Gilded Age & Society Ms. Ramos Alta Loma High School * PPT adapted from PPT Palooza
Robber Barons Business leaders built their fortunes by stealing from the public. They drained the country of its natural resources. They persuaded or bribed public officials to interpret laws in their favor. They ruthlessly drove their competitors to ruin. They paid their workers meager wages and forced them to toil under dangerous and unhealthy conditions. Captains of Industry The business leaders served their nation in a positive way. They increased the supply of goods by building factories. They raised productivity and expanded markets. They created jobs that enabled many Americans to buy new goods and raise their standard of living. They also created museums, libraries, and universities as philanthropists
Knights of Labor All workers except Chinese Wanted 8 hr. day, prohibition, end child labor Unrealistic and vague goals Loss of important strikes and failure of cooperatives Faded away due to poor organizational leadership Haymarket Riot will taint their reputation American Federation of Labor or AFL Samuel Gompers, 1881 Skilled workers only Work within political system for change Closed shop and collective bargaining Also supported Chinese Exclusion
New Architectural Style New Use of Space New Class Diversity New Energy New Symbols of Change & Progress The City as a New Frontier? New Culture ( Melting Pot ) Make a New Start New Levels of Crime, Violence, & Corruption New Form of Classic Rugged Individualism
Oral histories of Jewish immigrants to Pittsburgh Our synagogue was in a room with the windows blacked out. We were afraid to speak Yiddish on the streets. We often had to hide from people who came to persecute the Jews. During the pogrom (organized government persecution of the Jews) in Vitebsk (Russia) around 1905, my collarbone was broken and the back of my head still bears the scar of a dagger. I still have a scar on my thigh where a Russian soldier struck me with his sword. I was three years old and my mother tried to protect me with her body, but he got to me. It did not seem reasonable for me to serve the Czar in the Army. Why they came
Oral histories of Italian immigrants The main reason was bread. There was always bread in America. Life in America was better. There was always work in America. I never went to an American school, but I insisted that my children attend university in the United States where they had more chance. I have progressed; I have lived well. I have been able to send my children to good schools so that today they hold positions of respect. My brother who stayed here in Italy cannot say that.
RELIGION BIRTHPLACE Protestant North/Western Europe Catholic and Jewish Southern/Eastern Europe REASONS Both escaping poverty, religious and political persecution DESTINATION Moved to farms in the Midwest Moved to cities in the Northeast OCCUPATION Became farmers Unskilled workers
Old Immigrants resented the New Immigrants. New Immigrants came to this country for the same reasons as the Old Immigrants.
Housing Working-class families live in houses on outskirts or boardinghouses Later, row houses built for single families Immigrants take over row houses, 2 3 families per house Tenements multifamily urban dwellings, are overcrowded, unsanitary Transportation Mass transit move large numbers of people along fixed routes By 20 th century, transit systems link city to suburbs
Job opportunities for Women School teaching Domestic service Women doctors Lawyers, typists, telephone girls, librarians, journalists and social workers. Women gainfully employed rose from 2.5 million in 1880 to 8 million in 1910.
The Charity Organization Movement Wanted immigrants to adopt American, middle-class standards. The Social Gospel Movement The Settlement Movement charity and justice to society s problems. Moved into poor communities settlement houses Hull House
William Le Baron Jenney 1832 1907 Father of the Modern Skyscraper Central Y.M.C.A., Chicago, 1891
D. H. Burnham 1846 1912 Use of steel as a super structure. Fisher [Apt.] Bldg, Chicago, 1896
Western Union Bldg,. NYC - 1875
John A. Roebling: The Brooklyn Bridge, 1883
Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lived (1890)
Tenement Slum Living
Lodgers Huddled Together
Tenement Slum Living
Struggling Immigrant Families
Mulberry Street Little Italy
St. Patrick s Cathedral
Hester Street Jewish Section
Pell St. - Chinatown, NYC
Urban Growth: 1870-1900
Mulberry Street Bend, 1889
5-Cent Lodgings
Men s Lodgings
Women s Lodgings
Dumbbell Tenement Plan Tenement House Act of 1879, NYC
Blind Beggar, 1888
Italian Rag-Picker
1890s Morgue Basement Saloon
Saloon
Bandits Roost
Mullen s Alley Gang
The Street Was Their Playground
Lower East Side Immigrant Family
A Struggling Immigrant Family
Another Struggling Immigrant Family
Child Labor
Public Fear of Unions/Anarchists
Arresting the Girl Strikers for Picketing
Scabs Hired
The Gross Clinic Thomas Eakins Example of Realism
Vassar College
Frederick Jackson Turner Frontier thesis Gave Americans their unique character