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| | [[American History Lecture Eight|Lecture]] - [[American_History_Homework_Eight|Questions]] - [[American History Homework Eight Answers|Student Answers]] | | [[American History Lecture Eight|Lecture]] - [[American_History_Homework_Eight|Questions]] - [[American History Homework Eight Answers|Student Answers]] |
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| − | ''Homework this week: write an essay of at least 700 words on anything related to this lecture. Give your essay a title.'' | + | ''This lecture is shorter than usual, so that you have time to write an essay of at least 700 words this week on anything related to this lecture, or the first half of the course (through Reconstruction). Give your essay a title.'' |
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| | In the time period after the end of Reconstruction (1877) until the key presidential election of 1896, economic issues were particularly important. Very little else was happening: the presidents were unremarkable and, frankly, entirely forgettable. Social disputes like slavery were resolved. And for the longest time in American history, there were no wars. America had no wars between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the beginning of the Spanish-American War in 1898, a period of 33 years. Ask yourself: when was the second longest time of peace in American history?<ref>The second longest time period of peace in American history was between the end of the War of 1812 (in 1815) and the beginning of the Mexican War (in 1846), a period of 31 years. See http://americanhistory.about.com/library/timelines/bltimelineuswars.htm</ref> | | In the time period after the end of Reconstruction (1877) until the key presidential election of 1896, economic issues were particularly important. Very little else was happening: the presidents were unremarkable and, frankly, entirely forgettable. Social disputes like slavery were resolved. And for the longest time in American history, there were no wars. America had no wars between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the beginning of the Spanish-American War in 1898, a period of 33 years. Ask yourself: when was the second longest time of peace in American history?<ref>The second longest time period of peace in American history was between the end of the War of 1812 (in 1815) and the beginning of the Mexican War (in 1846), a period of 31 years. See http://americanhistory.about.com/library/timelines/bltimelineuswars.htm</ref> |
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| | Not every invention was American, but often the Americans ("Yankees") are best at making a creation practical and most productive. Henry Bessemer of England invented a means for converting molten pig iron into valuable steel, which was called the "Bessemer process." The process removes impurities from the molten iron by oxidizing it with air that is blown through it. In the 1870s Americans built steel mills, particularly in Pennsylvania, to take advantage of this process and produce large quantities of steel. Those steel mills brought wealth to Pennsylvania for a century, until cheaper labor in Asia and a lack of protective tariffs drove the American mills out of business, leaving Pennsylvania depressed today. | | Not every invention was American, but often the Americans ("Yankees") are best at making a creation practical and most productive. Henry Bessemer of England invented a means for converting molten pig iron into valuable steel, which was called the "Bessemer process." The process removes impurities from the molten iron by oxidizing it with air that is blown through it. In the 1870s Americans built steel mills, particularly in Pennsylvania, to take advantage of this process and produce large quantities of steel. Those steel mills brought wealth to Pennsylvania for a century, until cheaper labor in Asia and a lack of protective tariffs drove the American mills out of business, leaving Pennsylvania depressed today. |
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| | + | == The "Gilded Age" == |
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| | + | Not everyone was completely pleased with the booming prosperity of the United States in the decades after the Civil War. A popular writer and humorist from Missouri, whose pen name was "Mark Twain" (his real name was Samue Clemens), criticized the decades after the Civil War by calling them the "Gilded Age." |
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| | + | He described this era towards (from the end of the Civil War through the 1880s) as "gilded" because it appeared golden, but beneath the shiny surface was greed, corruption and hardship. Mark Twain wrote a novel by that name in which Washington, D.C., was run by greedy businessmen and corrupt government officials. (Mark Twain wrote several other influential novels, including "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," describing a fictional journey on a raft on the Mississippi). |
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| | + | The Gilded Age featured "robber barons," who were people who became extremely wealthy through ruthless business practices. The worst "robber baron" was Jay Gould, a financier on Wall Street who committed rampant fraud by printing false stock certificates to defraud investors. He even tried to corner the gold market in 1869. That led to a financial panic known as Black Friday. After Gould drove up the price of gold by hoarding it, President Grant learned of the scheme and started selling the government gold reserves on the market to cause the price to fall. The price of gold then fell sharply, and many lost everything they had. Gould, however, had sold out at the highest price to make the biggest profit! |
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| | + | There were also phenomenal business successes during this era. Andrew Carnegie immigrated from Scotland without any money and ended up with massive wealth from founding the Carnegie Steel Co. (later became U.S. Steel Co.). He amassed a fortune that he then donated to build structures like Carnegie Hall, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the enormous New York Public Library (plus 2800 other public libraries). He wrote the "Gospel of Wealth" in 1900 to describe his vision of capitalism. |
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| | + | '''Debate: it wasn't the "Gilded Age," it was the "Golden Age!" Agree?''' |
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| | + | '''Debate: do you support "caveat emptor," or do you prefer government regulation of monopolies and robber barons?''' |
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| | == The Election of 1880 == | | == The Election of 1880 == |