington

Conflicts in ideology - depended on machines
- Republican Party - "Waving the Bloody Shirt"
  - Republican Party appealed to patriotism from Northern veterans
    - 1869-1901 every Pres. except Cleveland (D) was a former Union general
  - northern and western farmers supported them for opening the west
  - industrialist supported them for laissez faire policies
  - ignored controversial issues - theater - no guiding set of principles
    - encouraged business and industry
    - favored protective tariffs
  - black votes
  - Era of small govt. - 30 years of Republican rule
  - (Cleveland only exception)
  - They also usually controlled the Senate while Democrats usually controlled the House
  - Not active - laissez-faire - produced revenue surpluses for the govt.
- Democratic Party - Solid South
  - South responded by voting Solid South - Democrat
  - Democratic machines in the North depended on immigrants for the vote at the national level
  - evenly matched - politics of balance - all elections very close
  - third parties were created because the two major parties ignored key issues forcing the major parties to change
  - close to 80% turnout during the period
  - principles
    - States' rights
    - limited govt.
    - revenue tariffs only
- Civil War Pensions
  - payments to war veterans were corrupt - payments made to almost anyone in exchange for a vote
  - Cleveland vetoed a pension bill and was defeated - Vote yourself a pension
  - Dependent Pensions Act - 1890 - Harrison
    - cost went up instead of down $140 million
  - Southern Democrats did the same for Confederates
Politics as business
- Spoils System - government jobs for loyal supporters (votes and Money)
- Pork-barrel bills - local construction projects as rewards even if not needed
U.S. Grant - 1869-1877 - honest but trusting of friends
- Scandals - most occurred here
- Black Friday - Gold Corner - 1869
  - Fisk and Gould
  - Grant promised not to sell government gold
  - Bought futures than announced that Grant would not sell drove price up
  - Hurt banks, businessmen
  - Friday 9/24 Grant sold driving price down
  - bankrupt 1000's Fisk and Gould escaped harm
- 3. Credit Mobilier - began during Johnson Admin. - 1872
  - a. Union Pacific RR construction company
  - b. Contracts awarded at several times cost
    - with the board of directors and stockholders keeping the profits
    - Eight in Congress owned stock
  - c. Much of the work was paid for but never completed
  - d. Congressmen took bribes to give government subsidies and ignore lawbreaking
  - e. Investigation stopped the scandal but Congressmen were not punished
  - f. Involved Grant supporters including VP Schuyler Colfax
- 4. Whiskey Ring
  - a. Punishment for paying incorrect taxes was a double tax
  - b. Blackmailers collected payments from companies not to report
    - rather than collect reward
  - c. Government lost millions/year
  - d. IRS and Treasury discovered scandal
    - which included a large number of tax collectors
- 5. Sec. of War Belknap - allowed traders to take advantage of Indians on reservations
- 6. Mugwumps
  - a. Reformers who voted for both parties - bird on a fence
  - b. Tried unsuccessfully to vote Grant out in 1872
R.B. Hayes - 1877-1881 (R)
- 1. Disputed 1876 election
  - a. Tilden took credit for removing his friend Tweed after he was exposed
  - b. Hayes - Half-Breed elected Stalwarts were upset
- 2. Popular vote/electoral vote - commission - ended Reconstruction
- 3. Half-breeds - Blaine (R)
  - a. Bloody Shirt - Radical Republican
  - b. opposed corruption and opposed Grant
- 4. Stalwarts - Conkling (R)
  - a. Party right or wrong
  - b. Senatorial Courtesy
James Garfield (R) - 1881
- 1. Half breed loyalties - between 1876 - 1896 no winner got 50% yet 79% voted highest - period in U.S. history
- 2. Charles Guiteau - assassination - 7/2/81
  - a. Stalwart upset over patronage (spoils system)
  - b. Preacher - expected to be rewarded with a job
Chester Arthur - (R) 1881-1885 - not a union veteran
- 1. Stalwart loyalties
- 2. Pendleton Act - 1883
  - a. Civil Service Commission - Exam - merit system
  - b. Once passed and the job obtained they could not be fired for political reasons
  - c. By the end of the century the system was fair
  - d. Abolished assessment system - jobs for donations
  - e. Money replaced by corporate donations
- 3. 1884 election - Rum, Romanism and Rebellion
  - a. Republicans used this slogan to slur Democrats
  - b. Cost them the election
- 4. Mugwumps
  - a. Reformers who voted for both parties - bird on a fence
Grover Cleveland (D) 1885-1889 and 1893-1897 - rated as one of the best 5
- 1. Honest - reform oriented
- 2. Vetoed 2/3 of all bills - more than all of his predecessors combined
- 3. Goal - curtail federal activity
  - a. attacked tariff - yet refused to sign Wilson-Gorman Tariff for not lowering the Tariff enough - 1894
  - b. 2% income tax on incomes over $4000 to replace lost revenue
  - 1895 - Supreme Ct. declared this unconstitutional in a 5-4 decision
  - c. reviewed Pensions - vetoed 200+
  - d. Regained land from RR that cheated
  - e. 1887 - Interstate Commerce Commission
- 4. Panic of 1893 - depression blamed on Democrats
  - a. hurt farmers
  - b. Coxey's Army - 1894
    - 1. Jacob Coxey - Ohio
    - 2. 500 protesters came to D.C. to demand public works jobs
    - 3. Failed - left 1896 as a key turning point
  - c. Elected twice (split term)
Benjamin Harrison (R) 1889-1893
- 1. Did not have popular vote
- 2. McKinley Tariff - 1890
  - a. Highest in 19th century - average 50%
  - b. Included reciprocity - lower if others also lower
  - c. Sherman Anti-Trust Act - passed by Republicans to stop the anti-business attitude
    - 1. left vague
    - 2. not enforced
  - d. Dependent Pensions Act - 1890

C. The Salary Grab Act

42nd Congress 1871 - 1873
- a. Congress voted to increase their salary
  - from 5,000 to 7,500/year
  - 50% increase
- b. retroactive for two years including those no longer in office
- c. Public reaction forced repeal
  - most returned the money or donated it to charity - after they were caught
  - not illegal but shows something for nothing attitude

D. Money Talks

IV. Hands-Off Government

A. An Era of Standpatters

B. Efforts at Reform: Civil Service

C. New Needs, Old Politics

Politics in the Industrial Age - How would our political institutions be affected by rapid industrialization?

Decline of the Presidency

"Caretakers"
Little leadership
A series of "forgettable" presidents (Grant, Hayes, Garfield/Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland again) -"Standpatters"

Congress - passed no really significant laws!

Parties - "Equilibrium"

No real ideology
Coalitions of Local, State, and Nat'l Political Organizations
More conflict within, than between, parties
Bloc Voting (D - South and immigrants; R - business and Union vets)....about 80% turnout!
Lots of corruption (changing values and rules)

Issues

Tariff
Patronage vs. "merit" for gov't jobs
- Highlighted by the assassination of Pres. Garfield by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker
- Led to the Pendleton Civil Service Act
Civil War-related (pensions, "bloody shirt")
Currency Reform
Immigration
- 14 million from 1860-1900
- "New Immigrants" (after 1890)
- Led to a "Nativism" movement
- -Chinese Exclusion Act - 1882
- -Foran Act (1885) repealed Contract Labor Law
- -General Immigration Act (1882) - barred convicts, prostitutes, anarchists, idiots, and anyone who might become a "charge"
- (began a long movement to curtail immigration)
Corruption (started during Reconstruction, rapid growth of industry and cities)
- Political Machines
  - "Boss Rule" - Tammany Hall (Tweed Ring)
  - Influence-peddling, kickbacks, sandbagging, profiteering, stuffing ballot boxes
- Present at all levels of government
- America was changing; the "old rules" no longer seemed to apply; government could not keep up!
Reform
- "Goo Goos"
- "Mugwumps"
- Single Issue "Third Parties"
  - (Greenbacks, Women, Labor, Prohibition)
A severe depression in 1893 would mark the beginning of the end of the era, a new one would begin, the Progressive Era, an attempt to correct some of the abuses of rapid industrialization.

#5 - 1997

Analyze the economic consequences of the Civil War with respect to any TWO of the following in the United States between 1865 and 1880

Agriculture

Labor

Industrialization

Transportation

#1 - 1989

"Developments in transportation, rather than in manufacturing and agriculture, sparked American economic growth in the first half of the nineteenth century." Assess the validity of this statement.

#2 - 1990

"The reorganization and consolidation of business structures was more responsible for late nineteenth-century American industrialization than was the development of new technologies." Assess the validity of this statement with specific reference to business structures and technology between 1865 and 1900.

#3 - 1979

DBQ - To what extent and for what reasons did the policies of the federal government from 1865 to 1900 violate the principles of laissez faire, which advocated minimal governmental intervention in the economy? Consider with specific reference to the following three areas of policy: railroad land grants, control of interstate commerce, and antitrust activities.

#4 - 1988

"Although the economic growth of the United States between 1860 and 1900 has been attribute to a governmental policy of laissez-faire, it was in fact encouraged and sustained by direct governmental intervention." Assess the validity of this statement.

#5 - 1981

DBQ - How and why did the lives and status of Northern middle-class women change between 1776 and 1876.

#6 - 1982

Americans have been a highly mobile people. Describe and account for the dominant population movements between 1820 and 1900.

#7 - 1987

"Throughout its history, the United States has been a land of refuge and opportunity for immigrants."

The Scotch-Irish on the eighteenth-century Appalachian frontier

The Irish in the nineteenth-century urban Northeast

The Chinese in the nineteenth century West

#8 - 1982

"Despite often brutal clashes between labor and capital in the United States during the period 1865-1940, collective working-class protest did not constitute a basic attack on the capitalist system." Assess the validity of this statement.

#9 - 1994

Compare and contrast the attitudes of THREE of the following toward the wealth that was created in the United States during the late 19th c.

Andrew Carnegie

Eugene V. Debs

Horatio Alger

Booker T. Washington

Ida M. Tarbell

#10 - 1986

Andrew Carnegie has been viewed by some historians as the "prime representative of the industrial age" and by others as "an industrial leader atypical of the period." Assess the validity of this statement.

#11 - 1985

The size, character, and effectiveness of the organized labor movement changed significantly during the late 19th c and the first half of the 20th c.
Apply this statement to TWO of the following periods:

A. 1870-1915

B. 1915-1935

C. 1935-1950

Return to Lecture Series 4 Table of Contents

Return to History2 Main Page