The Gilded Age

Description

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 made by 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 Homestead Steel 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 robber baron 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, with more justice and democracy for each and all.

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 are amply illustrated and each includes a documentary picture essay, chronology, further reading, source notes, and index.

Table of Contents

What is a Document?
How to Read a Document
Introduction

Chapter 1: Big Business, Industry, and the American Dream

Captains of Industry
Muckraking
"Survival of the Fittest"
Responsibilities of the Rich
From Rags to Riches

Chapter 2: Immigration to a "Promised Land"

Arrival
Opportunity
Sacrifices
Racism
Advice

Chapter 3: The Sorrows of Labor

The Knights of Labor
The Haymarket Affair
Trade Unions
Industrial Unions
Women in the Work Force
Child Labor
The Homestead Lockout

Chapter 4: The Perils and Promise of Urban Life

Social Activism
Social Darwinism
Ward Bosses
Prohibition

Chapter 5: Jacob Riis and the Power of the Photograph

Chapter 6: The New South

A Sharecropper's Contract
"A Perfect Democracy"
Cotton Mill Workers
The Rise of "Jim Crow"

Chapter 7: The West

An Indian Victory
"Whitening" Indians
Pioneers
Exodusters
Mexican Americans Fight Back

Chapter 8: The Farmer's Revolt

Farmers' Alliances
The Populist Party
Election 1896

Chapter 9: The United States Builds an Empire

The Spanish-American War
Anti-Imperialism
The Philippines

Chapter 10: New Women, Strenuous Men, and Leisure

"The Strenuous Life"
Sports
Rebellious Women

Timeline
Further Reading
Text Credits
Picture Credits
Index