American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism [1865 to 1900]

In the decades between the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century, a few breathtakingly wealthy businessmen transformed the United States from an agrarian economy to a world power.

Machine production|intricately organized factories

Technological innovation

Expanded markets

Nationwide transportation network |Communications networks| telegraph and telephone.

Capital investment|expansion of production|

Growth of large enterprises and specialization

The Impact of Industrialization on American Society

While Industry makes the country smaller and brings people into an integrated marketplace with new consumer products, their only avenue for participation is as an overworked and underpaid factory worker

The independent spirit of the average Industrial worker DIES!!

Decreased independence

Increased company control:

Exploitation of women and children:

Specialization and the devaluation of skilled labor

The State of the Union - Labor Organizes [1869 to 1900]

Industrialization radically transforms the practices of labor and the condition of American working people. But despite frequent industrial strife and the efforts of various reformers and unions, workers failed to develop effective labor organizations to match corporate forms of business.

Conditions: Wages|Hours|Working Conditions

Collective Action: Knights of Labor| 1869

Collective Action: American Federation of Labor|1886

Conflicts: Haymarket Riot |First Red Scare|1886

Conflicts: Homestead Strike|1892

The Power of Ideas: Social Thought in the Gilded Age

 The power of ideas provide possible solutions to combat the problems associated with industrialization, immigration, and urbanization structuring the way society thinks about issues and shapes outcomes.

Economic Individualism  

The Social Gospel

Laissez-Faire

Herbert Spencer| William Graham Sumner|Social Darwinism

Andrew Carnegie |The Gospel of Wealth |1889

Progress and Poverty in Urban America [1865 to 1898]

The explosive growth of America’s large urban centers. Explosive urban was accompanied by often disturbing changes, including the new immigrant, crowded slums, and conflicts over cultural values.

Progress| Life in the American City      

Poverty|Life of Immigrants and African Americans

Dumbbell Tenemants|Settlement Houses  

Boss Tweed|Tammany Hall

Huddled Masses Yearning To Breathe Free [1880 to 1920]

The story of mass migration to the United States is the intersection of other narratives - farming in the West and Industry in East.   Weakness of labor (structural factor) is largely due to a diversity of immigrants. 

Push Factors
Pull Factors
Old Immigration vs. New Immigration

Settlement Patterns| Urban vs. Rural

Immigration and Cultural Conflict in Gilded Age America [1870 to 1900]

Is America a haven for the poor and oppressed or guided by fluctuating feelings about race and ethnicity, and fear of foreign political and labor agitation, we set boundaries and restrictions on who may come to this country and whether they may stay as citizens.

Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882

Immigration Act of 1891 

Ellis Island Inspection Station|1892

The Gentlemen's Agreement |1907

Angel Island Immigration Station|1910