The Gilded Age A History in Documents

by Greenwood, Janette Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780195105230
• ISBN10: 0195105230
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

When many Americans think of the Gilded Age, they picture the mansions at Newport, Rhode Island, or the tenements of New York City. Indeed, the late 19th century was a period of extreme poverty thinly veiled by fabulous wealth. However, we should not remember the era only for the strides madeby steel magnate Andrew Carnegie or social reformer Jane Addams. All Americans had to adjust to the dynamic social and economic changes of the Gilded Age--the booming industries, growing cities, increased ethnic and cultural diversity. African American W. E. B. Du Bois, Native American Sitting Bull,and Chinese American Saum Song Bo spoke out against racial injustice. European immigrants Mary Antin and Robert Ferrari suffered the pitfalls and praised the opportunities found in their new country. Pioneer Phoebe Judson lamented the loneliness of making a life out West. And workers at HomesteadSteel lost their lives in an attempt to improve labor conditions. Drawing from the letters, memoirs, newspaper articles, journals, and speeches of Gilded Age Americans, author Janette Greenwood arranges all of these voices to tell a story more vibrant and textured than the simple tale of robberbaron versus starving poor. In addition to these voices, visuals--such as advertisements, maps, political cartoons, and a picture essay on Jacob Riiss urban photographs--create a kaleidoscopic view of the quarter century when diverse Americans struggled for the same goal: a better way of life, withmore justice and democracy for each and all. PAGES FROM HISTORY General Editors: Sarah Deutsch, University of Arizona, Carol Karlsen, University of Michigan, Robert G. Moeller, University of California, Irvine, and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Indiana University, Bloomington Textbooks may interpret history, but the books in the Pages from History series are history. Each title, compiled and edited by a prominent historian, is a collection of primary sources relating to a particular topic of historical significance. Documentary evidence including news articles,government documents, memoirs, letters, diaries, fiction, photographs, and facsimiles allows history to speak for itself and turns every reader into a historian. Headnotes, extended captions, sidebars, and introductory essays provide the essential context that frames the documents. All the books areamply illustrated and each includes a documentary picture essay, chronology, further reading, source notes, and index.

Author Biography

Janette Thomas Greenwood is Associate Professor and Chair of the History Department at Clark University. Her previous works include Bittersweet Legacy: The Black and White "Better Classes" in Charlotte, N.C. 1850-1910 (UNC Press, 1994), The Black Experience in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 1850-1920: A Curriculum Guide for Teachers (C-M Historic Properties Commission, 1984) and On the Home Front: Charlotte During the Civil War (Mint Museum of History, 1982).

Table of Contents

What is a Document?	6	(2)
How to Read a Document	8	(3)
Introduction	11	(2)
Big Business, Industry, and the American Dream	13	(16)
Captains of Industry	16	(2)
Muckraking	18	(2)
``Survival of the Fittest''	20	(4)
Responsibilities of the Rich	24	(2)
From Rags to Riches	26	(3)
Immigration to a ``Promised Land''	29	(20)
Arrival	33	(2)
Opportunity	35	(3)
Sacrifices	38	(2)
Racism	40	(5)
Advice	45	(4)
The Sorrows of Labor	49	(18)
The Knights of Labor	51	(2)
The Haymarket Affair	53	(2)
Trade Unions	55	(2)
Industrial Unions	57	(2)
Women in the Work Force	59	(3)
Child Labor	62	(2)
The Homestead Lockout	64	(3)
The Perils and Promise of Urban Life	67	(16)
Social Activism	71	(5)
Social Darwinism	76	(2)
Ward Bosses	78	(1)
Prohibition	79	(4)
Jacob Riis and the Power of the Photograph	83	(8)
The New South	91	(24)
A Sharecropper's Contract	94	(2)
``A Perfect Democracy''	96	(3)
Cotton Mill Workers	99	(1)
The Rise of ``Jim Crow''	100	(15)
The West	115	(18)
An Indian Victory	120	(3)
``Whitening'' Indians	123	(4)
Pioneers	127	(2)
Exodusters	129	(1)
Mexican Americans Fight Back	130	(3)
The Farmers' Revolt	133	(20)
Farmers' Alliances	138	(5)
The Populist Party	143	(5)
Election 1896	148	(5)
The United States Builds an Empire	153	(18)
The Spanish-American War	157	(5)
Anti-Imperialism	162	(1)
The Philippines	163	(8)
New Women, Strenuous Men, and Leisure	171	(9)
``The Strenuous Life''	173	(2)
Sports	175	(3)
Rebellious Women	178	(2)
Timeline	180	(2)
Further Reading	182	(3)
Text Credits	185	(2)
Picture Credits	187	(1)
Index	188