The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era Notes

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era

Chapter 3: The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, 1870s-1920

Learning Objectives

  • Specific factors leading to unprecedented economic growth in the United States during this period.
  • Political, social, and economic impact of this growth on the American people.
  • How and why movements to reform much of American life started in this period.
  • The nature and extent of the success of these reform movements.

Timeline

  • Sep 1873: The Panic of 1873
  • May 1893: The Panic of 1893
  • Jul 1890: The Sherman Anti-Trust Act
  • Sep 1901: Theodore Roosevelt becomes president
  • Oct 1907: The Panic of 1907
  • Jun 1906: The Pure Food and Drug Act
  • Feb 1913: Ratification of the 16th Amendment, authorizing a federal income tax
  • Apr 1913: Ratification of the 17th Amendment, deciding Senate elections by popular vote
  • Dec 1913: Federal Reserve Act
  • Nov 1912: Election of Woodrow Wilson as president
  • Aug 1920: US women win the right to vote

Before you start

  • Examine the Constitution of the United States from the 1870s to identify the powers given to:
    • the president to manage the economy
    • Congress to manage the economy
    • individual states to manage the economy
    • the Supreme Court to limit the states, Congress and the presidency.
  • How much territorial expansion took place within the United States in the period between the end of the Civil War (1865) and 1914? Did it acquire any colonies overseas?

Introduction

  • The period between 1870 and 1920 was a remarkable one for the United States.
  • The country recovered rapidly from a devastating civil war in the 1860s and expanded and developed economically at a breathtaking pace.
  • By the end of the 19th century, the United States was the world's greatest economic power and was producing more than other industrial nations, such as Germany and Britain.
  • Capitalism was stronger than ever before and some people made millions of dollars.
  • Mass urbanization resulted in terrible living and working conditions for millions of people.
  • There were debates across the country about whether men and their businesses should be free from government regulation and allowed to make their millions of dollars without thinking about the consequences for others.
  • A reform campaign, known as the Progressive Movement was born.
  • It challenged this unregulated capitalism and demand many changes in society, government and the way the economy was managed.
  • The federal system of government created by the men who drafted the US Constitution had given power primarily to the country's individual states.
  • The American president was given very limited powers over domestic and economic issues.
  • Congress had some authority to provide national leadership in economic matters, but was not able to deal with major challenges.
  • The Civil War showed that unless it was persuaded to act in an emergency by the president, Congress did very little.
  • In the period after the Civil War the United States struggled to adapt to the demands of a modern industrial economy.
  • It was also an important period in the development of the office of president.
  • Two presidents, Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09) and Woodrow Wilson (1913-21), rose to the challenges of the time and provided remarkable leadership as well as solutions to many of the problems which rapid industrialisation produced.

Essential Question:

  • How did industrialization and new technology affect the economy and society?

Objectives

  • I can explain the affects of industrialization on the economy and society.
  • I can explain how innovation drove the nation.
  • I can explain the impact of industrialization.

The “Free Enterprise” System

  • A competitive “work ethic” strengthened the belief in the virtues of the free enterprise system.
  • In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, arguing that animals evolved by a process of natural selection and that only the fittest survived to reproduce.
  • Yale professor William Graham Sumner applied this theory to American capitalism calling it, Social Darwinism (wealth was a measure of one’s inherent value & those who had it were the most fit).
  • Wealthy people often viewed poverty as the fault of the poor themselves rather than as a product of circumstances.

The Role of Government

  • Laissez-Faire