Consumerism and Capitalism

Give one piece of evidence to suggest America was united by this point?

Transcontinental railroad

Give two pieces of evidence to suggest America was not united at this point

South is still in inferior economic position

California foreign miners tax

How is consumption a charitable act

Displaying one has excess wealth to donate

Donate used items to class below and replace with most recent ones

How did consumption stratify the poor populations?

Increased sense of deserving and undeserving poor

What was Veblen’s book called, and give a quote from it?

The Theory of the Leisure Class

This is all done to impress the transient observer

What makes the Saloon significant as a space?

men retreat to the pubs whilst women fight for temperance

What were bucket shops, and why were they important?

Betting ships for stock market

Market is becoming more abstract, but more people can participate

Why did nature become commercialised?

Way of coping with anxieties of urban life

Yellowstone was still heavily managed suggesting…

one could not escape commercialisation

List two important points about Coney island

Working class alternative to Hamptons

Includes more thrill seeking attractions - calculated risks make people sucessful

What were the lace curtain Irish?

Irish immigrants that were easily Americanised

Legitimacy in fact they were there before war and spoke English (unlike Mexican catholics)

How did the economy change the practicalities of everyday life?

Working class had more leisure time

More interactions between men and women

How did the economy change the general ideology of people

Challenged notions of individualism and self-control

Name two other factors which changed American culture

Increased role of global stage

general decline in religion

Name two changes in the workplace

Increased reliance on immigrant labour

Creation of distinct white and blue collar job

Name one piece of pre-civil war workplace rhetoric which remained

man who lacked courage “must expect not only to be outstripped, but knocked, crushed and trampled underfoot”

Give two examples of convenience items

Gillette safety razors

Kodak pre-loaded cameras

What it meant to be a good Americans became …

increasingly tied to one’s ability to consume

What are the three types of saloons

Occupational

Ethnic

Neighbourhood

What did saloons do for boisterous habits?

Make them public and institutionalise them

Why did the church struggle to cope with the new demands of the working class?

“the Protestant Church is too aristocratic for the clothes they (the working people) are able to wear”

Why did the cabaret develop in response to saloons?

Kitchen saloons had provided space for women

When and why did the most significant shift in how leisure time was used happen?

End of century

Upper classes adopted boisterous habits

What belief about man had the Republic been founded on?

 if he were moral, exerted self-control and took calculated risks, any man could be successful

Give an example of a Gilded Age success story which embodied theself made man

Andrew Carnegie rose from a humble telegraph boy to being a steel magnate

What became increasingly obvious during the Gilded age?

There was a limit on how many ‘self-made’ men there could be

Give two reasons it was difficult to become self made

Transcontinental railroad meant business was no longer intimate

Information trading and connections were needed to move beyond small scale sucess

How did some people respond to not being able to be self made in a domestic setting

Imperialism

Capital invested in colonies through shipping

Language of rebirth = reclaiming of masculine ideal of being self made

What did the 1898 Spanish-American War force America to do?

Reconsider its stance on imperialism

How did the department store result in a decrease in religion?

Self transformation now possible through simple purchases

Define nuerasthenia

immobilising form of depression characterised by a paralysis of will and a sense that life had become unreal

Give a quote from Van de Water’s book

At the end of the ordeal they (his characters) were no longer New Yorkers, but Americans,

The Yankee lifestyle could still be found …

in the rural areas

Give two pieces of evidence which suggest rural areas were still being impacted by capitalism

Railroad passed through lots of small time to maximise subsidiaries

Farmers still faced hardships - had to form ‘mutualistas’ to pool funds for the widows and orphans of deceased colleagues

Why did the east and west coast develop differently?

East coast = long engaged with trade with old world

West coast = looking towards trade with Asia

The early stages of industrialisation didn’t have a massive impact because …

mainly impacted working class, and therefore immigrants

Edwards (2006)

“The fabulous and corrupting power of money was late nineteenth century Americans great obsession”

Lears (2009)

Consumer culture changed the meaning of selfhood

Shaffer (2013)

Tourist narratives appeared less concerned with constructing an image of national unity and more concerned with discovering a place they felt at home

Erenberg (1981)

a hodge-podge of people dance not only under the same roof but in the same room with women of the town