American History - Part 2 15981 20231109200635

American History: Part 2 / Lesson 5: The Gilded Age through the Roaring Twenties
Lesson 5 Overview
After the Civil War, America focused on expanding its economic power. This lesson will
examine the role of politics and business on improving American’s economies. You’ll
examine how America grew within its borders by learning about the movement west as well
as the impact of that movement on Native Americans. You’ll look at how various presidents
encouraged, or hindered this growth and see how America expanded its role overseas as
its economy grew. The lesson then looks at America’s role in World War I and its impact on
its citizens. Finally, you’ll see how the nation reacted to the end of the war, and the
prosperous decade known as the Roaring 20s.
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Lesson Objectives
Identify political and business leaders of the Gilded Age
Recognize how laborers organized for better working conditions during the Gilded Age
List positive and negative e ects of urban life during the late 1800s and early 1900s
Recognize how living in a city di ered from living in rural areas in the late 1800s and early 1900s
Identify con icts between whites and Native Americans over land in the West and the end result of the con icts
Describe life in the West prior to widespread industrialization and urban development
Describe the progressive era
Summarize the presidencies of the progressive presidents
Explain how America expanded overseas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Recognize America's role in World War I
Describe life in the roaring twenties
Recognize major political and social events of the 1920s such as the Red Scare, Scopes Monkey Trial, and Kellogg-
Briand pact

The Gilded Age
Content in this assignment is from American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New
Millennium(http://ushistory.org/us) by the Independence Hall Association, used under
a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
The Gilded Age
From the ashes of the American Civil War sprang an economic powerhouse.
The factories built by the Union to defeat the Confederacy weren’t shut down at the war’s
end. Now that the fighting was done, these factories were converted to peacetime
purposes. Although industry had existed before the war, agriculture had represented the
most significant portion of the American economy.
After the war, beginning with the railroads, small businesses grew larger and larger. By the
century’s end, the nation’s economy was dominated by a few, very powerful individuals. In
1850, most Americans worked for themselves. By 1900, most Americans worked for an
employer.
The growth was astounding. From the end of reconstruction in 1877 to the disastrous
Panic of 1893, the American economy nearly doubled in size. New technologies and new
ways of organizing business led a few individuals to the top. The competition was ruthless.
Those who couldn’t provide the best product at the cheapest price were simply driven into
bankruptcy or were bought up by hungry, successful industrialists.
The so-called captains of industry became household names: John D. Rockefeller of

Standard Oil, Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie Steel, and J. P. Morgan, the powerful banker
who controlled a great many industries. Their tactics weren’t always fair, but there were few
laws regulating business conduct at that time.
The United States had become the largest industrial nation in the world. However, the
prosperity of America didn’t reach everyone. Amid the fabulous wealth of the new
economic elite was tremendous poverty. How did some manage to be so successful while
others struggled to put food on the table? Americans wrestled with this great question as
new attitudes toward wealth began to emerge.
What role did the government play in this trend? Basically, it was pro-business. Congress,
the presidents, and the courts looked favorably on this new growth. But leadership was
generally lacking on the political level. Corruption spread like a plague through the city,
state, and national governments. Greedy legislators and “forgettable” presidents dominated
the political scene.
True leadership, for better or for worse, resided among the magnates who dominated the
Gilded Age.

Binding the Nation by Rail
The locomotive wasn’t an invention of the Gilded Age. Indeed Americans had traveled by
rail in the decades that preceded the Civil War. But such travel was risky. In order for rail
travel to grow, new innovations were required.
Passengers often sat in the same room as a wood burner and had to be watchful of
wayward sparks landing on their clothing. Braking systems weren’t always trustworthy.
Several engines even exploded while trying to reach a destination.
After the Civil War, George Westinghouse invented the air brake and trains could stop
more reliably as a result. Railroad firms agreed on a standard width between tracks to
reduce transfers.
Traveling also represented a tremendous investment in time. Rail passengers often had to
change trains frequently because the width between tracks varied from company to
company. Such a journey could be uncomfortable, boring, and dangerous. The Pullman
Car Company produced sleeper cars and dining cars to make travel more comfortable.
The Transcontinental Railroad
Soon after the railroad made its appearance in the United States in the 1830s, Americans
dreamed of linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by rail. A transcontinental railroad would
allow for settlement of the West, open new markets for eastern manufacturers, and bring
relief to overcrowded eastern cities.
Recall the the term “manifest destiny” coined by journalist John L. O’Sullivan where some
believed that it was divinely intended that Americans should control the whole of the
continental United States.
“... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of
the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great
experiment of liberty and federaltive development of self government entrusted
to us...."
Steaming locomotives would hasten western settlement, spread democratic values, and
increase the size of the United States (Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and so on weren’t
yet states, only territories). Western settlement was a paramount national interest. As such,
the federal government awarded the contract to link the coasts by rail to two companies,
the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. However, the economic incentives to railroads
were enormous. The government offered generous loans to companies who were willing to
assume the risk. The greatest reward was land. For each mile of track laid by the Central
and Union Pacific Railroads, the companies received 640 acres of public land. In other rail

projects, state governments often kicked in additional acres for a growing number of rail
companies.
I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
is illustration shows laborers in the Sierra Nevada constructing the Central Paci c Railroad.
Union Pacific workers, many of whom were Irish, German, and Chinese immigrants,
started at Omaha, Nebraska, and hammered their way westward. From Sacramento,
California, the Central Pacific made its way eastward. Veterans from both the Union and
Confederate sides of the Civil War, as well as former slaves, took part in the building of the
railroad.
Those working on the railroad gave their sweat and sometimes their lives blasting through
the often unforgiving terrain. Other dangers that workers faced were disease, searing
summer heat, freezing temperatures in the mountains, Native American raids, and the
lawlessness and violence of pioneer towns.
The engineering achievement was monumental. The costs of the operation to railroads
were enormous. Tens of thousands of workers had to be paid, sheltered, and fed. Tons of

steel and wood were required.
The Golden Spike
The government declared that the two lines would merge at Promontory Summit near
Ogden, Utah. On May 10, 1869, Leland Stanford, representing the Central Pacific Railroad,
was provided the honor of hammering a golden spike into the ground that marked the
completion of the coast-to-coast line. Celebrations erupted across the land. Even the
Liberty Bell tolled once again to commemorate the occasion.
Soon, other transcontinental lines were constructed and travel across the continent
became worlds simpler, less expensive, and much faster than by the old Conestoga
wagon.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
All in all, the railroads received nearly 200 million acres of land from the US government for
fulfilling contracts. Directors of some railroads made fortunes. Foremost among the railroad
tycoons were Cornelius Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, and Jay Gould.
But freight railroad abuses grew rampant. Money lined the pockets of greedy public
officials who awarded generous terms to the railroads. Railroad companies set their own
shipping rates.
Sometimes it was more expensive for a small farmer to ship goods to a nearby town than
to a faraway city. Because the companies kept their rates secret, one farmer could be
charged more than another for the same freight transport.
To reduce competition, railroad companies established pools. These were informal

arrangements between companies to keep rates above a certain level. Consequently, the
public suffered. Finally, in 1887, Congress responded to public outcry by creating the
Interstate Commerce Commission to watch over the rail industry. This was the nation’s first
regulatory agency. The legislation creating the commission didn't give it much power, so it
was ineffective until the early twentieth century.
But the public also reaped great benefits. Eastern businessmen could now sell their goods
to California citizens. As a result of improved transportation, all Americans had access to
more goods at a cheaper price. The westward movement was greatly accelerated. Those
seeking a new start in life could much more easily “go west.”
No industrial revolution can occur without a transport web. The nation was now bound
together by this enormous network and its citizens were ready to reap the rewards.
The New Tycoons: John D. Rockefeller

He was America’s first billionaire.
In a pure sense, the goal of any capitalist is to make money. And John D. Rockefeller could
serve as the poster child for capitalism. Overcoming humble beginnings, Rockefeller had
the vision and the drive to become the richest person in America.
At the turn of the century, when the average worker earned $8 to $10 per week,
Rockefeller was worth millions.
Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?
What was his secret? Is he to be placed on a pedestal for others as a “captain of industry”?
Or should he be demonized as a “robber baron.” A robber baron, by definition, was an
American capitalist at the turn of the nineteenth century who enriched himself upon the
sweat of others, exploited natural resources, or possessed unfair government influence.
Whatever conclusions can be drawn, Rockefeller’s impact on the American economy

demands recognition.
e Birthplace of John D. Rockefeller, Richford, New York
Rockefeller was born in 1839 in Moravia, a small town in western New York.
His father practiced herbal medicine, professing to cure patients with remedies he had
created from plants in the area. John’s mother instilled a devout Baptist faith in the boy, a
belief system he took to his grave. After graduating from high school in 1855, the family
sent him to a Cleveland business school.
Young John Rockefeller entered the workforce on the bottom rung of the ladder as a clerk
in a Cleveland shipping firm. Always thrifty, he saved enough money to start his own

business in produce sales. When the Civil War came, the demand for his goods increased
dramatically, and Rockefeller found himself amassing a small fortune.
He took advantage of the loophole in the Union draft law by purchasing a substitute to
avoid military service. When Edwin Drake discovered oil in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania,
Rockefeller saw the future. He slowly sold off his other interests and became convinced
that refining oil would bring him great wealth.
Waste Not...
Rockefeller introduced techniques that totally reshaped the oil industry. In the mid-
nineteenth century, the chief demand was for kerosene. In the refining process, there are
many byproducts when crude oil is converted to kerosene. What others saw as waste,
Rockefeller saw as gold. He sold one byproduct, paraffin, to candle makers and another
byproduct, petroleum jelly, to medical supply companies. He even sold off other “waste” as
paving materials for roads. He shipped so many goods that railroad companies drooled
over the prospect of getting his business.
Rockefeller demanded rebates, or discounted rates, from the railroads. He used all these
methods to reduce the price of oil to his consumers. His profits soared and his competitors
were crushed one by one. Rockefeller forced smaller companies to surrender their stock to
his control.
Standard Oil—A Trust-Worthy Company?
A trust is a combination of firms formed by legal agreement. Trusts often reduce fair
business competition. As a result of Rockefeller’s shrewd business practices his large
corporation, the Standard Oil Company, became the largest business in the land.
As the new century dawned, Rockefeller’s investments mushroomed. With the advent of
the automobile, gasoline replaced kerosene as the number one petroleum product.
Rockefeller and his company grew to previously unseen wealth, becoming the country’s
first billionaire.. Critics charged that his labor practices were unfair. Employees pointed out
that he could have paid his workers a fairer wage and settled for being a half-billionaire. In
the 1890s, the federal government did pass some legislation that was meant to reign in the
power of businesses of Standard Oil, like the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. Rockefeller, though,
was able to influence regulators to use the law more often to attack organized labor groups
and allow the business trusts to operate with no restrictions.
Even when Rockefeller and Standard Oil were taken to court eventually for their unfair
trust, the punishment was still more of a reward. Standard Oil was forced by the Supreme
Court to break-up into smaller companies, and though Rockefeller was no longer the
president of a huge corporation, he still made almost a billion dollars when he sold parts of
the company. Many of today’s best known gas companies are among the 34 from the
broken trust. Before his death in 1937, Rockefeller gave away nearly half of his fortune.
Churches, medical foundations, universities, and centers for the arts received hefty sums
of oil money. Whether he was driven by good will, conscience, or his devout faith in God is
unknown. Regardless, he became a hero to many enterprising Americans.

The New Tycoons: Andrew Carnegie
Oil wasn’t the only commodity in great demand during the Gilded Age. The nation also
needed steel.
The railroads needed steel for their rails and cars, the navy needed steel for its new naval
fleet, and cities needed steel to build skyscrapers. Every factory in America needed steel
for their physical plant and machinery. Andrew Carnegie saw this demand and seized the
moment.
Humble Roots
Like John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie wasn’t born into wealth. When he was 13, his
family came to the United States from Scotland and settled in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, a
small town near Pittsburgh. His first job was in a cotton mill, where he earned $1.20 per
week.
His talents were soon recognized and Carnegie found himself promoted to the
bookkeeping side of the business. An avid reader, Carnegie spent his Saturdays in the
homes of wealthy citizens who were gracious enough to allow him access to their private
libraries. After becoming a telegrapher for a short while, he met the head of a railroad
company who asked for his services as a personal secretary. Carnegie continued to work
in the railroad industry and eventually rose to superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division of
Pennsylvania Railroad. A company executive for the Pennsylvania Railroad, Thomas
Scott, noticed Carnegie’s abilities and became a mentor to him.
During the Civil War, Thomas Scott was sent to Washington to serve as Assistant
Secretary of War for the Union Army. He appointed Carnegie as Superintendent of the
Military Railways and the Union government’s telegraph lines in the East. Carnegie spent
his war days managing the transportation of Union soldiers and military equipment.
By this time, he had amassed a small sum of money, which he quickly invested. One of his
earliest business endeavors involved using his money, skills, and connections to merge
three railroad-related companies.
Soon iron and steel caught his attention, and he was on his way to creating the largest
steel company in the world.
The Bessemer Process
When William Kelly and Henry Bessemer perfected a process to convert

iron to steel cheaply and efficiently, the industry was soon to blossom.

Vertical Integration: Moving on Up
Carnegie became a tycoon because of shrewd business tactics. Rockefeller often bought
other oil companies to eliminate competition. This is a process known as horizontal
integration. Carnegie also created a vertical integration. He bought railroad companies and
iron mines. If he owned the rails and the mines, he could reduce his costs and produce
cheaper steel.
Carnegie was a good judge of talent. His assistant, Henry Clay Frick, helped manage the
Carnegie Steel Company on its way to success. Carnegie also wanted productive workers.
He wanted them to feel that they had a vested interest in company prosperity so he
initiated a profit-sharing plan.
All these tactics made the Carnegie Steel Company a multimillion dollar corporation. In
1901, he sold his interests to J. P. Morgan, who paid him 500 million dollars to create US
Steel.
Giving Back
e Main Campus of Carnegie Mellon University (Image by Dllu (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Retirement didn’t take him out of the public sphere. Before his death, he donated more
than $350 million to public foundations. Remembering the difficulty of finding suitable
books as a youth, he helped build three thousand libraries. He built schools such as
Carnegie Mellon University and gave his money for artistic pursuits such as Carnegie Hall
in New York.

Andrew Carnegie was also dedicated to peace initiatives throughout the world because of
his passionate hatred for war. Like Rockefeller, critics labeled him a robber baron who
could have used his vast fortunes to increase the wages of his employees. Carnegie
believed that such spending was wasteful and temporary, but foundations would last
forever. Regardless, he helped build an empire that led the United States to world power
status.
The New Tycoons: J. P. Morgan
Child of Privilege
Not all of the tycoons of the Gilded Age were rags-to-riches stories. J. P. Morgan was born
into a family of great wealth. His father had already made a name for himself in the banking
industry. With Morgan’s family resources, he enjoyed the finest business education money
could buy.
He didn’t scratch and claw his way to the top of any corporate ladder. His father arranged
for an executive track position at one of New York’s finest banks. Regardless of his family’s
advantages, Morgan had a great mind of his own. He set out to conquer the financial
world, and conquer it he did.
Morgan the Banker
Morgan’s first business ventures were in banking. By 1860, he had already established his
own foreign exchange office. He knew the power of investment. Not content to control just
the banking industry, he bought many smaller ventures to make money.
During the Civil War, he paid the legally allowed fee to purchase a substitute soldier and
evaded military service. Morgan made handsome profits by providing war materials. One of
his enterprises sold defective rifles to the Union army. Upon later investigations, he was
declared ignorant of the poor quality of his guns and was cleared of all charges.
After the war, he set out to corner the nation’s financial markets. When the Panic of 1873
rocked the nation’s economy, Morgan protected himself wisely and emerged in the
aftermath as the king of American finance.
Despite his label as a robber baron, Morgan felt his investments benefited America. His
railroad dealings helped consolidate many smaller, mismanaged firms, resulting in shorter
trips and more dependable service. Two times during financial panics he allowed the
federal government to purchase his vast gold supplies to stop the spiral of deflation.
He owned a bridge company and a tubing company. His most renowned purchase was in
1901, when he bought the Carnegie Steel Company for $500 million to create US Steel.
Within 10 years, US Steel was worth over a billion dollars.
Morgan’s actions marked a shift in thinking among American industrialists. He proved that
it wasn’t necessary to be a builder to be successful. Smart investment and efficient

consolidation could yield massive profits. Young entrepreneurs shifted their goals to
banking in the hopes of mirroring Morgan’s success.
Trouble with the Government
For all his accomplishments, he was harshly criticized. The first decade of the twentieth
century brought challenges to Morgan from the government. His Northern Securities
Company, a railroad trust, was deemed illegal under federal Antitrust Law, the first such
action by the national government. He was investigated by Congress for his control of the
financial markets. Even US Steel was forced to relinquish its monopoly.
Jaded by the criticism, Morgan moved to Europe, where he lived his final days. He was a
favorite target of intellectuals who claimed that such tycoons robbed the poor of their
deserved wealth. He was a hero to enterprising financiers across the land who dreamed of
following his example. That is, of course, unless they were destroyed by his shrewd, fierce
tactics.
New Attitudes Toward Wealth
Not everybody was getting rich. The new wealthy class, although more prominent, larger,
and richer than any class in American history, was still rather small.
People soon began to ask fundamental questions. How did one get rich in America? Was it
because of a combination of hard work and intelligence? Was it because of inheritance?
Did education and skill play a role? Or was it simply luck?
Old attitudes about the importance of inheritance were still prevalent, but new ideas also
emerged. Among the most popular were Social Darwinism, the Gospel of Wealth, and
Algerism.
Survival of the Fittest
When a popular conception of “survival of the fittest” grew from Charles Darwin’s idea of
the process of natural selection in the wild, the world was forever changed. Church leaders
condemned him as a heretic, and ordinary people everywhere cringed at the idea that
humans may have evolved from apes. In time, the ideas of “natural selection” and “survival
of the fittest” were used by intellectuals to go beyond biology and examine human society.
They called themselves Social Darwinists. Led by Herbert Spencer and William Graham
Sumner, they believed that the humans who were the most fit became the most successful.
Whatever people had the necessary skills to prosper—perhaps talent, brains, or good work
ethic—would be the ones who would rise to the top.
And why were some people poor? To the Social Darwinist, the answer was obvious: they
simply didn’t have those skills.

Social Darwinists went further in their application of Darwin. Darwin stated that the weaker
members of a species in nature would die and that over time only the stronger genes
would be passed on. Social Darwinists believed the same should happen with humans.
They opposed government handouts, or safety regulations, or laws restricting child labor.
Such actions would coddle the weak, and the unfit would be allowed to survive.
Gospel of Wealth
Some Americans tried to reconcile their Christian beliefs with Social Darwinism. Because
the Church had been such an opponent of Darwin’s ideas, it was difficult for parishioners to
accept Social Darwinism.
Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller both agreed that the most successful people were
the ones with the necessary skills. But they each believed that God played a role in
deciding who got the skills.
According to them, because God granted a select few with the talent to be successful,
Christian virtue demanded that some of that money be shared with society. Proponents of
the Gospel of Wealth, like Carnegie and Rockefeller, became philanthropists—wealthy
citizens who donated large sums of money for the public good.
Carnegie wrote an article on the Gospel of Wealth, with the same title, explaining the view.
Though he supported some of the Social Darwinist views, he wrote that it was the
responsibility of the wealthy to provide money for the public good, rather than leave it to
family heirs.
Horatio Alger’s American Dream
A third influence on American thinking was Horatio Alger. Alger wasn’t an intellectual,
rather, he wrote dime novels for the hordes of immigrant masses rushing to America’s
shores. Although he penned many stories, each book answered the question of how to get
rich in America. Alger believed that a combination of hard work and good fortune—“pluck
and luck,” in his words—was the key.
A typical Alger story would revolve around a hardworking immigrant who served on the
bottom rung of the corporate ladder, perhaps as a stock boy. One day he would be walking
down the street and see a safe falling from a tall building. Our hero would bravely push
aside the hapless young woman walking below and save her life. Of course, she was the
boss’s daughter. The two would get married, and he would become vice president of the
corporation.
This is what the masses wished to believe. Success wouldn’t come to a select few based
on nature or divine intervention. Anyone who worked hard could make it in America if they
caught a lucky break. This idea is the basis for the “American Dream.”
Is Alger’s dream a reality or just folklore? There simply is no answer. Thousands of

Americans have found this idyllic path, but far more haven’t.

Politics of the Gilded Age
The Gilded Age will be remembered for the accomplishments of thousands of American
thinkers, inventors, entrepreneurs, writers, and promoters of social justice. Few politicians
had an impact on the tremendous change transforming America. The presidency was at an
all-time low in power and influence, and the Congress was rife with corruption. State and
city leaders shared in the graft (political corruption, stealing of public funds), and the public
was kept largely unaware. Much like in the colonial days, Americans weren’t taking their
orders from the top, rather, they were building a new society from its foundation.
The American presidents who resided in the White House from the end of the Civil War
until the 1890s are sometimes called “the forgettable presidents.” A case-by-case study
helps illustrates this point.
Andrew Johnson was so hated he was impeached and would have been removed from
office were it not for a single Senate vote.
A Soldier in the White House
Ulysses S. Grant was a Civil War hero, but was unprepared for public office. He hadn’t held
a single elected office before the presidency and was totally naive to the workings of
Washington. He was able to steer Reconstruction in the Radical Republican’s direction to
provide more federal protection of the civil rights of former slaves, and oversaw the building
of the Transcontinental Railroad, but much of his legacy from two terms in office is focused
on corruption on his staff.
He relied heavily on the advice of insiders who were stealing public money. His secretary
of war sold Native American land to investors and pocketed public money. His private
secretary worked with officials in the Treasury Department to steal money raised from the
tax on whiskey.
Many members of his Administration were implicated in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, which
defrauded the American public of common land. Grant himself seemed above these
scandals, but lacked the political skill to control his staff or replace them with officers of
integrity.
Electoral Woes
Grant’s successor was Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes himself had tremendous integrity, but
his presidency was weakened by the means of his election. After the electoral votes were
counted, his opponent, Samuel Tilden, already claimed a majority of the popular vote and
needed just one electoral vote to win. Hayes needed 20. Precisely 20 electoral votes were
in dispute because the states submitted double returns—one proclaiming Hayes the victor,
the other Tilden. A Republican-biased electoral commission awarded all 20 electoral votes
to the Republican Hayes, and he won by just one electoral vote. A deal was likely made
that the two parties agreed to let Hayes win the election but Democrats essentially ended
Reconstruction when federal troops were removed from all Southern states.

While he was able to claim the White House, many considered his election a fraud, and his
power to rule was diminished.
Assassination
James Garfield succeeded Hayes to the presidency after one term. After only four months,
his life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. Charles Guiteau, the killer, was so upset with
Garfield for overlooking him for a political job that he shot the president in cold blood on the
platform of the Baltimore and Potomac train station.
Vice President Chester Arthur became the next leader. Although his political history was
largely composed of appointments of friends, the tragedy that befell his predecessor led
him to believe that the system had gone bad. He signed into law the Pendleton Civil
Service Reform Act, which opened many jobs to competitive exam rather than political
connections. The Republican Party rewarded him by refusing his nomination for the
presidency in 1884.
One president impeached, one president drowning in corruption, one president elected by
possible fraud, one president assassinated, and one disgraced by his own party for doing
what he thought was right. Clearly, this wasn’t a good time in presidential history.
Congressional Supremacy
This was an era of congressional supremacy. The weak presidents of the era signed the
laws passed by the Congress without much dispute. The Republican Party dominated the
presidency and the Congress for most of these years. Both houses of Congress were full
of representatives owned by big business.
Laws regulating campaigns were minimal and big money bought a government that
wouldn’t interfere. Similar conditions existed in the states. City governments were
dominated by political machines. Members of a small network gained power and used the
public treasury to stay in power—and grow fabulously rich in the process.
Not until the dawn of the twentieth century would serious attempts be made to correct the
abuses of Gilded Age government.

Exercise 5.1
Open Link

Key Points and Links
Key Points
With the end of the Civil War, the industrial might built in the North of the nation was turned to private use. In this
time until the end of the 1800s, the nation’s wealth grew rapidly with a small number of people becoming
fabulously wealthy.
In the mid-1800s, railroads were rapidly expanded throughout the United States, allowing for more opportunity for
people and goods to be moved far distances in a relatively fast time. By the end of the 1800s, railroad owners took
advantage of their position (controlling much of commerce) to gouge people, mostly farmers, attempting to ship
their goods to market.
New powerful business tycoons came to dominate their respective industries—Rockefeller in oil, Carnegie with
steel, and Morgan in nance. ese men became so powerful through hard-nosed business tactics that many
came to believe that they abused their power to take advantage of those with less power and wealth.
In the period after the Civil War up until the 1900s, the Republican Party dominated the presidency and control of
Congress. Congress held the bulk of power in this time period due to corruption, political weakness, and claims of
illegitimacy faced by the Republican presidents of the period.

Working Conditions
Organized Labor
Young Boys Working in a Cotton Mill
In the mid-nineteenth century, the vast majority of American work was still done on the
farm. By the turn of the twentieth century, the United States economy revolved around the
factory.
Most Americans living in the Gilded Age knew nothing of the millions of Rockefeller,
Carnegie, and Morgan. They worked 10-hour shifts, 6 days a week, for wages barely
enough to survive on. Children as young as eight years old worked hours that kept them
out of school.
Men and women worked until their bodies could stand no more, only to be released from
employment without retirement benefits. Medical coverage didn’t exist. Women who
became pregnant were often fired. Compensation for being hurt while on the job was zero.

Come Together
Soon laborers realized that they must unite to demand change. Even though they lacked
money, education, or political power, they knew one critical thing. There were simply more
workers than there were owners. By forming a union, a group of workers who organize to
negotiate together, they could improve their chances of having their demands met by
management.
Unions didn’t emerge overnight. Despite their legal rights to exist, bosses often took
extreme measures, including intimidation and violence, to prevent a union from taking hold.
Workers, too, often chose the sword when peaceful measures failed.
Many Americans believed that a violent revolution would take place in America. How long
would so many stand to be poor? Industrial titans including John Rockefeller arranged for
mighty castles to be built as fortresses to stand against the upheaval they were sure was
coming.
Slowly but surely unions did grow. Efforts to form nationwide organizations faced even
greater difficulties. Federal troops were sometimes called to block their efforts. Judges
almost always ruled in favor of the bosses.
The workers often couldn’t agree on common goals. Some flirted with extreme ideas like
Marxism. Others simply wanted a nickel more per hour. Fights erupted over whether or not
to admit women or African Americans. Immigrants were often viewed with hostile eyes.
Most did agree on one major issue—the eight-hour day. But even that agreement was
often not strong enough glue to hold the group together.
Organized labor has brought tremendous positive change to working Americans. Today,
many workers enjoy higher wages, better hours, and safer working conditions. Employers
often pay for medical coverage and several weeks vacation. Jobs and lives were lost in the
epic struggle for a fair share. The fight sprouted during the Gilded Age, when labor took its
first steps toward unity. It began with the Great Upheaval.
The Great Upheaval
A Spontaneous Eruption
It started with a 10-percent pay cut. When leaders of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Company ordered this second reduction in less than eight months, railroad workers in
Martinsburg, West Virginia, decided they had had enough. On July 16, 1877, workers in
that town drove all the engines into the roundhouse and boldly declared that no train would
leave until the owners restored their pay. This negotiation tactic of refusing to work until the
workers' demands are met is called a strike. The local townspeople gathered at the railyard
to show their support for the strikers. A great showdown was on.
Strikes or other actions seen as disturbances are usually handled at the local level. The
mayor of Martinsburg tried in vain to threaten the striking workers, but the crowd merely
laughed and booed. The local police were far too insubstantial to match the numbers of the

rabble. In desperation, the mayor turned to the governor of West Virginia for support. The
governor sent units of the National Guard to Martinsburg to accompany the trains out of
town by force of arms. There was little support for the effort among the Guardsmen,
however, because a majority of them were railroad workers themselves. After two people
were killed in the standoff, the Guard simply lay down their weapons and began chatting
with members of the crowd.
Only when federal troops sent by President Hayes arrived did the trains leave the station.
Even then they were sabotaged and harassed along their routes. Only one train reached
its destination.
The Strike Spreads
The Martinsburg strike might have gone down in history as one of many small local strikes
put down by force, but this time the strike spread. Soon other Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
(B & O) units joined the Martinsburg strike. The movement spread into Pennsylvania, when
workers on the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads joined their compatriots. Pittsburgh is
the gateway to the Midwest, and so the strike widened to that region.
The police, the National Guard, and the US Army clashed with angry mobs throughout
America. Throughout the land, wealthy individuals feared that the worst had finally come. A
violent revolution seemed to be sweeping the nation.
But then it stopped. In some cases, the strikes were ended by force. In others, the strikers
simply gave up. After all, most workers weren’t trying to overthrow the government or the
social order. They simply wanted higher wages and more time to spend with their families.
The Great Upheaval wasn’t the first strike in American History; it was the first mass strike
to involve so many different workers separated by so much space.
What Did This Mean for America?
Was it successful? From a distance, it seems to have failed. However, in many cases,
workers did have their demands met. There’s no telling how many future pay cuts were
avoided because of fear of reprisal from the laborers. The Great Upheaval was
spontaneous. There was absolutely no advanced planning, showing how many rank and
file workers had the same concerns about quality of life, as well as the same anger at
those who controlled the wealth. More than 100,000 workers had gone on strike, shutting
down nearly half of the nation’s rail systems.
When the strike ended in the first week in August, over 100 people were killed and a
thousand more were imprisoned. Untold millions of dollars of damage was caused to rail
lines, cars, and roundhouses. The fight was over, but America hadn’t seen the last of the
mass strike.
Labor vs. Management

The battle lines were clearly drawn. People were either workers or bosses, and with that
strong identity often came an equally strong dislike for those who were on the other side.
As the number of self-employed Americans dwindled in the Gilded Age, workers began to
feel strength in their numbers and ask greater and greater demands of their bosses. When
those demands were rejected, they plotted schemes to win their cases.
Those who managed factories developed strategies to counteract those of labor. At times
the relationship between the camps was as intellectual and tense as a tough chess match.
Other times it was as ugly as a schoolyard fight.
Strikes, Boycotts, and Sabotage
The most frequently employed technique of workers was the strike. Withholding labor from
management would, in theory, force the company to suffer great enough financial losses
that they would agree to worker terms. Strikes have been known in America since the
colonial age, but their numbers grew larger in the Gilded Age.
Most nineteenth-century strikes weren’t successful, so unions thought of other means. If

the workers at a shoe factory could garner enough sympathy from the local townspeople, a
boycott could achieve desirable results. The union would make its case to the town in the
hope that no one would buy any shoes from the factory until the owners agreed to a pay
raise. Boycotts could be successful in a small community where the factory was dependent
upon the business of a group of people in close proximity.
In desperate times, workers would also resort to illegal means if necessary. For example,
sabotage of factory equipment wasn’t unknown. Occasionally, the foreman or the owner
might even be the victim of worker-sponsored violence.
Management Strikes Back
Owners had strategies of their own. If a company found itself with a high inventory, the
boss might afford to enact a lockout, which is a reverse strike. In this case, the owner tells
the employees not to bother showing up until they agree to a pay cut. Sometimes, when a
new worker was hired, the employee was forced to sign a yellow dog contract, or an
ironclad oath swearing that the employee would never join a union.
Strikes could be countered in a variety of ways. The first measure was usually to hire
strikebreakers, or scabs, to take the place of the regular labor force. Here things often
turned violent. The crowded cities always seemed to have someone hopeless enough to
“cross the picket line” during a strike. The striking workers often responded with fists,
occasionally even leading to death.
Before the twentieth century, the government never sided with the union in a labor dispute.
Bosses persuaded the courts to issue injunctions to declare a strike illegal. If the strike
continued, the participants would be thrown into prison. When all these efforts failed to
break a strike, the government at all levels would be willing to send a militia to regulate as
in the case of the Great Upheaval.

What was at stake? Each side felt they were fighting literally for survival. The owners felt if
they couldn’t keep costs down to beat the competition, they would be forced to close the
factory altogether. They said they couldn’t meet the workers’ unreasonable demands.
What were the employees demanding? In the entire history of labor strife, most goals of
labor can be reduced to two overarching issues: higher wages and better working
conditions. In the beginning, management would have the upper hand. But the sheer
numbers of the American workforce was gaining momentum as the century neared its
conclusion.
Early National Organizations
Divide and conquer. That simple strategy gave the owners the advantage over labor until
the dawn of the twentieth century. Laborers didn’t all have the same goals. By favoring one
group over another, the bosses could create internal dissent in any union. Unions were
spread from town to town. Unity among them might make a more effective boycott or
strike, but bringing diverse groups together across a large area was extremely difficult.
Owners were smart enough to circulate blacklists. These lists contained the names of any
workers active in the union. If anyone on the list would show up in another town trying to
get hired (or to start another union), the employers would be wise. Still, the ratio of labor to
management was so large that national organization was inevitable. The first group to clear
the hurdles was the National Labor Union.
William Sylvis and the NLU
By 1866, there were about 200,000 workers in local unions across the United States.
William Sylvis seized the opportunity presented by these numbers and established the first
nationwide labor organization, named the National Labor Union. Sylvis had very ambitious
goals. Not only did the NLU fight for higher wages and shorter hours, Sylvis took labor
activity into the political arena. The NLU supported legislation banning prison labor, land
reform laws to keep public holdings out of the hands of speculators, and national currency
reform to raise farm prices.
It brought together skilled and unskilled workers, as well as farmers. The National Labor
Union stopped short of admitting African Americans. Racist tendencies of the times
prevailed, despite the wisdom of bringing as many workers as possible into the fold.
Unfortunately for the NLU, it tried to represent too many different groups. Farmers had their
own agenda, and skilled workers often had different realities than the unskilled. When the
Panic of 1873 hit America, the union was severely disabled. Soon after, the National Labor
Union withered away.
The Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor soon inherited the mantle of organized labor. Begun by Uriah
Stephens as a secret society in 1869, the Knights admitted all wage earners into their
ranks, including women and African Americans. The philosophy was simple: class was

more important than race or gender. For such a group to influence the federal government,
complete solidarity would be required.
The Knights supported the entire political agenda of the NLU and more. They advocated
limits on immigration, restrictions on child labor, and government ownership of railroads,
telegraphs, and telephones. At the height of its membership in 1886, the Knights boasted
750,000 workers. But then disaster struck.
Tragedy in Haymarket Square
Terence Vincent Powderly, Head of the Knights of Labor
On May 1, 1886, International Workers Day, local chapters of the Knights went on strike
demanding an eight-hour day for all laborers. At a rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago on
May 4, someone threw a bomb into the crowd. One police officer died and several crowd
members sustained injuries.
Who was responsible? No one was really sure, but the American press, government, and
general public blamed the Knights of Labor. Leader Terence Powderly condemned the
bombing to no avail.
Americans associated labor activity with anarchists and mob violence. Membership began
to fall. Soon the Knights were merely a shadow of their former size. But labor leaders had
learned some valuable lessons. The next national organization of workers would endure.

American Federation of Labor
Keeping it Simple
Keep it simple. That was the mantra of labor leader Samuel Gompers. He was a diehard
capitalist and saw no need for a radical restructuring of America. Gompers quickly learned
that the issues that workers cared about most deeply were personal. They wanted higher
wages and better working conditions. These “bread and butter” issues would always unite
the labor class. By keeping it simple, unions could avoid the pitfalls that had drawn the life
from the National Labor Union and the Knights of Labor.
Samuel Gompers was born in London in 1850 to a family of Jewish cigar makers. Coming
to Manhattan at the height of the American Civil War, the Gompers family maintained that
trade. An effective organizer and speaker, Gompers became the head of the local cigar
makers’ union at the age of only 27.
A Union for the Skilled
In December of 1886, the same year the Knights of Labor was dealt its fatal blow at
Haymarket Square, Gompers met with the leaders of other craft unions to form the
American Federation of Labor. The AFL was a loose grouping of smaller craft unions, such
as the masons’ union, the hat makers’ union or Gompers’s own cigar makers’ union. Every
member of the AFL was therefore a skilled worker.
Gompers had no visions of uniting the entire working class. Tradespeople were in greater
demand and already earned higher wages than their unskilled counterparts. Gompers
knew that the AFL would have more political and economic power if unskilled workers were
excluded. He served as president of the union every year except one until his death in
1924.
Although conservative in nature, Gompers wasn’t afraid to call for a strike or a boycott. The
larger AFL could be used to support these actions, as well as provide relief for members
engaged in a work stoppage. By refusing to pursue a radical program for political change,
Gompers maintained the support of the American government and public. By 1900, the
ranks of the AFL swelled to over 500,000 tradespeople. Gompers was seen as the
unofficial leader of the labor world in America.
Simplicity worked. Although the bosses still had the upper hand with the government,
unions were growing in size and status. There were over 20,000 strikes in America in the
last two decades of the nineteenth century. Workers lost about half, but in many cases their
demands were completely or partially met. The AFL served as the preeminent national
labor organization until the Great Depression when unskilled workers finally came together.
Smart leadership, patience, and realistic goals made life better for the hundreds of
thousands of working Americans it served.
Eugene V. Debs and American Socialism

Despite the success of the American Federation of Labor, American radicalism wasn’t
dead. The number of those who felt the American capitalist system was fundamentally
flawed was in fact growing fast.
American socialists based their beliefs on the writings of Karl Marx, the German
philosopher. Many asked why so many working Americans should have so little while a few
owners grew incredibly wealthy. No wealth could exist without the sweat and blood of its
workforce. They suggested that the government should own all industries and divide the
profits among those who actually created the products. While the current management
class would stand to lose, many more people would gain. These radicals grew in number
as industries spread. But their enemies were legion.
The Father of American Socialism
Eugene V. Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1855 to a family of French Alsatian
immigrants. Making his way in the railroad industry, Debs formed the American Railway
Union in 1892.
Two years later he found himself leading one of the largest strikes in American history—the
great Pullman Strike. When its workers refused to accept a pay cut, the Pullman Car
Company fired 5,000 employees. To show support, Debs called for the members of the
American Railway Union to refrain from operating any trains that used Pullman cars. When
the strike was declared illegal by a court injunction, chaos erupted. President Cleveland
ordered federal troops to quell the strikers and Debs was arrested. Soon, order was
restored and the strike failed.
Debs wasn’t originally a socialist, but his experience with the Pullman Strike and his
subsequent six-month jail term led him to believe that drastic action was necessary. Debs
chose to confine his activity to the political arena. In 1900 he ran for president as a socialist
and garnered some 87,000 votes.
Your honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I
made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the
earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it;
while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I
am not free.
—Eugene V. Debs, Statement to the Court, while being convicted of

violating the Sedition Act (Sept. 18, 1918)
The following year, leading sympathizers joined with him to form the Socialist Party. At its
height, the party numbered over 100,000 active members. Debs ran for president four
more times. In the election of 1912 he received over 900,000 votes. After being arrested

for antiwar activities during World War I, he ran for president from his jail cell and polled
919,000 votes. Debs died in 1926 having never won an election, but over 1,000 Socialist
Party members were elected to state and city governments.
The Wobblies
Even more radical than the Socialists were the members of the Industrial Workers of the
World. This union believed that compromise with owners was no solution. Founded in 1905
and led by William “Big Bill” Haywood, the “Wobblies,” as they were called, encouraged
their members to fight for justice directly against their employers. Although small in
number, they led hundreds of strikes across America, calling for the overthrow of the
capitalist system. The I.W.W. won few battles, but their efforts sent a strong message
across America that workers were being mistreated.
When the United States entered World War I, the Wobblies launched an active antiwar
movement. Many were arrested or beaten. One unlucky member in Oregon was tied to the
front end of an automobile with his knees touching the ground and driven until his flesh
was torn to the bone. Membership declined after the war, but for two decades the I.W.W.
was the anchor of radical American activism.

Exercise 5.2
Open Link

Key Points
In the late 1800s, millions of Americans found themselves working long hours in dirty and dangerous conditions
for little pay. Workers began to form labor unions as a way to ght for better wages, working conditions, and
bene ts.
Workers began to strike—refuse to work—as a way to negotiate better pay and conditions. Sometimes these
disagreements broke out into violence as strikers attempted to stop production or work from getting done.
Employers struck back by forcing workers to sign agreements not to join a union, yellow dog contracts, and hiring
strikebreakers.
Originally unions formed along occupational lines, but in 1866 a mass union known as the National Labor Union
(NLU) formed. is type of union allowed all workers from various industries to join and ght for a better situation
for their members.
In 1886, the American Federation of Labor formed a di erent kind of large union focusing on skilled workers
rather than the entire working class.
e wealth disparity in America and the union struggle led to the growth of a relatively small socialist movement
in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Rail worker union leader Eugene V. Debs became a socialist after his experience
with the Pullman Strike and helped form a US Socialist Party.

Urban Life
From the Countryside to the City
The Age of Industry brought tremendous change to America. Perhaps the single greatest
impact of industrialization on the growing nation was urbanization. Thomas Jefferson had
once idealized America as a land of small, independent farmers who became educated
enough to participate in a republic. That notion was forever a part of history.
As large farms and improved technology displaced the small farmer, a new demand grew
for labor in the American economy. Factories spread rapidly across the nation, but they
didn’t spread evenly. Most were concentrated in urban areas, particularly in the Northeast,
around the Great Lakes, and on the West Coast. And so the American workforce began to
migrate from the countryside to the city.
The speed with which American cities expanded was shocking. About 1⁄6 of the American
population lived in urban areas in 1860. Urban was defined as population centers
consisting of at least 8,000 people, only a modest-sized town by modern standards. By
1900 that ratio grew to a third. In just 40 years the urban population increased four times,
while the rural population doubled. In 1900, an American was 20 times more likely to move
from the farm to the city than vice versa. The 1920 census declared that for the first time, a
majority of Americans lived in the city.
The Best and Worst of American Life
These new cities represented both the best and the worst of American life. Never before in
American history had such a large number of Americans lived so close to each other. The
ease with which these people could share ideas was never greater. Although these cities
produced many products, they were also a huge market. Now, in one small area, citizens
could enjoy better and cheaper products. Technology created possibilities as the
skyscraper changed the skyline, and electric cars and trolleys decreased commuting time.
The light bulb and the telephone transformed every home and business.
There was also a darker side. Beneath the magnificent skylines lay slums of abject poverty.
Immigrant neighborhoods struggled to realize the American dream. Overcrowding,
disease, and crime plagued many urban communities. Pollution and sewage plagued the
new metropolitan centers. Corruption in local leadership often blocked needed
improvements.

American values were changing as a result. Urban dwellers sought new faiths to cope with
new realities. Relations between men and women, and between adults and children also
changed. As the twentieth century approached, American ways of life weren’t necessarily
better or worse than before. But they surely were different.
The Glamour of American Cities
They spread like wildfire. For a new factory to beat the competition, it had to be built
quickly. Laborers needed fast, cheap housing located close to work. Roads would be
hastily built to connect the factory with the market. There was no grand design, and
consequently, the new American city spread unpredictably. Urban sprawl had begun. But
the growing beast brought benefits that raised the standard of living to new heights.
Going Up
As surely as the city spread outward across the land, it also spread upward toward the sky.
Because urban property was in great demand, industrialists needed to maximize small
holdings. If additional land was too expensive, why not increase space by building upward?
The critical invention leading to this development was, of course, the fast elevator,
developed by Elisha Otis in 1861.
Steel provided a plentiful, durable substance that could sustain tremendous weight.
Chicago architect Louis Sullivan was the foremost designer of the modern skyscraper. His
designing motto was “form follows function.” In other words, the purpose of a structure was
to be highlighted over its elegance. Beginning with the Wainwright Building of St. Louis in
1892, Sullivan’s steel-framed colossus became the standard for the American skyscraper
for the next twenty years. Chicago was the perfect site for this new development, because
much of the city had been destroyed by a great fire in 1871.
Seeing, Talking, Shopping, and Moving
Few inventions allowed humans to challenge nature more than the light bulb. No longer
dependent on the rising and setting of the sun, city dwellers, with their ample supply of
electricity, could now enjoy a night life that candles simply couldn’t provide. Developed by
Thomas Edison in 1879, urban areas consumed them at a staggering rate.
Alexander Graham Bell added a new dimension to communications with his telephone in
1876. The implications for the business world were staggering, as the volume of trade
skyrocketed with faster communications. In addition to the telephone, many urban
denizens enjoyed electric fans, electric sewing machines, and electric irons by 1900.
The farm couldn’t compete. Most of these new conveniences were confined to the cities
because of the difficulties of sending electric power to isolated areas. Indoor plumbing and
improved sewage networks added a new dimension of comfort to city life. Department
stores such as Woolworth’s, John Wanamaker’s, and Marshall Field’s provided a large
variety of new merchandise of better quality and cheaper than ever before.

People could reach their destinations faster and faster because of new methods of mass
transit. Cable cars were operational in cities such as San Francisco and Chicago by the
mid-1880s. Boston completed the nation’s first underground subway system in 1897.
Middle class Americans could now afford to live farther from a city’s core. Bridges such as
the Brooklyn Bridge and improved regional transit lines fueled this trend.
The modern American city was truly born in the Gilded Age. The bright lights, tall buildings,
material goods, and fast pace of urban life emerged as America moved into the twentieth
century. However, the marvelous horizon of urban opportunity wasn’t accessible to all.
Beneath the glamour and glitz lay social problems previously unseen in the United States.
The Underside of Urban Life
Lights, trolleys, skyscrapers, romance, action. These were among the first words to enter
the minds of Americans when contemplating the new urban lifestyle. While American cities
allowed many middle- and upper-class Americans to live a glamorous lifestyle, this was
simply a fantasy to many poorer urban dwellers. Slums, crime, overcrowding, pollution,
disease. These words more accurately described daily realities for millions of urban
Americans.
Tenements
Airshaft for Dumbbell Tenement Buildings in New York City

Much of the urban poor, including a majority of incoming immigrants, lived in tenement
housing. If the skyscraper was the jewel of the American city, the tenement was its boil. In
1878, a publication offered $500 to the architect who could provide the best design for
mass housing. James E. Ware won the contest with his plan for a dumbbell tenement. This
structure was thinner in the center than on its extremes to allow light to enter the building,
no matter how tightly packed the tenements may be. Unfortunately, these “vents” were
often filled with garbage. The air that managed to penetrate also allowed a fire to spread
from one tenement to the next more easily.
Because of the massive overcrowding, disease was widespread. Cholera and yellow fever
epidemics swept through the slums on a regular basis. Tuberculosis was a huge killer.
Infants suffered the most. Almost 25 percent of babies born in late-nineteenth century cities
died before reaching the age of one.
The Stench of Waste, the Stench of Crime
The cities stank. The air stank, the rivers stank, the people stank. Although public sewers
were improving, disposing of human waste was increasingly a problem. People used
private cesspools, which overflowed with a long, hard rain. Old sewage pipes dumped the
waste directly into the rivers or bays. These rivers were often the very same used as water
sources.
Trash collection hadn’t yet been systemized. Trash was dumped in the streets or in the
waterways. Better sewers, water purification, and trash removal were some of the most
pressing problems for city leadership. As the twentieth century dawned, many
improvements were made, but the cities were far from sanitary.
Poverty often breeds crime. Desperate people often resorted to theft or violence to put food
on the family table when the factory wages wouldn’t suffice. Youths who dreaded a life of
monotonous factory work and pauperism sometimes roamed the streets in gangs. Vices
such as gambling, prostitution, and alcoholism were widespread. Gambling rendered the
hope of getting rich quick. Prostitution provided additional income. Alcoholism furnished a
false means of escape. City police forces were often understaffed and underpaid, so those
with wealth could buy a better slice of justice.
The glamour of American cities was real indeed. As real was the sheer destitution of its
slums. Both worlds—plenty and poverty—existed side by side. As the twentieth century
began, the plight of the urban poor was heard by more and more reformers, and
meaningful change finally arrived.
The Rush of Immigrants
Immigration was nothing new to America. Except for Native Americans, all US citizens can
claim some immigrant experience, whether during prosperity or despair, brought by force
or by choice. However, immigration to the United States reached its peak from 1880–1920.
The so-called “old immigration” brought thousands of Irish and German people to the New
World.

This time, although those groups would continue to come, even greater ethnic diversity
would grace America’s populace. Many would come from Southern and Eastern Europe,
and some would come from as far away as Asia. New complexions, new languages, and
new religions confronted the already diverse American mosaic.
The New Immigrants
Most immigrant groups that had formerly come to America by choice seemed distinct, but
in fact had many similarities. Most had come from Northern and Western Europe. Most had
some experience with representative democracy. With the exception of the Irish, most were
Protestant. Many were literate, and some possessed a fair degree of wealth.
The new groups arriving by the boatload in the Gilded Age were characterized by few of
these traits. Their nationalities included Greek, Italian, Polish, Slovak, Serb, Russian,
Croat, and others. Until cut off by federal decree, Japanese and Chinese settlers relocated
to the American West Coast. None of these groups were predominantly Protestant.
The vast majority were Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. However, due to increased
persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe, many Jewish immigrants sought freedom from
torment. Very few newcomers spoke any English, and large numbers were illiterate in their
native tongues. None of these groups hailed from democratic regimes. The American form
of government was as foreign as its culture.
Mulberry Street in New York City, around 1900

The new American cities became the destination of many of the most destitute. Once the
trend was established, letters from America from friends and family beckoned new
immigrants to ethnic enclaves such as Chinatown, Greektown, or Little Italy. This led to an
urban ethnic patchwork, with little integration. The dumbbell tenement and all of its woes
became the reality for most newcomers until enough could be saved for an upward move.
Despite the horrors of tenement housing and factory work, many agreed that the wages
they could earn and the food they could eat surpassed their former realities. Still, as many
as 25 percent of the European immigrants of this time never intended to become American
citizens. These so-called “birds of passage” simply earned enough income to send to their
families and returned to their former lives.
Resistance to Immigration
e Immigration Act of 1882 suspended immigration from China.
Not all Americans welcomed the new immigrants with open arms. While factory owners
greeted the rush of cheap labor with zeal, laborers often treated their new competition with
hostility. Many religious leaders were awestruck at the increase of non-Protestant
believers. Racists, referred to as racial purists, feared the genetic outcome of the eventual
pooling of these new bloods.
Gradually, these “nativists” lobbied successfully to restrict the flow of immigration. In 1882,
Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring this ethnic group in its entirety.
Twenty-five years later, Japanese immigration was restricted by executive agreement.
These two Asian groups were the only ethnicities to be completely excluded from America.

Criminals, contract workers, the mentally ill, anarchists, and alcoholics were among groups
to be gradually barred from entry by Congress. In 1917, Congress required the passing of
a literacy test to gain admission. Finally, in 1924, the door was shut to millions by placing
an absolute cap on new immigrants, based on ethnicity. That cap was based on the US
population of 1890 and was therefore designed to favor the previous immigrant groups.
But millions had already come. During the age when the Statue of Liberty beckoned the
world’s “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” American diversity mushroomed. Each
brought pieces of an old culture and made contributions to a new one. Although many
former Europeans swore to their deaths to maintain their old ways of life, their children
didn’t agree. Most enjoyed a higher standard of living than their parents, learned English
easily, and sought American lifestyles. At least to that extent, America was a melting pot.
Corruption Runs Wild
Becoming mayor of a big city in the Gilded Age was like walking into a cyclone. Demands
swirled around city leaders. Better sewers, cleaner water, new bridges, more efficient
transit, improved schools, and suitable aid to the sick and needy were some of the more
common demands coming from a wide range of interest groups.
To cope with the city’s problems, government officials had limited resources and personnel.
Democracy didn’t flourish in this environment. To bring order out of the chaos of the
nation’s cities, many political bosses emerged who didn’t shrink from corrupt deals if they
could increase their power bases. The people and institutions the bosses controlled were
called the political machine.
The Political Machine
Personal politics can at once seem simple and complex. To maintain power, a boss had to
keep his constituents happy. Most political bosses appealed to the newest, most desperate
part of the growing populace—the immigrants. Occasionally bosses would provide relief
kitchens to receive votes. Individuals who were leaders in local neighborhoods were
sometimes rewarded city jobs in return for the loyalty of their constituents.
Bosses knew they also had to placate big business, and did so by rewarding them with
lucrative contracts for construction of factories or public works. These industries would then
pump large sums into keeping the political machine in office. It seemed simple: “You
scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” However, bringing diverse interests together in a
city as large as New York, Philadelphia, or Chicago required hours of legwork and great
political skill.
All the activities mentioned so far seem at least semi-legitimate. The problem was that
many political machines broke their own laws to suit their purposes. As contracts were
awarded to legal business entities, they were likewise awarded to illegal gambling and
prostitution rings. Often profits from these unlawful enterprises lined the pockets of city
officials. Public tax money and bribes from the business sector increased the bank
accounts of these corrupt leaders.

Voter fraud was widespread. Political bosses arranged to have voter lists expanded to
include many phony names. In one district a four-year-old child was registered to vote. In
another, a dog’s name appeared on the polling lists. Members of the machine would “vote
early and often,” traveling from polling place to polling place to place illegal votes. One
district in New York one time reported more votes than it had residents.
Boss Tweed
Political cartoonist omas Nast’s caricature of Boss Tweed appeared in Harper’s Weekly.
The most notorious political boss of the age was William “Boss” Tweed of New York’s
Tammany Hall. For 12 years, Tweed ruled New York. He gave generously to the poor and
authorized the handouts of Christmas turkeys and winter coal to prospective supporters. In
the process, he fleeced the public out of millions of taxpayer money, which went into the
coffers of Tweed and his associates.
Attention was brought to Tweed’s corruption by political cartoonist Thomas Nast.
Nast’s pictures were worth more than words as many illiterate and semi-literate New
Yorkers were exposed to Tweed’s graft. A zealous attorney named Samuel Tilden
convicted Tweed and his rule came to an end in 1876. Mysteriously, Tweed escaped from
prison and traveled to Spain, where he was spotted by someone who recognized his face
from Nast’s cartoons. He died in prison in 1878.
Religious Revival: The “Social Gospel”

The Protestant churches of America feared the worst. Although the population of America
was growing by leaps and bounds, there were many empty seats in the pews of urban
Protestant churches. Middle-class churchgoers were ever faithful, but large numbers of
workers were starting to lose faith in the local church. The old-style heaven and hell
sermons just seemed irrelevant to those who toiled long, long hours for small, small wages.
Immigration swelled the ranks of Roman Catholic churches. Eastern Orthodox churches
and Jewish synagogues were sprouting up everywhere. At the same time, many cities
reported the loss of Protestant congregations. They would have to face this challenge or
perish.
Preaching for Politics
Out of this concern grew the social gospel movement. Progressive-minded preachers
began to tie the teachings of the church with contemporary problems. Christian virtue, they
declared, demanded a redress of poverty and despair on earth.
Many ministers became politically active. Washington Gladden, the most prominent of the
social gospel ministers, supported the workers’ right to strike in the wake of the Great
Upheaval of 1877. Ministers called for an end to child labor, the enactment of temperance
laws, and civil service reform.
Liberal churches such as the Congregationalists and the Unitarians led the way, but the
movement spread to many sects. Middle-class women became particularly active in the
arena of social reform.
At the same time, a wave of urban revivalist preachers swept the nation’s cities. The most
renowned, Dwight Lyman Moody, was a shoe salesman who took his fiery oratory on the
road. As he traveled from city to city, he attracted crowds large enough to affect local traffic
patterns.
The Young Men’s Christian Association and the Young Women’s Christian Association
were formed to address the problems of urban youth. Two new sects formed. Mary Baker
Eddy founded the Christian Science denomination. She tried to reconcile religion and
science by preaching that faith was a means to cure evils such as disease. The Salvation
Army crossed the Atlantic from England and provided free soup for the hungry.
The Third Great Awakening
The changes were profound. Many historians call this period in the history of American
religion the Third Great Awakening. Like the first two awakenings, it was characterized by
revival and reform. The temperance movement and the settlement house movement were
both affected by church activism. The chief difference between this movement and those of
an earlier era was location. These changes in religion transpired because of urban
realities, underscoring the social impact of the new American city.
Artistic and Literary Trends

Like the American economy, American art and literature flourished during the Gilded Age.
The new millionaires desired greatly to furnish their mansions with beautiful things.
Consequently, patronage for the American arts was at a higher level than any previous era.
Painters depicted a realistic look at the glories and hardships of this new age. Writers used
their pens to illustrate life at its best and its worst. The net result was an American
Renaissance of arts and letters.
Painting the Gilded Age
Many wealthy Americans yearned to have their image captured for posterity by having their
portraits painted. James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent were the most sought-
after portrait artists of the time. Lured by the idea of working among European masters,
both moved to England. Their works endure as among the finest in the genre. Another
expatriate American was the impressionist Mary Cassatt, who moved to Paris to work with
the masters Monet and Renoir. Beyond any artist of the age, she captured women and
children at their tender best.
Perhaps the most famous of the postwar American painters was Winslow Homer. Homer
gained fame during the Civil War for his realistic illustrations of Union soldiers, which often
graced the covers of Harper’s Weekly magazine. After the war, he became a serious
painter. Life in the American countryside was made real to those who flocked to the cities.
His later years were marked with a fascination of the New England coast. Probably no
American painter captured the majesty and power of the sea like Homer.
At the same time, Philadelphian Thomas Eakins illustrated local behaviors, including a
series depicting crew races on the Schuylkill River. His most controversial work, The Gross
Clinic, depicted a live medical operation.
Literature
In literature, the dominant figure of the age was Mark Twain. Born Samuel Langhorne
Clemens, Twain spurned the stodgy New England writing style of the time and brought an
added touch of realism by writing in the local color and style of the American Mississippi.
Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer became genuine American folk heroes to his many
readers.
Kate Chopin was largely unknown at the time, but her novel, The Awakening, became a
manifesto for future feminists. Stephen Crane portrayed the horrors of the Civil War with
his poignant The Red Badge of Courage in 1895. Henry James struggled with the values of
the Victorian Age by focusing his attention on women. His works, Daisy Miller and The
Portrait of a Lady, hinted at the tension lying beneath Victorian morality. The horrors of city
life were grimly depicted in Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, whose representation of a
poor working girl offended many a reader.
Postwar poets were prolific. Most notable were Walt Whitman for his Leaves of Grass
collection and Emily Dickinson, whose many poems were published after her death.
In the Home

The visual arts flowered as well. The market for interior design was booming. Louis
Comfort Tiffany specialized in stained glass. He combined glorious colors of glass with
shells and stones to create beautiful works for fine homes. He was even commissioned to
improve the interior of the White House. Candace Wheeler pioneered work in tapestry
weaving. Wealthy Americans bought these items with a fever, and lavished their homes
with marble floors and decorative chandeliers. The American Renaissance was in full
swing.

Exercise 5.3
Open Link

Key Points
In the mid to late 1800s, more and more Americans began moving to the cities (urban areas) attracted by jobs in
factories. By the end of the 1800s, the cities were growing at a rate much faster than the rural areas of the country.
Modern technologies (for the time) attracted more people and helped de ne city life. Electricity, telephones, and
subways all added to the allure of city life compared to country life.
Immigrants who arrive in the late 1800s and early 1900s included people from Eastern and Southern Europe. is
di ered from earlier waves of immigrants who typically came from Western and Northern Europe.
Corruption was a common feature in city politics during this time period. e power of big business, the rapid
growth of cities, and the in ux of people from many di erent cultures created a free-wheeling city political culture
where favors could be bought from government o cials.

City versus Rural
New Dimensions in Everyday Life
City life or country life? The typical farmer rose with the sun, tended the animals, worked
the fields, broke bread with the family, and retired when the sun went down. With the
exceptions of the Sabbath and holiday observances, life remained constant, changing only
with the seasons.
While this bucolic lifestyle was and still is romanticized by many, it simply bore no
resemblance to big city existence. The city promised conveniences, nightlife, excitement,
and variety. Despite its darker side, many were willing to sample cosmopolitan life. The
contrast and struggle between rural and urban America raged throughout the last half of
the nineteenth century. Although each side had its proponents, by 1900 one fact was clear.
The city was winning.
Cities Change America
Urbanization brought greater change to postwar America than any other single factor. As
America modernized, pressures to reform education from early childhood through
adulthood brought marked improvements. Increased worker productivity and labor
demands for a shorter work day enabled many urban residents to engage in newly popular
sports and leisure activities unknown in the countryside.
Simply put, such a concentration of people enabled the flourishing of ideas and
enterprises, from professional sports to elite clubs. The opportunities were there for the
taking for those who had the means. Metropolitan residents became worldlier as they had
greater access to the explosion of new forms of printed materials such as more extensive
newspapers and a wider variety of periodicals.
City life also redefined gender roles. The average size of the American family dropped from
seven children in 1800 to approximately four a century later. Crude birth control methods
contributed somewhat to this decline, but large families simply weren’t as desirable in the
city as on the farm. A farm child promised additional agricultural labor, but an urban child
was simply an extra mouth to feed.
As women slowly became more educated and independent, traditional Victorian values
were challenged. New jobs were available in the city, especially for single women.
Demands for national reform such as prohibition of alcohol, regulation of child labor, and
the right to vote were brought into public discourse by educated women.

Daily life was changed forever. Although the rural population of America remained an
absolute majority until 1920, city life permeated American culture. Critics condemned the
slums and vices of urban life, but the cities grew and grew as the American farmer
struggled for survival.
Education
Demands for better public education were many. Employers wanted a better-educated
workforce, at least for the technical jobs. Classical liberals believed that public education
was the cornerstone of any democracy. Our system of government could be imperiled if
large numbers of uneducated masses voted unwisely.
Teaching America’s Youth
Church leaders and modern liberals were concerned for the welfare of children. They
believed that a strong education wasn’t only appropriate, but an inalienable right owed to
all. Furthermore, critics of child labor practices wanted longer mandatory school years.
After all, if a child was in school, he or she wouldn’t be in the factory.
In 1870, about half of the nation’s children received no formal education whatsoever.
Although many states provided for a free public education for children between the ages of
5 and 21, economic realities kept many children working in mines, factories, or on the farm.
Only six states had compulsory education laws at this point, and most were for only several
weeks per year.
Massachusetts was the leader in tightening laws. By 1890, all children in Massachusetts
between the ages of 6 and 10 were required to attend school at least 20 weeks per year.
These laws were much simpler to enact than to enforce. Truant officers would be
necessary to chase down offenders. Private and religious schools would have to be
monitored to ensure quality standards similar to public schools. Despite resistance,
acceptance of mandatory elementary education began to spread. By the turn of the
century, such laws were universal throughout the North and West, with the South lagging
behind.
Under the laws of Jim Crow, the public schools in operation in the South were entirely
segregated by race in 1900. Mississippi became the last state to require elementary
education in 1918.
Other reforms began to sweep the nation. Influenced by German immigrants,

kindergartens sprouted in urban areas, beginning with St. Louis in 1873. Demands for
better-trained teachers led to an increase in “normal” schools, colleges that specialized in
preparation to teach. By 1900, one in five public school teachers had a degree.
More and more high schools were built in the last three decades of the nineteenth century.
During that period the number of public high schools increased from 160 to 6,000, and the
nation’s illiteracy rate was cut nearly in half. However, only four percent of American
children between the ages of 14 and 17 were actually enrolled.

Higher Education for All
Higher education was changing as well. In general, the number of colleges increased
owing to the creation of public land-grant colleges by the states and private universities
sponsored by philanthropists, such as Stanford and Vanderbilt.
Opportunities for women to attend college were also on the rise. Mount Holyoke, Smith,
Vassar, Wellesley, and Bryn Mawr Colleges provided a liberal arts education equivalent to
their males-only counterparts. By 1910, 40 percent of the nation’s college students were
female, despite the fact that many professions were still closed to women.
Although nearly 47 percent of the nation’s colleges accepted women, African American
attendance at white schools was virtually nonexistent. Black colleges such as Howard, and
Fisk and Atlanta Universities rose to meet this need.
Sports and Leisure
A sports craze was sweeping the nation. Work weeks were still long, averaging about 60
hours per week in 1890. But the average worker notched 66 hours in 1860, giving the
typical American six extra hours of free time each week. Three more decades would see
an additional 10 hours of average working time turn into free time.
What did Americans do with all this time? Participation in sports, leisure, and amusement
activities multiplied.
Take Me out to the Ball Game
Baseball was quickly becoming the national pastime. It had graduated from a gentleman’s
game to a form of mass entertainment. As cities and towns dedicated more and more
public land for recreational purposes, baseball became more and more popular. Those who
didn’t enjoy playing were given the opportunity to watch.
The National League was formed in 1876 and Americans were able to watch touring
professionals play the game. As a color barrier had been quickly established, not all
athletes were given an opportunity. The National League and its rival, the American
League, played for the first World Series Championship in 1903. The baseball craze led to
the financing of large grandstand arenas such as Fenway Park in Boston, Shibe Park in
Philadelphia, and Wrigley Field in Chicago.

ese cities hosted major league baseball teams before 1900. (Image by Orser67 at English Wikipedia [GFDL
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Other spectator sports were also popular. Football had a large following, particularly on the
college level. Universities were accused of hiring ringers (professionals) to help them win
games. The rules were fairly lax, and many injuries resulted. In 1905, 18 players were
killed by injuries related to football.
Boxing became more respectable with a new innovation—gloves. Basketball was invented
in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts, by James Naismith, a YMCA instructor. Designed as
an indoor sport, basketball enabled athletic competition during the winter months. Croquet
and tennis provided the only opportunity in sport for coed play.
Vaudeville
Other forms of mass entertainment also flourished. The most popular form of urban
performance was the vaudeville show. An evening at vaudeville might last two or three
hours, as audiences watched 9 or 10 different acts, ranging from singing and dancing to
stand-up comedy and acrobatics. The first vaudeville theater was opened in 1881 by Tony
Pastor in Manhattan. Eventually, New York had 10 vaudeville theaters, and every major city
could boast at least one.

For the children, Phineas T. Barnum and James A. Bailey presented “the Greatest Show
on Earth,” a three-ring circus complete with exotic animals, trapeze artists, and big tents.
Age of the Bicycle
On an individual level, the turn of the century was also the age of the bicycle. In 1885, the
velocipede, a “bicycle” with one huge wheel followed by a smaller one, became instantly
obsolete when the safer, modern bicycle with two wheels of equal size made its debut.
Many became addicted to this new form of exercise. Men and women took romantic rides
through parks, and courtship took a step closer to independence from parental
involvement.
The bicycle even had an impact on women’s fashion. No one could ride around on a
bicycle with a big Victorian hoop dress, so designers accommodated the new trend by
producing a freer, less constrictive style.
Women in the Gilded Age
The idea was to create a maternal commonwealth. Upper-middle class women of the late
nineteenth century weren’t content with the cult of domesticity of the early 1800s. Many
had become college educated and yearned to put their knowledge and skills to work for the
public good.
Maternal commonwealth meant just that. The values of women’s sphere—caretaking, piety,
purity—would be taken out of the home and placed in the public life. The result was a
broad reform movement that transformed America.
Just Say No to Alcohol
Many educated women of the age felt that many of society’s greatest disorders could be
traced to alcohol. According to their view, alcohol led to increased domestic violence and
neglect. It decreased the income families could spend on necessities and promoted
prostitution and adultery. In short, prohibition of alcohol might diminish some of these
maladies.
Frances Willard was the president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the
nation’s foremost prohibition organization. Although national prohibition wasn’t enacted
until 1919, the WCTU was successful at pressuring state and local governments to pass
dry laws. Willard advocated a “do everything” policy, which meant that chapters of the
WCTU also served as soup kitchens or medical clinics.
The WCTU worked within the system, but there were radical temperance advocates who
didn’t. Carry Nation preferred the direct approach of taking an ax into saloons and
chopping the bars to pieces.
Homes for the Destitute

Another way women promoted the values of women’s sphere into the public arena was
through the settlement house movement. A settlement house was a home where destitute
immigrants could go when they had nowhere else to turn. Settlement houses provided
family-style cooking, lessons in English, and tips on how to adapt to American culture.
The first settlement house began in 1889 in Chicago and was called Hull House. Its
organizer, Jane Addams, intended Hull House to serve as a prototype for other settlement
houses. By 1900 there were nearly 100 settlement houses in the nation’s cities. Jane
Addams was considered the founder of a new profession—social work.
Different Backgrounds, Different Lives
Most of the advocates of maternal commonwealth were white, upper-middle class women.
Many of these women had received a college education and felt obliged to put it to use.
About half of the women in this demographic group never married, choosing instead
independence. Other college-educated women were content to join literary clubs to keep
academic pursuits alive.
A woman works at the US Census Bureau.
For women who didn’t attend college, life was much different. Many single, middle-class
women took jobs in the new cities. Clerical jobs opened as typewriters became
indispensable to the modern corporation. The telephone service required switchboard
operators and the new department store required sales positions. Many of these women

found themselves feeling marvelously independent, despite the lower wages they were
paid in comparison with their male counterparts.
For others, life was less glamorous. Wives of immigrants often took extra tenants called
boarders into their already crowded tenement homes. By providing food and laundry
service at a fee, they generated necessary extra income for the families. Many did
domestic work for the middle class to supplement income.
In the South, the lives of wealthy women changed from managing a home on a slave
plantation to one with hired work. Women who found themselves with new freedom from
slavery still suffered great difficulties. Sharecropping was a male and female task. Women
in these conditions found themselves doing double duty by working the fields by day and
the house by night.
Victorian Values in a New Age
Victorian values dominated American social life for much of the nineteenth century. The
notion of separate spheres of life for men and women was commonplace. The male sphere
included wage work and politics, while the female sphere involved childrearing and
domestic work.
Industrialization and urbanization brought new challenges to Victorian values. Men grew
weary of toiling tireless hours and yearned for the blossoming leisure opportunities of the
age. Women were becoming more educated, but upon graduation found themselves shut
out of many professions. Immigrants had never been socialized in the Victorian mindset.
As the century drew to a close, a revolt was indeed brewing.
Victoria Battles the Victorians

Victoria Cla in Woodhull was nominated as a presidential candidate in 1872. (Image by Mathew Brady [PD-
US(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-US)], via Wikimedia Commons)
At the vanguard of revolt were the young, single, middle-class women who worked in the
cities. Attitudes toward sex were loosening in private, yet few were brave enough to
discuss the changes publicly.
One exception was Victoria Woodhull. In 1871, she declared the right to love the person of
her choice as inalienable. Indeed, she professed the right to free love. She and her sister,
Tennessee Claflin, published their beliefs in the periodical Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly.
A devout feminist, Woodhull protested the male hold on politics by running for president in
1872. She became the first female American to do so in a time when women didn’t even
enjoy the right to vote.
The Comstock Law
As energetic as the rebellion may have been, the reaction was equally as forceful.
Criticizing the evils of modern urban life—prostitution, gambling, promiscuity, and alcohol—
Victorians fought to maintain the values they held dear.
Anthony Comstock lobbied Congress to pass the notorious Comstock Law banning all
mailings of materials of a sexual nature. As a special agent for the US Postal Service,
Comstock confiscated thousands of books and pictures he deemed objectionable. Over
3,000 arrests were made for violations of the Comstock Law.

However valiantly Victorians fought to maintain their view of morality, they couldn’t stop the
changes. A greater acceptance of sexual expression naturally followed—especially in the
new American city. For example, regions such as the Bowery in New York were known by
city dwellers as areas where homosexuals found community.
America was evolving, and no one could bottle up that change. The public struggle
between Victoria Woodhull and Anthony Comstock merely illustrated the underlying
tensions between old and new values.
The Print Revolution
Even the news was a business. As Americans streamed into cities from small towns and
overseas, journalists realized the economic potential. If half of Boston’s citizens would buy
a newspaper three times a week, a publisher could become a millionaire.
The Linotype machine, invented in 1883, allowed for much faster printing of many more
papers. The market was there. The technology was there. All that was necessary was a
group of entrepreneurs bold enough to seize the opportunity. The result was an American
revolution in print.
Birth of the Modern Paper
Anybody with a modest sum to invest could buy a printing press and make newspapers.
The trick was getting people to buy them.
The modern American newspaper took its familiar form during the Gilded Age. To capitalize
on those who valued Sunday leisure time, the Sunday newspaper was expanded and
divided into supplements. The subscription of women was courted for the first time by
including fashion and beauty tips. For Americans who followed the emerging professional
sports scene, a sports page was added.
“Dorothea Dix,” actually Elizabeth Gilmer, became the nation’s first advice columnist for the
New Orleans Picayune in 1896. To appeal to those completely disinterested in politics and
world events, Charles Dana of the New York Sun invented the human-interest story. These
articles often retold a heart-warming everyday event like it was national news.
Twisting the Truth
The competition was fierce, especially in New York. The two titans of American publishing
were Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World and William Randolph Hearst of the New York
Journal. These men stopped at nothing to increase their readership. If a news story was
too boring, why not twist the facts to make it more interesting? If the truth was too bland,
why not spice it up with some innocent fiction? If all else failed, the printer could always
increase the size of the headlines to make a story seem more important.
This kind of sensationalism was denounced by veteran members of the press corps.
Labeled yellow journalism by its critics, this practice was prevalent in late-nineteenth

century news. At its most harmless, it bent reality to add a little extra excitement to
everyday life. At its most dangerous, it fired up public opinion to start a war with Spain.
Nevertheless, as a business strategy, it worked. Pulitzer increased the daily circulation of

the Journal from 20,000 to 100,000 in one year. By 1900, it had increased to over a million.
The print revolution affected books and magazines as well. The total number of books in
print increased fourfold from 1880 to 1917. Magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post
and Ladies’ Home Journal reached a broader audience than any previous magazine.
America was becoming more populous, more literate, and, as a result of the print
revolution, better informed.

Exercise 5.4
Open Link

Key Points
As modern life became more complex with the rapid industrialization of America, both business leaders and
reformers wanted the American people to get more of a formal education than in the past. States began passing
mandatory attendance laws for school-aged children.
Mass spectator sports became popular in the late 1800s. Baseball established itself as the most popular sport, with
large stadiums being built for the audiences.
Women jumped into public life by engaging in social work to bene t new immigrants to the nation and by getting
involved in the temperance movement. Although women still didn’t have the right to vote, these steps would
eventually help form a later su rage movement.
Newspapers changed into a more modern form by dividing into sections based on readers' interests. Chasing ever
growing sales, newspaper owners pushed their writers to create ever more exciting (if not entirely true) content in
what was known as sensationalism.

Conflict with Native People and Their Land
Closing the Frontier
It was hard to believe the two regions were part of the same country. The rapidly
industrializing East bore no resemblance to most of the American West. Except for few
urban centers on the coast, the West knew nothing of cities. Instead, the West was an
emerging patchwork of homestead farmers, miners, and cattle ranchers. While Easterners
tried to make their way in these and other professions, Native Americans desperately clung
to the hopes of maintaining their tribal traditions.
Conflicts between whites and Native Americans were as old as the earliest settlements, but
there were clear patterns of waxing and waning intensity. The transcontinental railroad
became the catalyst for much of the new conflict. Before its completion, the only Americans
to venture westward had done so on horseback or Conestoga wagon. Now thousands
more could migrate much more quickly, cheaply, and comfortably. As the numbers of white
settlers from the East increased dramatically, conflicts with the native tribes did so as well.
With the massacres at Sand Creek in 1864 and Wounded Knee in 1890 as bookends, an
examination of the intervening years reveals some of the most gruesome behavior known
in United States history. Both sides committed unspeakable atrocities.
What would propel two peoples to such inhumane conduct? It all revolved around land.
Native Americans fought desperately to live on their ancestral lands as white Americans
strove to claim it for their own. Battles raged from the Dakotas to Idaho and from Montana
to New Mexico.
Leaders such as Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Chief Joseph became legendary
to the Native American people for their resistance, but victory wasn’t theirs for the taking.

Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and others met with government and military agents at Camp Weld.
Although battles were won and lost by both sides, many factors favored the US Army. One
deciding determinant was technology. Repeating rifles were a new means of mass
destruction. The railroad system and industry of the East kept the federal troops better
supplied than the Native Americans.
The blossoming population of the East was dwarfing the numbers of Native Americans.
The buffalo, once seemingly as plentiful as the trees, were now disappearing. Perhaps the
greatest killer of all was disease. For every Native American killed by a bullet, a thousand
died from European plagues.
Time proved to be on the side of the army, and soon the tribes were forced to submit to a
new form of existence on the reservation. For those that survived, life would never be the
same.
The Massacre at Sand Creek
The struggle would be violent. Despite numerous treaties, the demand for native lands
simply grew and grew to the point at which rational compromise collapsed. Local volunteer
militias formed in the West to ensure its safe settlement and development. The Native

Americans were growing increasingly intolerant of being pushed on to less desirable

territory.
The brutality that followed was as gruesome as any conflict in US history. Accelerated by
the Sand Creek Massacre, the two sides slipped down a downward spiral of vicious battle
from the end of the Civil War until the 1890s.
Massacre
Sand Creek was a village of approximately 800 Cheyenne people in southeast Colorado.
Black Kettle, the local chief, had approached a US Army fort seeking protection for his
people. On November 28, 1864, he was assured that his people wouldn’t be disturbed at
Sand Creek, for the territory had been promised to the Cheyennes by an 1851 treaty. The
next day would reveal that promise as a bald-faced lie.
On the morning of November 29, a group called the Colorado Volunteers surrounded Sand
Creek. In hope of defusing the situation, Black Kettle raised an American flag as a sign of
friendship. The Volunteers’ commander, Colonel John Chivington, ignored the gesture. “Kill
and scalp all, big and little,” he told his troops. With that, the regiment descended upon the
village, killing about 400 people, most of whom were women and children.
The brutality was extreme. Chivington’s troops committed mass scalpings and
disembowelments. Some Cheyennes were shot while trying to escape, while others were
shot pleading for mercy. Reports indicated that the troops even emptied their rifles on
distant infants for sport. Later, Chivington displayed his scalp collection to the public as a
badge of pride.
Retaliation
When word spread to other Native American communities, it was agreed that the whites
must be met by force. Most instrumental in the retaliation were Sioux troops under the
leadership of Red Cloud. In 1866, Sioux warriors ambushed the command of William J.
Fetterman, whose troops were trying to complete the construction of the Bozeman Trail in
Montana. Of Fetterman’s 81 soldiers and settlers, there wasn’t a single survivor. The
bodies were grotesquely mutilated.
Faced with a stalemate, Red Cloud and the United States agreed to the 1868 Treaty of
Fort Laramie, which brought a temporary end to the hostilities. Large tracts of land were
reaffirmed as Sioux and Cheyenne Territory by the US Government. Unfortunately, the
peace was short-lived.
Custer’s Last Stand
Another Broken Treaty

Gold broke the delicate peace with the Sioux. In 1874, a scientific exploration group led by
General George Armstrong Custer discovered the precious metal in the heart of the Black
Hills of South Dakota.
When word of the discovery leaked, nothing could stop the masses of prospectors looking
to get rich quick, despite the treaty protections that awarded that land to the Sioux. Sitting
Bull and Crazy Horse, the local Cheyenne and Sioux leaders, decided to take up arms to
defend their dwindling land supply.
Little Big Horn
Custer was perhaps the most flamboyant and brash officer in the US Army. He was
confident that his technologically superior troops could contain the Native American
fighters. Armed with new weapons of destruction such as the rapid-firing Gatling gun,
Custer and his soldiers felt that it was only a matter of time before the Indians would
surrender and submit to life on a smaller reservation. Custer hoped to make that happen
sooner rather than later.
His orders were to locate the Sioux encampment in the Big Horn Mountains of Montana
and trap them until reinforcements arrived. But the prideful Custer sought to engage the
Sioux on his own.
On June 25, 1876, he discovered a small Indian village on the banks of the Little Big Horn
River. Custer confidently ordered his troops to attack, not realizing that he was confronting
the main Sioux and Cheyenne encampment. About three thousand Sioux warriors led by
Crazy Horse descended upon Custer’s regiment, and within hours the entire Seventh
Cavalry and General Custer were massacred.

General Custer and Sitting Bull
The victory was brief for the warring Sioux. The rest of the US regulars arrived and chased
the Sioux for the next several months. By October, much of the resistance had ended.
Crazy Horse had surrendered, but Sitting Bull and a small band of warriors escaped to
Canada. Eventually, they returned to the United States and surrendered because of
hunger.
Reactions Back East
Custer’s Last Stand caused massive debate in the East. War hawks demanded an
immediate increase in federal military spending and swift judgment for the noncompliant
Sioux.
Critics of US policy also made their opinions known. The most vocal detractor, Helen Hunt
Jackson, published A Century of Dishonor in 1881. This blistering assault on US policy
toward Native Americans chronicled injustices toward Native Americans over the past
hundred years.
The American masses, however, were unsympathetic or indifferent. A systematic plan to

end all Native resistance was approved, and the Indians of the West wouldn’t see another
victory like the Little Big Horn.
The End of Resistance
The crackdown on Native Americans didn’t end with the pursuance of Custer’s attackers.
Any tribes resisting American advancement were relentlessly hunted by settlers and
federal troops. The Lakota Sioux that fought for their lands were decimated by yet another
American tactic.
Decimation of the Buffalo
Travelers west were encouraged to kill any buffalo they encountered. Buffalo robes
became fashionable in the East, so profit-seekers slaughtered thousands of bison simply
for their hides. Others shot them for sport, leaving their remains for the local vultures.
The army was even known to use Gatling guns on the herds to reduce their numbers. The
plan was effective. At the end of the Civil War, an estimated 15 million buffalo roamed the
Great Plains. By 1900, there were only several hundred, as the species was nearly extinct.
The Sioux lost their chief means of subsistence and mourned the loss of the animal, which
was revered as sacred according to tribal religion.
Chief Joseph and the Nez Percé

The year after Custer’s infamous defeat, the Nez Percé of Idaho fell victim to western
expansion. When gold was discovered on their lands in 1877, demands were made for
over 90 percent of their land. After a stand-off between tribal warriors and the US Army,
their leader, Chief Joseph, directed his followers toward Canada to avoid capture. He
hoped to join forces with Sitting Bull and plan the next move from there.
Army officials chased the Nez Percé 1,700 miles across Idaho and Western Montana. As
they neared the border, the army closed in and Chief Joseph was forced to surrender. The
entire tribe was relocated to Oklahoma where nearly half of them perished from disease
and despair.
Geronimo and the Apache Struggle
Warfare also raged across the American Southwest. The Apache tribe led one of the
longest and fiercest campaigns of all. Under the leadership of Geronimo, Apache attackers
assaulted settlers in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The army responded slowly but
surely. Geronimo was relentlessly hunted, even across the Mexican border.
Finally, after the army seized female Apaches and deported them to Florida and deprived
the warring tribesmen of a food supply, Geronimo was captured. His 1886 defeat marked
the end of open resistance by Native Americans in the West.
Sooners Grab Oklahoma
The last land to be claimed by homesteaders was in Oklahoma. Previously dubbed “Indian
territory” by the federal government, Oklahoma had been used as a state-sized reservation
of many tribes ranging from the Nez Percé in Idaho to the Cherokee of Georgia.
In 1889, the US Government decided to open two million acres of land unassigned to any
particular tribe for homesteaders. At noon on April 22, 1889, the land was legally opened to
claim under the provisions of the Homestead Act. Thousands rushed across Oklahoma to
grab a piece. Highlighted by a few gunshots, former Native American land was gobbled up
in a matter of hours.
By nightfall, Oklahoma City qualified as a city of 10,000 tent inhabitants. Those who dared
to stake a claim before it was legal were called sooners, and the state acquired its future
nickname. Successful homesteaders rested that night in triumph, leaving the Indians of the
area to despair over yet another grand theft.
Life on the Reservations
After being forced off their lands, many Native Americans found life to be most difficult.
Beginning in the first half of the nineteenth century, federal policy dictated that certain
tribes be confined to fixed land plots to continue their traditional ways of life.
The problems with this approach were manifold. Besides the moral issue of depriving a
people of life on their historic land, many economic issues plagued the reservation.

Nomadic tribes lost their entire means of subsistence by being constricted to a defined
area. Farmers found themselves with land unsuitable for agriculture. Many lacked the
know-how to implement complex irrigation systems. Hostile tribes were often forced into
the same proximity. The results were disastrous.
The Dawes Act
Faced with disease, alcoholism, and despair on the reservations, federal officials changed
directions with the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. Each Native American family was offered
160 acres of tribal land to own outright. Although the land could not be sold for 25 years,
these new landowners could farm it for profit like other farmers in the West.
Congress hoped that this system would end the dependency of the tribes on the federal
government, enable Native Americans to become individually prosperous, and assimilate
the them into mainstream American life. After 25 years, participants would become
American citizens.
The Dawes Act was widely resisted. Tribal leaders foretold the end of their ancient
folkways and a further loss of communal land. When individuals did attempt this new way
of life, they were often unsuccessful. Farming the West takes considerable expertise.
Lacking this knowledge, many were still dependent upon the government for assistance.
Many nineteenth-century Americans saw the Dawes Act as a way to “civilize” the Native
Americans. Visiting missionaries attempted to convert the Indians to Christianity, although
they found few new believers.
“Americanizing” the Native Americans
Land not allotted to individual landholders was sold to railroad companies and settlers from
the East. The proceeds were used to set up schools to teach the reading and writing of
English. Native American children were required to attend the established reservation
school. Failure to attend would result in a visit by a truant officer who could enter the home
accompanied by police to search for the absent student. Some parents felt resistance to
“white man education” was a matter of honor.
In addition to disregarding tribal languages and religions, schools often forced the pupils to
dress like eastern Americans. They were given shorter haircuts. Even the core of individual
identity—one’s name—was changed to “Americanize” the children. These practices often
led to further tribal divisions. Each tribe had those who were friendly to American
“assistance” and those who were hostile. Friends were turned into enemies.
The Dawes Act was an unmitigated disaster for tribal units. In 1900, land held by Native
American tribes was half that of 1880. Land holdings continued to dwindle in the early
twentieth century. When the Dawes Act was repealed in 1934, alcoholism, poverty,
illiteracy, and suicide rates were higher for Native Americans than any other ethnic group in
the United States. As America grew to the status of a world power, the Native Americans
were reduced to hopelessness.

The Wounded Knee Massacre
The armed resistance was over. The remaining Sioux were forced into reservation life at
gunpoint. Many Sioux sought spiritual guidance. Thus began a religious awakening among
the tribes of North America.
Arrival of the “Ghost Dance”
Called the “Ghost Dance” by the white soldiers who observed the new practice, it spread
rapidly across the continent. Instead of bringing the answer to their prayers, however, the
“Ghost Dance” movement resulted in yet another human travesty.
It all began in 1888 with a Paiute holy man called Wovoka. During a total eclipse of the
sun, Wovoka received a message from the Creator. Soon, a messiah would come and the
world would be free of the white man. The Native Americans could return to their lands and
the buffalo would once again roam the Great Plains.
Wovoka even knew that all this would happen in the spring of 1891. He and his followers
meditated, had visions, chanted, and performed what became known as the Ghost Dance.
Soon the movement began to spread. Before long, the Ghost Dance had adherents in
tribes throughout the South and West.
Although Wovoka preached nonviolence, whites feared that the movement would spark a
great rebellion. Ghost Dance followers seemed more defiant than other Native Americans,
and the rituals seemed to work its participants into a frenzy. All this was disconcerting to
the soldiers and settlers throughout the South and West. Tragedy struck when the Ghost
Dance movement reached the Lakota Sioux.
Local residents of South Dakota demanded that the Sioux end the ritual of the Ghost
Dance. When they were ignored, the US Army was called for assistance. Fearing
aggression, a group of 300 Sioux did leave the reservation. Army regulars believed them to
be a hostile force preparing for attack. When the two sides came into contact, the Sioux
reluctantly agreed to be transported to Wounded Knee Creek on Pine Ridge Reservation.
A Final Tragedy
On the morning of December 29, 1890, the army demanded the surrender of all Sioux
weapons. Amid the tension, a shot rang out, possibly from a deaf brave who
misunderstood his chief’s orders to surrender.
The Seventh Cavalry—the reconstructed regiment lost by George Armstrong Custer—

opened fire on the Sioux. The local chief, Big Foot, was shot in cold blood as he
recuperated from pneumonia in his tent. Others were cut down as they tried to run away.
When the smoke cleared almost all of the 300 men, women, and children were dead.
Some died instantly, others froze to death in the snow.

This massacre marked the last showdown between Native Americans and the US Army. It
was nearly 400 years after Christopher Columbus first contacted the first Americans. The
1890 US census declared the frontier officially closed.

Exercise 5.5
Open Link

Key Points
e end of the 1800s brought about the end of the settling of “wild” areas of the continental United States. is
became known as the closing of the frontier.
Various Native American groups occupied the land and many weren’t willing to let it go without a ght. Vicious
wars between settlers/the US government and the Native Tribes were fought with the Native groups inevitably
losing.
After being forced o their land, many Native Americans were forced to live in speci ed areas known as
reservations. is land was often of poor quality, leading to widespread poverty.
In a desperate attempt to hold onto hope of the return of Native lands, the bu alo, and their way of life, many
Native Americans participated in the Ghost Dance. White settlers misunderstood the purpose of the Ghost Dance,
and this misunderstanding led to a tragedy known as the Wounded Knee Massacre.

The West Before Industrialization
Western Folkways
When the Native Americans were placed on reservations, one of the last barriers to
western expansion was lifted. The railroad could get people where they wanted to go, and
the resources of the West seemed boundless.
How did the typical Westerner make a living? Although migrant settlers had skills too
numerous to mention, the most dominant Western industries were mining, ranching, and
farming.
e Pike’s Peak Gold Rush attracted an estimated 100,000 gold seekers.
“Pikes Peak or Bust!” was the motto of many gold-seekers who ventured west during the
1859 Colorado Gold Rush. Strikes of gold and silver were found in every western territory.

Eastern industry required lead and other precious metals. The inventions of the telephone,
light bulb, and dynamo (a massive generator that could pump electricity directly into
people’s homes) all required copper wiring. New mining techniques presented the
possibility for large-scale industry to provide these necessary ores. Life in the western
mining towns contributed much to the legendary lore of the American West.
Demand for beef soared after the Civil War. Learning from the Spanish Mexican tradition,
cattle ranchers sought their fortunes in Southern Texas. The archetypal American cowboy
was needed between 1866 and 1889 to move the steer to market. Life on the open prairies
became a reality for thousands of cowhands during the American cattle boom.
By far, the most numerous of western pioneers were the farmers. Seeking a dream of
stable existence working a homestead of their own, thousands of migrant families had their
dreams dashed by the harsh realities of western life. Nature, isolation, politics, and
economics all seemed to work against the hopeful farmer.
Soon farm issues spilled into politics as new groups and political parties formed,
demanding a better deal for rural America. The nation voted zealously and in larger
numbers than ever before when the 1896 election proposed to shift the balance of power in
America back to its agricultural roots. But it wasn’t to be. America’s future seemed to lie in
the direction of the industrial Northeast. But as the nineteenth century expired, millions of
westerners struggled to keep the bucolic past hitched to the present.
The Mining Boom
Bonanza
Bonanza! That was the exclamation when a large vein of valuable ore was discovered.
Thousands of optimistic Americans and even a few foreigners dreamed of finding a
bonanza and retiring at a very young age.
Ten years after the 1849 California Gold Rush, new deposits were gradually found
throughout the West. Colorado yielded gold and silver at Pikes Peak in 1859 and Leadville
in 1873. Nevada claimed Comstock Lode, the largest of American silver strikes.
From Coeur D’Alene in Idaho to Tombstone in Arizona, boom towns flowered across the
American West. They produced not only gold and silver, but zinc, copper, and lead, all
essential for the eastern Industrial Revolution. Soon the West was filled with ne’er-do-wells
hoping to strike it rich.
Prospecting
Few were so lucky. The chances of an individual prospector finding a valuable lode were
slim indeed. The gold-seeker often worked in a stream bed. A tin pan was filled with
sediment and water. After shaking, the heavier gold nuggets would sink to the bottom.
Rarely was anything found of substantial size.

Once the loose chunks of gold were removed from the surface, large machinery was
required to dig into the earth and to split the quartz where the elusive gold was often
hidden. This was too large of an operation for an individual prospector. Eastern investors
conducted these ventures and often profited handsomely. The best case scenario for the
prospector was to locate a large deposit and sell the claim. Those who weren’t as lucky
often eventually went to work in the mines of the Eastern financiers. Western mining
wrought havoc on the local environment. Rock dust from drilling was often dumped into
river beds, forming silt deposits downstream that flooded towns and farmlands. Miners and
farmers were often at loggerheads over the effects of one enterprise on the other.
Poisonous underground gases, mostly containing sulfur, were released into the
atmosphere. Removing gold from quartz required mercury, the excess of which polluted
local streams and rivers. Strip mining caused erosion and further desertification. Little was
done to regulate the mining industry until the turn of the twentieth century.
Life in a Mining Town
Each mining bonanza required a town. Many towns had as high as a nine-to-one male-to-
female ratio. The ethnic diversity was great. Mexican immigrants were common. Native
Americans avoided the mining industry, but mestizos, the offspring of Mexican and Native
American parents, often participated. Many African Americans aspired to the same get-
rich-quick idea as whites. Until excluded by federal law in 1882, Chinese Americans were
numerous in mining towns.
The ethnic patchwork was intricate, but the socioeconomic ladder was clearly defined.
Whites owned and managed all of the mines. Poor whites, Mexicans, and Chinese
Americans worked the mine shafts. A few African Americans joined them, but many
worked in the service sector as cooks or artisans.
It’s these mining towns that often conjure images of the mythical American Wild West. Most
did have a saloon (or several) with swinging doors and a player piano. But miners and
prospectors worked all day; few had the luxury of spending it at the bar. By nighttime, most
were too tired to carouse. Weekends might bring folks out to the saloon for gambling or
drinking, to engage in the occasional bar fight, or even to hire a prostitute.
Law enforcement was crude. Many towns couldn’t afford a sheriff, so vigilante justice
prevailed. Occasionally a posse, or hunting party, would be raised to capture a particularly
nettlesome miscreant.
When the bonanza was at its zenith, the town prospered. But eventually, the mines were
exhausted or proved fruitless. Slowly its inhabitants would leave, leaving behind nothing
but a ghost town.
The Ways of the Cowboy
Mining wasn’t the only bonanza to be found in the West. Millions could be made in the
cattle industry. A calf bought for $5 in Southern Texas might sell for $60 in Chicago. The
problem was, of course, getting the cattle to market.

In 1867, Joseph McCoy tracked a path known as the Chisholm Trail from Texas to Abilene,
Kansas. The Texas cowboys drove the cattle the entire distance—1,500 miles. Along the
way, the cattle enjoyed all the grass they wanted, at no cost to the ranchers. At Abilene
and other railhead towns such as Dodge City and Ellsworth, the cattle would be sold and
the cowboys would return to Texas.
No vision of the American West is complete without the cowboy. The imagery is
quintessentially American, but many myths cloud the truth about what life was like on the
long drive.
Myth versus Reality
Americans didn’t invent cattle raising. This tradition was learned from the vaquero, a
Mexican cowboy.
Vaqueros
The vaqueros taught the tricks of the trade to the Texans, who realized the potential for
great profits.
The typical cowboy wore a hat with a wide brim to provide protection from the unforgiving
sunlight. Cattle kicked up clouds of dust on the drive, so the cowboy donned a bandanna
over the lower half of his face. Chaps, or leggings, and high boots were worn as protection
from briars and cactus needles.
Contrary to legend, the typical cowboy was not a skilled marksman. The lariat, not the gun,
was how the cattle drover showed his mastery. About a quarter of all cowboys were African
Americans, and even more were at least partially Mexican. To avoid additional strain on the
horses, cowboys were usually smaller than according to legend.

The lone cowboy is an American myth. Cattle were always driven by a group of drovers.
The cattle were branded so the owner could distinguish his steer from the rest. Several
times per drive, cowboys conducted a roundup where the cattle would be sorted and
counted again.
Work was very difficult. The workdays lasted 15 hours, much of which was spent in the
saddle. Occasionally, shots were fired by hostile Natives or farmers. Cattle rustlers
sometimes stole their steers.
One of the greatest fears was the stampede, which could result in lost or dead cattle or
cowboys. One method of containing a stampede was to get the cattle to run in a circle,
where the steer would eventually tire.
Upon reaching Abilene, the cattle were sold. Then it was time to let loose. Abilene had 25
saloons open all hours to service incoming riders of the long drive.
Twilight of the Cowboy
The heyday of the long drive was short. By the early 1870s, rail lines reached Texas so the
cattle could be shipped directly to the slaughterhouses. Ranchers then began to allow
cattle to graze on the open range near rail heads. But even this didn’t last. The invention of
barbed wire by Joseph Glidden ruined the open range. Now farmers could cheaply mark
their territory to keep the unwanted steers off their lands. Overproduction caused prices to
fall, leading many ranchers out of business.
Finally, the winter of 1886–87 was one of the worst in American history. Cattle died by the
thousands as temperatures reached 50 below zero in some parts of the West. The era of
the open range was over.
Life on the Farm

Homesteaders
A homestead at last! Many eastern families who longed for the opportunity to own and farm
a plot of land of their own were able to realize their dreams when Congress passed the
Homestead Act in 1862.
That landmark piece of legislation provided 160 acres free to any family who lived on the
land for five years and made improvements. The same amount could be obtained instantly
for the paltry sum of $1.25 per acre.
Combined with the completed transcontinental railroad, it was now possible for an
easterner yearning for the open space of the West to make it happen. Unfortunately, the
lives they found were fraught with hardship.
Money Problems
There were tremendous economic difficulties associated with Western farm life. First and
foremost was overproduction. Because the amount of land under cultivation increased
dramatically and new farming techniques produced greater and greater yields, the food
market became so flooded with goods that prices fell sharply. While this might be great for
the consumer, the farmer had to grow a tremendous amount of food to recoup enough
profits to survive the winter.
New machinery and fertilizer were needed to farm on a large scale. Often farmers
borrowed money to purchase this equipment, leaving themselves hopelessly in debt when

the harvest came. The high tariff forced them to pay higher prices for household goods for
their families, while the goods they themselves sold were unprotected.
The railroads also fleeced the small farmer. Farmers were often charged higher rates to
ship their goods a short distance than a manufacturer would pay to transport wares a great
distance.
A Harsh and Isolating Environment
The woes faced by farmers transcended economics. Nature was unkind in many parts of
the Great Plains. Blistering summers and cruel winters were commonplace. Frequent
drought spells made farming even more difficult. Insect blights raged through some
regions, eating further into the farmers’ profits.
Farmers lacked political power. Washington was a long way from the Great Plains, and
politicians seemed to turn deaf ears to the farmers’ cries. Social problems were also
prevalent. With each neighbor on 160-acre plots of land, communication was difficult and
loneliness was widespread.
Farm life proved monotonous compared with the bustling cities of the East. Although rural
families were now able to purchase mail-order products through catalogs such as Sears
and Roebuck’s and Montgomery Ward, there was simply no comparison with what the
Eastern market could provide.
These conditions couldn’t last. Out of this social and economic unrest, farmers began to
organize and make demands that would rock the Eastern establishment.
The Growth of Populism
Organization was inevitable. Like the oppressed laboring classes of the East, it was only a
matter of time before Western farmers would attempt to use their numbers to effect positive
change.
Farmers Organize
In 1867, the first such national organization was formed. Led by Oliver Kelley, the Patrons
of Husbandry, also known as the Grange, organized to address the social isolation of farm
life. Like other secret societies, such as the Masons, Grangers had local chapters with
secret passwords and rituals.
The local Grange sponsored dances and gatherings to attack the doldrums of daily life. It
was only natural that politics and economics were discussed in these settings, and the
Grangers soon realized that their individual problems were common.
Identifying the railroads as the chief villains, Grangers lobbied state legislatures for
regulation of the industry. By 1874, several states passed the Granger Laws, establishing
maximum shipping rates. Grangers also pooled their resources to buy grain elevators of

their own so that members could enjoy a break on grain storage. Farmers’ alliances went
one step further. Beginning in 1889, Northern and Southern farmers’ alliances championed
the same issues as the Grangers, but also entered the political arena. Members of these
alliances won seats in state legislatures across the Great Plains to strengthen the agrarian
voice in politics.
Creating Inflation
What did all the farmers seem to have in common? The answer was simple: debt. Looking
for solutions to this condition, farmers began to attack the nation’s monetary system. As of
1873, Congress declared that all federal money must be backed by gold. This limited the
nation’s money supply and benefited the wealthy.
The farmers wanted to create inflation. Inflation actually helps debtors. If a farmer owes
$3,000 and can earn $1 for every bushel of wheat sold at harvest, he needs to sell 3,000
bushels to pay off the debt. If inflation could push the price of a bushel of wheat up to $3,
he needs to sell only 1,000 bushels. The economics are simple.
To create inflation, farmers suggested that the money supply be expanded to include
dollars not backed by gold. The first strategy farmers attempted was to encourage
Congress to print greenback dollars like the ones issued during the Civil War. Since the
greenbacks weren’t backed by gold, more dollars could be printed, creating an inflationary
effect.
The Greenback Party and the Greenback-Labor Party each ran candidates for president in
1876, 1880, and 1884 under this platform. No candidate was able to muster national
support for the idea, and soon farmers chose another strategy.
Inflation could also be created by printing money that was backed by silver as well as gold.
This idea was more popular because people were more confident in their money if they
knew it was backed by something of value. Also, America had a tradition of coining silver
money until 1873.
Birth of the Populists
Out of the ashes of the Greenback-Labor Party grew the Populist Party. In addition to
demanding the free coinage of silver, the Populists called for a host of other reforms. They
demanded a graduated income tax, whereby individuals earning a higher income paid a
higher percentage in taxes.
They wanted political reforms as well. At this point, US Senators were still not elected by
the people directly; they were instead chosen by state legislatures. The Populists
demanded a constitutional amendment allowing for the direct election of Senators.
They demanded democratic reforms such as the initiative, where citizens could directly
introduce debate on a topic in the legislatures. The referendum would allow citizens—
rather than their representatives—to vote a bill. Recall would allow the people to end an
elected official’s term before it expired. They also called for the secret ballot and a one-
term limit for the president.

In 1892, the Populists ran James Weaver for president on this ambitious platform. He
polled over a million popular votes and 22 electoral votes. Although he came far short of
victory, Populist ideas were now being discussed at the national level. When the Panic of
1893 hit the following year, an increased number of unemployed and dispossessed
Americans gave momentum to the Populist movement. A great showdown was in place for
1896.
The Election of 1896
Scene at the New York Stock Exchange
Everything seemed to be falling into place for the Populists. James Weaver made an
impressive showing in 1892, and now Populist ideas were being discussed across the
nation.
The Panic of 1893 was the worst financial crisis to date in American history. As the soup
lines grew larger, so did voters’ anger at the present system.

When Jacob S. Coxey of Ohio marched his 200 supporters into the nation’s capital to
demand reforms in the spring of 1894, many thought a revolution was brewing. The climate
seemed to ache for change. All that the Populists needed was a winning presidential
candidate in 1896.
The Boy Orator
Ironically, the person who defended the Populist platform that year came from the
Democratic Party. William Jennings Bryan was the unlikely candidate. An attorney from
Lincoln, Nebraska, Bryan’s speaking skills were among the best of his generation. Known
as the “Great Commoner,” Bryan quickly developed a reputation as defender of the farmer.
When Populist ideas began to spread, Democratic voters of the South and West gave
enthusiastic endorsement. At the Chicago Democratic convention in 1896, Bryan delivered
a speech that made his career. Demanding the free coinage of silver, Bryan shouted: “You
shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!” Thousands of delegates roared their
approval, and at the age of 36, the “Boy Orator” received the Democratic nomination.
Faced with a difficult choice between surrendering their identity and hurting their own
cause, the Populist Party also nominated Bryan as their candidate.
The Stay-at-Home Candidate
The Republican competitor was William McKinley, the governor of Ohio. He had the
support of the moneyed eastern establishment. Behind the scenes, a wealthy Cleveland
industrialist named Mark Hanna was determined to see McKinley elected. He, like many of
his class, believed that the free coinage of silver would bring financial ruin to America.
Using his vast wealth and power, Hanna directed a campaign based on fear of a Bryan
victory. McKinley campaigned from his home, leaving the politicking for the party hacks.
Bryan revolutionized campaign politics by launching a nationwide whistle-stop effort,
making 20 to 30 speeches per day.
When the results were finally tallied, McKinley had beaten Bryan by an electoral vote
margin of 271 to 176.
Understanding 1896
Many factors led to Bryan’s defeat. He was unable to win a single state in the populous
Northeast. Laborers feared the free silver idea as much as their bosses. While inflation
would help the debt-ridden, mortgage-paying farmers, it could hurt the wage-earning, rent-
paying factory workers. In a sense, the election came down to city versus country.

A Map of the 1896 Electoral College Count
By 1896, the urban forces won. Bryan’s campaign marked the last time a major party
attempted to win the White House by exclusively courting the rural vote.
The economy of 1896 was also on the upswing. Had the election occurred in the heart of
the Panic of 1893, the results may have differed. Farm prices were rising in 1896, albeit
slowly. The Populist Party fell apart with Bryan’s loss. Although they continued to nominate
candidates, most of their membership had reverted to the major parties.
The ideas, however, did endure. Although the free silver issue died, the graduated income
tax, direct election of senators, initiative, referendum, recall, and the secret ballot were all
later enacted. These issues were kept alive by the next standard bearers of reform—the
Progressives.

Exercise 5.6
Open Link

Key Points
e discovery of valuable minerals in western territories brought thousands of fortune seekers to the West in the
mid to late 1800s. Towns would spring up nearly overnight to serve people who hoped to strike it rich searching for
gold or silver.
e wide-open spaces of the West proved to be great land for raising cattle. Much of the American image of the
cowboy was formed in the late 1800s as cattle ranchers made their living in a way very di erent from those on the
east coast.
e Populist political movement came about in the late 1800s through the support of American farmers.
Populists and the Democratic party supported William Jennings Bryant in the election of 1896 in an attempt to
make reforms for farmers. Even though the Populist movement seemed to have momentum, the northern states
remained unconvinced by the Populist argument and Republican William McKinley won the election.

Progressivism
Progressivism Sweeps the Nation
Conservatives beware! Whether they liked it or not, the turn of the twentieth century was
an age of reform. Urban reformers and Populists had already done much to raise attention
to the nation’s most pressing problems.
America in 1900 looked nothing like America in 1850, yet those in power seemed to be
applying the same old strategies to complex new problems. The Populists had tried to
effect change by capturing the government. The Progressives would succeed where the
Populists had failed.
The Progressives were urban, northeastern, educated, middle class, Protestant, reform-
minded men and women. There was no official Progressive Party until 1912, but
progressivism had already swept the nation.
It was more of a movement than a political party, and there were adherents to the
philosophy in each major party. There were three Progressive presidents—Theodore
Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt and Taft were
Republicans and Wilson was a Democrat. What united the movement was a belief that the
laissez-faire, Social Darwinist outlook of the Gilded Age was morally and intellectually
wrong. Progressives believed that people and government had the power to correct
abuses produced by nature and the free market.
The results were astonishing. Seemingly every aspect of society was touched by
progressive reform. Worker and consumer issues were addressed, conservation of natural
resources was initiated, and the plight of the urban poor was confronted. National political
movements such as temperance and women’s suffrage found allies in the progressive
movement. The era produced a host of national and state regulations, plus four
amendments to the Constitution.
When the United States became involved in the First World War, attention was diverted
from domestic issues and progressivism went into decline. While unable to solve the
problems of every American, the Progressive Era set the stage for the twentieth-century
trend of an activist government trying to assist its people.
Roots of the Movement

Jane Addams and Elizabeth Burke were delegates to the women’s su rage legislature.
The single greatest factor that fueled the progressive movement in America was
urbanization. For years, educated, middle-class women had begun the work of reform in
the nation’s cities.
Jane Addams was a progressive before the movement had such a name. The settlement
house movement embodied the very ideals of progressivism. Temperance was a
progressive movement in its philosophy of improving family life. “Social Gospel” preachers
had already begun to address the needs of city dwellers.
Progressive Writing
Urban intellectuals had ready stirred consciences with their controversial treatises. Henry
George attracted many followers by blaming inequalities in wealth on land ownership. In
his 1879 work, Progress and Poverty, he suggested that profits made from land sales be
taxed at a rate of 100 percent.
Edward Bellamy peered into the future in his 1888 novel, Looking Backward. The hero of
the story wakes up in the year 2000 and looks back to see that all the hardships of the
Gilded Age have withered away thanks to an activist, utopian socialist government.
In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Thorstein Veblen cited countless cases of
“conspicuous consumption.” Wealthy families spent their riches on acquiring European
works of art or fountains that flowed with champagne. Surely, he argued, those resources
could be put to better use.

Pragmatic Solutions
Underlying this new era of reform was a fundamental shift in philosophy away from Social
Darwinism. Why accept hardship and suffering as simply the result of natural selection?
Humans can and have adapted their physical environments to suit their purposes.
Individuals need not accept injustices as the “law of nature” if they can think of a better
way.
Philosopher William James called this new way of thinking, “Pragmatism.” His followers
came to believe that an activist government could be the agent of the public to pursue the
betterment of social ills.
The most prolific disciple of James was John Dewey. Dewey applied pragmatic thinking to
education. Rather than having students memorize facts or formulas, Dewey proposed
“learning by doing.” The progressive education movement begun by Dewey dominated
educational debate the entire twentieth century.
The Populist Influence
The Populist movement also influenced progressivism. While rejecting the call for free
silver, the progressives embraced the political reforms of secret ballot, initiative,
referendum, and recall. Most of these reforms were on the state level. Under the
governorship of Robert Lafollette, Wisconsin became a laboratory for many of these
political reforms.
The Populist ideas of an income tax and direct election of senators became the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth Amendments to the US Constitution under progressive direction.
Reforms went further by trying to root out urban corruption by introducing new models of
city government. The city commission and the city manager systems removed important
decision making from politicians and placed it in the hands of skilled technicians. The labor
movement contributed the calls for workers’ compensation and child labor regulation.
Progressivism came from so many sources from every region of America. The national
frame of mind was fixed. Reform would occur. It was only a matter of how much and what
type.
Muckrakers
The pen is sometimes mightier than the sword.
It may be a cliché, but it was all too true for journalists at the turn of the century. The print
revolution enabled publications to increase their subscriptions dramatically. What appeared
in print was now more powerful than ever. Writing to Congress in hopes of correcting
abuses was slow and often produced zero results. Publishing a series of articles had a
much more immediate impact. Collectively called muckrakers, a brave cadre of reporters
exposed injustices so grave they made the blood of the average American run cold.

Steffens Takes on Corruption
The first to strike was Lincoln Steffens. In 1902, he published an article in McClure’s
magazine called “Tweed Days in St. Louis.” Steffens exposed how city officials worked in
league with big business to maintain power while corrupting the public treasury.
More and more articles followed, and soon Steffens published the collection as a book
entitled, The Shame of the Cities. Soon public outcry demanded reform of city government
and gave strength to the progressive ideas of a city commission or city manager system.
Tarbell versus Standard Oil
Ida Tarbell struck next. One month after Lincoln Steffens launched his assault on urban
politics, Tarbell began her McClure’s series entitled “History of the Standard Oil Company.”
She outlined and documented the cutthroat business practices behind John Rockefeller’s
meteoric rise. Tarbell’s motives may also have been personal: her own father had been
driven out of business by Rockefeller.
Once other publications saw how profitable these exposés had been, they courted
muckrakers of their own. In 1905, Thomas Lawson brought the inner workings of the stock
market to light in Frenzied Finance. John Spargo unearthed the horrors of child labor in
The Bitter Cry of the Children in 1906. That same year, David Phillips linked 75 senators to
big business interests in The Treason of the Senate. In 1907, William Hard went public with
industrial accidents in the steel industry in the blistering Making Steel and Killing Men. Ray
Stannard Baker revealed the oppression of Southern blacks in Following the Color Line in
1908.
The Meatpacking Jungle
Perhaps no muckraker caused as great a stir as Upton Sinclair. An avowed Socialist,

Sinclair hoped to illustrate the horrible effects of capitalism on workers in the Chicago
meatpacking industry. His bone-chilling account, The Jungle, detailed workers sacrificing
their fingers and nails by working with acid, losing limbs, catching diseases, and toiling long
hours in cold, cramped conditions. He hoped the public outcry would be so fierce that
reforms would soon follow.
The clamor that rang throughout America wasn’t, however, a response to the workers’
plight. Sinclair also uncovered the contents of the products being sold to the general public.
Spoiled meat was covered with chemicals to hide the smell. Skin, hair, stomach, ears, and
nose were ground up and packaged as head cheese. Rats climbed over warehouse meat,
leaving piles of excrement behind.
Sinclair said that he aimed for America’s heart and instead hit its stomach. Even President
Roosevelt, who coined the derisive term “muckraker,” was propelled to act. Within months,
Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act to curb these
sickening abuses.

Women’s Suffrage at Last
After the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 demanded women’s suffrage for the first time,
America became distracted by the coming Civil War. The issue of the vote resurfaced
during Reconstruction.
The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution proposed granting the right to vote to African
American males. Many female suffragists at the time were outraged. They simply couldn’t
believe that those who suffered 350 years of bondage would be enfranchised before
America’s women.
A Movement Divided
Activists such as Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, and Henry Blackwell argued that the
1860s was the time for the black male. Linking black suffrage with female suffrage would
surely accomplish neither. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth
disagreed. They would accept nothing less than immediate federal action supporting the
vote for women.
Stone and Blackwell formed the American Woman Suffrage Association and believed that
pressuring state governments was the most effective route. Anthony and Stanton formed
the National Woman Suffrage Association and pressed for a constitutional amendment.
This split occurred in 1869 and weakened the suffrage movement for the next two
decades.
Anthony and Stanton engaged in high-profile, headline-grabbing tactics. In 1872, they

endorsed Victoria Woodhull, the Free Love Candidate, for president. The NWSA was
known to show up to the polls on Election Day to force officials to turn them away. They set
up mock ballot boxes near the election sites so women could “vote” in protest. They
continued to accept no compromise on a national amendment eliminating the gender
requirement.
The AWSA chose a much more understated path. Stone and Blackwell actively lobbied
state governments. Wyoming became the first state to grant full women’s suffrage in 1869,
and Utah followed suit the following year. But then it stopped. No other states granted full
suffrage until the 1890s.
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and
lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever
helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place!
And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and
planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a
woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could
get it—and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen

children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my
mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
—Sojourner Truth. “Ain’t I A Woman?” Delivered at Akron Ohio Women’s

Convention (1851)
The NAWSA to the Rescue
After Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell passed away, their daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell
saw the need for a unified front. She approached the aging leadership of the NWSA, and in
1890, the two splinter groups formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association
(NAWSA), with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony taking turns at the
presidency.
Program for a Woman Su rage Procession
Although the movement still had internal divisions, the mood of progressive reform
breathed new life into its rank and file. Although Stanton and Anthony died before ever
having accomplished their goal, the stage was set for a new generation to carry the torch.
The fight to victory was conducted by Carrie Chapman Catt. By 1910, most states west of
Mississippi had granted full suffrage rights to women. States of the Midwest at least

permitted women to vote in presidential elections. But the Northeast and the South were
steadfast in opposition. Catt knew that to ratify a national amendment, NAWSA would have
to win a state in each of these key regions. Once cracks were made, the dam would surely
burst.
Amid the backdrop of the United States’ entry into World War I, success finally came. In
1917, New York and Arkansas permitted women to vote, and momentum shifted toward
suffrage. NAWSA supported the war effort throughout the ratification process, and the
prominent positions women held no doubt resulted in increased support.
On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment became the supreme law of the land, and
the long struggle for voting rights was over.
Booker T. Washington
At the dawn of the twentieth century, nine out of ten African Americans lived in the South.
Jim Crow laws of segregation ruled the land. The Supreme Court upheld the power of the
Southern states to create two “separate but equal” societies with its 1896 Plessy v.
Ferguson opinion. It would be for a later Supreme Court to judge that they fell short of the
“equal” requirement.
Although empowered to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment, poll taxes, literacy tests, and
outright violence and intimidation reduced the voting black population to almost zero.
Economically, African Americans were primarily poor sharecroppers trapped in an endless
cycle of debt. Socially, few whites had come to accept blacks as equals. While progressive
reformers ambitiously attacked injustices, it would take great work and great people before
change was felt. One man who took up the challenge was Booker T. Washington.
Founding Tuskegee Institute
Born into slavery in 1856, Washington had experienced racism his entire life. When
emancipated after the Civil War, he became one of the few African Americans to complete
school, whereupon he became a teacher.
Believing in practical education, Washington established Tuskegee Institute in Alabama at

the age of 25. Washington believed that Southern racism was so entrenched that to
demand immediate social equality would be unproductive. His school aimed to train African
Americans in the skills that would help the most.
Tuskegee Institute became a center for agricultural research. The most famous product of
Tuskegee was George Washington Carver. Carver concluded that much more productive
use could be made of agricultural lands by diversifying crops. He discovered hundreds of
new uses for sweet potatoes, pecans, and peanuts. Washington saw a future in this new
type of agriculture as a means of raising the economic status of African Americans.
The Atlanta “Compromise”

In 1895, Washington delivered a speech at the Atlanta Exposition. He declared that African
Americans should focus on vocational education. Learning Latin and Greek served no
purpose in the day-to-day realities of Southern life.
African Americans should abandon their short-term hopes of social and political equality.
Washington argued that when whites saw African Americans contributing as productive
members of society, equality would naturally follow.
For those dreaming of a black utopia of freedom, Washington declared: “Cast down your
bucket where you are.” Many whites approved of this moderate stance, while African
Americans were split. Critics called his speech the Atlanta Compromise and accused
Washington of coddling Southern racism.
Still, by 1900, Washington was seen as the leader of the African American community. In
1901, he published his autobiography, Up from Slavery. He was a self-made man and a
role model to thousands. In 1906, he was summoned to the White House by President
Theodore Roosevelt. This marked the first time in American history that an African
American leader received such a prestigious invitation.
Despite his accomplishments, he was challenged within the black community until his
death in 1915. His most outspoken critic was W. E. B. Du Bois.
W. E. B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was very angry with Booker T. Washington. Although he
admired Washington’s intellect and accomplishments, he strongly opposed the position set
forth by Washington in his Atlanta Exposition Address. He saw little future in agriculture as
the nation rapidly industrialized. Du Bois felt that renouncing the goal of complete
integration and social equality, even in the short run, was counterproductive and exactly
the opposite strategy from what best suited African Americans.
Early Life and Core Beliefs
The childhood of W. E. B. Du Bois couldn’t have been more different from that of Booker T.
Washington. He was born in Massachusetts in 1868 as a free black. Du Bois attended Fisk
University and later became the first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard.
He secured a teaching job at Atlanta University, where he believed he learned a great deal
about the African American experience in the South.
Du Bois was a staunch proponent of a classical education and condemned Washington’s

suggestion that blacks focus only on vocational skills. Without an educated class of
leadership, whatever gains were made by blacks could be stripped away by legal
loopholes. He believed that every class of people in history had a “talented tenth.” The
downtrodden masses would rely on their guidance to improve their status in society.
Political and social equality must come first before blacks could hope to have their fair
share of the economic pie. He vociferously attacked the Jim Crow laws and practices that

inhibited black suffrage. In 1903, he published The Souls of Black Folk, a series of essays
assailing Washington’s strategy of accommodation.
The Niagara Movement and the NAACP
In 1905, Du Bois met with a group of 30 men at Niagara Falls, Canada. They drafted a
series of demands essentially calling for an immediate end to all forms of discrimination.
The Niagara Movement was denounced as radical by most whites at the time. Educated
African Americans, however, supported the resolutions.
Four years later, members of the Niagara Movement formed the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This organization sought to fight for
equality on the national front. It also intended to improve the self-image of African
Americans. After centuries of slavery and decades of second-class status, Du Bois and
others believed that many African Americans had come to accept their position in
American society.
e Negro Silent Protest Parade protested violence toward African Americans.
Du Bois became the editor of the organization’s periodical called The Crisis, a job he
performed for 20 years. The Crisis contained the expected political essays, but also poems
and stories glorifying African American culture and accomplishments. Later, Du Bois was
invited to attend the organizational meeting for the United Nations in 1946.
As time passed, Du Bois began to lose hope that African Americans would ever see full
equality in the United States. In 1961, he moved to Ghana. He died at the age of 96 just
before Martin Luther King, Jr. led the historical civil rights march on Washington.

Exercise 5.7
Open Link

Key Points
With the dramatic change and rampant corruption of the late 1800s, many Americans came to see a need for
reform in the way the government operated. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a reform movement known as the
Progressive Movement came to be a political force that would change the way the US government worked.
Early Progressives pushed the idea that government should work to pragmatically solve problems in society, but to
solve problems the government itself had to function better. Towards this end, political reforms were pushed
including the federal income tax and the direct election of US Senators.
Calls for reform came from writers known as muckrakers. ese writers exposed corruption and abuse in both
business and government.
e women’s su rage movement struggled to gain universal voting rights with limited success with some states
throughout the mid to late 1800s. It wasn’t until Americans came to see the contribution made to the war e ort in
World War I that a Constitutional Amendment (1920, the Nineteenth Amendment) was put in place granting
women the right to vote.
African Americans faced many challenges in the form of governmental discrimination in addition to informal
discrimination. Laws were put in place to stop black people from voting and separated the races in public places.

Progressive Presidents
Progressives in the White House
Hiding Teddy
Theodore Roosevelt was never intended to be president. He was seen as a reckless

cowboy by many in the Republican Party leadership. As his popularity soared, he became
more and more of a threat. His success with the Rough Riders in Cuba made him a war
hero in the eyes of many Americans. Riding this wave, he was elected as governor of New
York.
During the campaign of 1900, it was decided that nominating Roosevelt for the vice
presidency would serve two purposes. First, his popularity would surely help president
McKinley’s reelection bid. Second, moving him to the vice presidency might decrease his
power.
Vice presidents had gone on to the White House only if the sitting president died in office.
The last vice president elected in his own right had been Martin Van Buren in 1837. Many
believed Roosevelt could do less harm as vice president than as governor of New York.
McKinley and Roosevelt won the election, and all was proceeding according to plan until
an assassin’s bullet ended McKinley’s life in September 1901.
The Bully Pulpit
Roosevelt didn’t wait long to act. Before long he lashed out against the trusts and sided
with American labor. The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act protected
consumers. Steps were taken to protect America’s wilderness lands that went beyond any
previous president.
The worst fears of conservatives were realized as Roosevelt used the White House as a
“bully pulpit” to promote an active government that protected the interests of the people
over big business. The Progressive movement finally had an ally in the White House.
A Progressive Democrat
Teddy Roosevelt challenged Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912, splitting the party
wide open. Although the Republicans lost the election, it wasn’t necessarily a loss for

Progressives. The winning Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, embraced much of the

Progressive agenda himself.
Before his two terms came to a close, the federal government passed legislation further
restricting trusts, banning child labor, and requiring worker compensation. The Progressive
causes of temperance and women’s suffrage were embedded into the Constitution.
Between 1901 and 1921, the presidents were more active and powerful than any since the
days of Abraham Lincoln.
The Trust Buster
Teddy Roosevelt was one American who believed a revolution was coming.
He believed Wall Street financiers and powerful trust titans to be acting foolishly. While
they were eating off fancy china on mahogany tables in marble dining rooms, the masses
were roughing it. There seemed to be no limit to greed. If docking wages would increase
profits, it was done. If higher railroad rates put more gold in their coffers, it was done. How
much was enough, Roosevelt wondered?
The Sherman Antitrust Act
Although he himself was a man of means, he criticized the wealthy class of Americans on
two counts. First, continued exploitation of the public could result in a violent uprising that
could destroy the whole system. Second, the captains of industry were arrogant enough to
believe themselves superior to the elected government. Now that he was president,
Roosevelt went on the attack.
Trusts were large corporations that oversaw other corporations within an industry, allowing
one corporation to control an entire industry. The president’s weapon was the Sherman
Antitrust Act, passed by Congress in 1890. This law declared illegal all combinations “in
restraint of trade.” For the first 12 years of its existence, the Sherman Act was a paper
tiger. US courts routinely sided with business when any enforcement of the Act was
attempted.
For example, the American Sugar Refining Company controlled 98 percent of the sugar
industry. Despite this virtual monopoly, the Supreme Court refused to dissolve the
corporation in an 1895 ruling. The only time an organization was deemed in restraint of
trade was when the court ruled against a labor union.
Roosevelt knew that no new legislation was necessary. When he sensed that he had a
sympathetic Court, he sprang into action.
Teddy versus J. P.
Theodore Roosevelt wasn’t the type to initiate major changes timidly. The first trust giant to
fall victim to Roosevelt’s assault was none other than the most powerful industrialist in the

country—J. P. Morgan.
Morgan controlled a railroad company known as Northern Securities. In combination with

railroad moguls James J. Hill and E. H. Harriman, Morgan controlled the bulk of railroad
shipping across the northern United States.
Morgan was enjoying a peaceful dinner at his New York home on February 19, 1902, when
his telephone rang. He was furious to learn that Roosevelt’s Attorney General was bringing
suit against the Northern Securities Company. Stunned, he muttered to his equally
shocked dinner guests about how rude it was to file such a suit without warning.
Four days later, Morgan was at the White House with the president. Morgan bellowed that
he was being treated like a common criminal. The president informed Morgan that no
compromise could be reached, and the matter would be settled by the courts. Morgan
inquired if his other interests were at risk, too. Roosevelt told him only the ones that had
done anything wrong would be prosecuted.
The Good, the Bad, and the Bully
This was the core of Theodore Roosevelt’s leadership. He boiled everything down to a
case of right versus wrong and good versus bad. If a trust controlled an entire industry but
provided good service at reasonable rates, it was a “good” trust to be left alone. Only the
“bad” trusts that jacked up rates and exploited consumers would come under attack. Who
would decide the difference between right and wrong? The occupant of the White House
trusted only himself to make this decision in the interests of the people.
The American public cheered Roosevelt’s new offensive. The Supreme Court, in a narrow
five to four decision, agreed and dissolved the Northern Securities Company. Roosevelt
said confidently that no man, no matter how powerful, was above the law. As he landed
blows on other “bad” trusts, his popularity grew and grew.
A Helping Hand for Labor
Workers rarely found a helping hand in the White House. President Hayes ordered the
army to break the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. President Cleveland ordered federal
troops to disrupt the Pullman Strike of 1894. Governors and mayors used the National
Guard and police to confront workers on strike.
When Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike in 1902, there was no reason to believe
anything had changed. But this time things were different. Teddy Roosevelt was in the
White House.
Miners and Owners at Loggerheads

President Roosevelt takes the coal barons to task. (Image by Charles Lederer [PD-US(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-US)],
via Wikimedia Commons)
John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers, represented the miners. He was soft-
spoken, yet determined. Many compared his manner to Abraham Lincoln’s. In the spring of
1902, Mitchell placed a demand on the coal operators for better wages, shorter hours, and
recognition of the union. The owners, led by George Baer, flatly refused. On May 12, 1902,
140,000 miners walked off the job, and the strike was on.
Mitchell worked diligently behind the scenes to negotiate with Baer, but his efforts were
rejected. According to Baer, there would be no compromise. Even luminaries such Mark
Hanna and J. P. Morgan prevailed in vain on the owners to open talks. As the days passed,
the workers began to feel the pinch of the strike, and violence began to erupt.
Soon summer melted into fall, and President Roosevelt wondered what the angry workers
and a colder public would do if the strike lasted into the bitter days of winter. He decided to
lend a hand in settling the strike.
Teddy the Arbitrator
No president had ever tried to negotiate a strike settlement before. Roosevelt invited
Mitchell and Baer to the White House on October 3 to hammer out a compromise. Mitchell

proposed to submit to an arbitration commission and abide by the results if Baer would do
the same. Baer resented the summons by the president to meet a “common criminal” like
Mitchell, and refused any sort of concession.
Roosevelt despaired that the violence would increase and spiral dangerously toward a
class-based civil war. After the mine operators left Washington, he vowed to end the strike.
He was impressed by Mitchell’s gentlemanly demeanor and irritated by Baer’s insolence.
Roosevelt remarked that if he weren’t president, he would have thrown Baer out of a White
House window.
He summoned his War Secretary, Elihu Root, and ordered him to prepare the army. This
time, however, the army wouldn’t be used against the strikers. The coal operators were
informed that if no settlement were reached, the army would seize the mines and make
coal available to the public. Roosevelt didn’t seem to mind that he had no constitutional
authority to do any such thing.
Compromise
J. P. Morgan finally convinced Baer and the other owners to submit the dispute to a
commission. On October 15, the strike ended. The following March, a decision was
reached by the mediators. The miners were awarded a 10 percent pay increase, and their
workday was reduced to eight or nine hours. The owners weren’t forced to recognize the
United Mine Workers.
Workers across America cheered Roosevelt for standing up to the mine operators. It surely
seemed like the White House would lend a helping hand to the labor movement.
Preserving the Wilderness
As America grew, Americans were destroying its natural resources. Farmers were
depleting the nutrients of the overworked soil. Miners removed layer after layer of valuable
topsoil, leading to catastrophic erosion. Everywhere forests were shrinking and wildlife was
becoming more scarce.
The Sierra Club
The growth of cities brought a new interest in preserving the old lands for future
generations. Dedicated to saving the wilderness, the Sierra Club formed in 1892. John
Muir, the president of the Sierra Club, worked valiantly to stop the sale of public lands to
private developers. At first, most of his efforts fell on deaf ears. Then Theodore Roosevelt
inhabited the Oval Office, and his voice was finally heard.
Roosevelt Protects Public Lands
Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman. He hunted, hiked, and camped whenever possible.
He believed that living in nature was good for the body and soul. Although he proved

willing to compromise with Republican conservatives on many issues, he was dedicated to

protecting the nation’s public lands.
The first measure he backed was the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902. This law
encouraged developers and homesteaders to inhabit lands that were useless without
massive irrigation works. The lands were sold at a cheap price if the buyer assumed the
cost of irrigation and lived on the land for at least five years. The government then used the
revenue to irrigate additional lands. Over a million barren acres were rejuvenated under
this program.
John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt were more than political acquaintances. In 1903,
Roosevelt took a vacation by camping with Muir in Yosemite National Park. The two agreed
that making efficient use of public lands wasn’t enough. Certain wilderness areas should
simply be left undeveloped.
Under an 1891 law that empowered the president to declare national forests and withdraw
public lands from development, Roosevelt began to preserve wilderness areas. By the time
he left office 150,000,000 acres had been deemed national forests, forever safe from the
ax and saw. This amounted to three times the total protected lands since the law was
enacted.
In 1907, Congress passed a law blocking the president from protecting additional territory
in six western states. In typical Roosevelt fashion, he signed the bill into law—but not
before protecting 16 million additional acres in those six states.
Conservation Fever
Conservation fever spread among urban intellectuals as a result. By 1916, there were 16
national parks with over 300,000 annual visitors. The boy scouts and girl scouts formed to
give urban youths a greater appreciation of nature. Memberships in conservation and
wildlife societies soared.
Teddy Roosevelt distinguished himself as the greatest presidential advocate of the

environment since Thomas Jefferson. Much damage had been done, but America’s
beautiful, abundant resources were given a new lease on life.
Passing the Torch
1908 wasn’t a good year for Teddy Roosevelt. The nation was recovering from a financial
panic that had rocked Wall Street the previous year. Many leading industrialists unjustly
blamed the crisis on the president. The Congress that he had finessed in his early term
was now dominated by conservative Republicans who took joy in blocking the president’s
initiatives. Now his time in the White House was coming to a close.
He had promised not to seek a third term when he was elected in 1904. No prior president
had ever broken the two-term tradition. Roosevelt would keep his word.
Among Friends

He decided that if he could no longer serve as president, the next best option was to name
a successor that would carry out his programs. He found the perfect candidate in William
Howard Taft.
Taft and Roosevelt were best friends. When Roosevelt was sworn in as chief executive,
Taft was serving as governor of the Philippines. Roosevelt offered his friend a seat on the
Supreme Court, but his work in the Philippines and the ambitions of Mrs. Taft propelled him
to decline. In 1904, he became Secretary of War and his friendship with Roosevelt grew
stronger.
By 1908, Roosevelt was convinced that Taft would be the ideal successor. His support
steamrollered Taft to the Republican nomination, and the fall election against the tired
William Jennings Bryan proved to be a landslide victory.
Progressives and Conservatives
Upon leaving the White House, Roosevelt embarked on a worldwide tour, including an
African safari and a sojourn through Europe. Taft was left to make his own mark on
America. But he lacked the political skill of his predecessor to keep both the progressive
and conservative wings of his party happy. Soon he would alienate one side or the other.
The defining moment came with the Payne-Aldrich Tariff. Progressives hated the measure,
which raised rates, and conservatives lauded it. Taft signed the bill, and his progressive
supporters were furious.
The rupture widened with the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy. Richard Ballinger was Taft’s
Secretary of the Interior. His appointment shocked Gifford Pinchot, the nation’s chief
forester and longtime companion of Theodore Roosevelt. Pinchot rightly saw that Ballinger
was no friend to Roosevelt’s conservation initiatives. When Pinchot publicly criticized
Ballinger, Taft fired Pinchot, and progressives were again outraged. The two wings of the
party were now firmly on a collision course.
Taft’s Progressive Reforms
Despite criticism from progressive Republicans, Taft did support many of their goals. He
broke twice as many trusts in his one term as Roosevelt had broken in his two. Taft limited
the workday of federal employees to eight hours and supported the Sixteenth Amendment
to the Constitution, which empowered the Congress to levy a federal income tax. He also
created a Children’s Bureau and supported the Seventeenth Amendment, which allowed
for senators to be directly elected by the people instead of the state legislatures.
Still, when Roosevelt returned to America, progressives pressed him to challenge Taft for
the party leadership. As 1912 approached, the fight was on.
The Election of 1912

Politics can sometimes turn the best of friends into the worst of enemies. Such was the fate
of the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
Roosevelt’s decision to challenge Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912 was most
difficult. Historians disagree on his motives. Defenders of Roosevelt insist that Taft
betrayed the progressive platform. When Roosevelt returned to the United States, he was
pressured by thousands of progressives to lead them once more. Roosevelt believed that
he could do a better job uniting the party than Taft. He felt a duty to the American people to
run.
Critics of Roosevelt aren’t quite so kind. Roosevelt had a huge ego, and his lust for power
couldn’t keep him on the sidelines. He stabbed his friend in the back and overlooked the
positive sides of Taft’s Presidency. Whatever the motive, the election of 1912 would begin
with two prominent Republican candidates.
Roosevelt and Taft Caricatured in a Bar Fight
The two former friends hurled insults at each other as the summer of 1912 drew near. Taft
had the party leadership behind him, but Roosevelt had the people. Roosevelt spoke of a
new nationalism—a broad plan of social reform for America.
Rather than destroying every trust, Roosevelt supported the creation of a Federal Trade
Commission to keep a watchful eye on unfair business practices. He proposed a minimum
wage, a workers’ compensation act, and a child labor law. He proposed a government

pension for retirees and funds to assist Americans with health care costs. He supported the
women’s suffrage amendment. The time of laissez-faire was over. The government must
intervene to help its people.
Taft and his supporters disagreed, and the battle was left for the delegates to decide. When
the Republican nomination went to Taft, Roosevelt continued his bid for president by
launching a brand new political party. This was the Progressive Party, nicknamed the Bull
Moose Party.
Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom
Progressives didn’t come only in the Republican flavor. Thomas Woodrow Wilson also saw
the need for change.
Born in Staunton, Virginia, Wilson served as president of Princeton University and

governor of New Jersey. He combined a southern background with northern sensibilities.
Attacking the Triple Wall of Privilege
His 1912 platform for change was called the New Freedom. Wilson was an admirer of
Thomas Jefferson. The agrarian utopia of small, educated farmers envisioned by Jefferson
struck a chord with Wilson. Of course, the advent of industry couldn’t be denied, but a
nation of small farmers and small businesspeople seemed totally possible. The New
Freedom sought to achieve this vision by attacking what Wilson called the Triple Wall of
Privilege—the tariff, the banks, and the trusts.
Tariffs protected the large industrialists at the expense of small farmers. Wilson signed the
Underwood-Simmons Act into law in 1913, which reduced tariff rates. The banking system
also pinched small farmers and entrepreneurs. The gold standard still made currency too
tight, and loans were too expensive for the average American. Wilson signed the Federal
Reserve Act, which made the nation’s currency more flexible.
Unlike Roosevelt, Wilson didn’t distinguish between “good” trusts and “bad” trusts. Any
trust by virtue of its large size was bad in Wilson’s eyes. The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914
clarified the Sherman Act by specifically naming certain business tactics illegal. This same
act also exempted labor unions from antitrust suits, and declared strikes, boycotts, and
peaceful picketing perfectly legal.
In two years, he successfully attacked each “wall of privilege.” Now his eyes turned to
greater concerns, particularly the outbreak of the First World War in Europe.
Appeasing the Bull Moose
When Wilson’s first term expired, he felt he had to do more. The nation was on the brink of
entering the bloodiest conflict in human history, and Wilson had definite ideas about how
the postwar peace should look. But he would have to survive reelection first.

As an appeal to the Roosevelt progressives, he began to sign many legislative measures

suggested by the Bull Moose Campaign. He approved of the creation of a federal trade
commission to act as a watchdog over business. A child labor bill and a workers’
compensation act became law. Wilson agreed to limit the workday of interstate railroad
workers to 8 hours. He signed a Federal Farm Loan Act to ease the pains of life on the
farm.
Progressive Republicans in the Congress were pleased by Wilson’s conversion to their

brand of progressivism, and the American people showed their approval by electing him to
a second term.

Exercise 5.8
Open Link

Key Points
In 1901, President McKinley was assassinated and his vice president, eodore Roosevelt, took over. Roosevelt was
di erent in that he became an active and forceful president, where presidents for the past few decades let
Congress take the lead in governing.
Roosevelt used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act passed in 1890 to break up trusts that he saw as hurting the American
consumer. In this way, he partially embodied the progressive goal of reigning in the power of big business.
United States policy on natural resources had been to exploit the land for as much pro t as possible. When
Roosevelt came into o ce, the policy changed, resulting in millions of acres of land set aside as national parks.
Roosevelt was followed by progressive presidents—Taft (Republican) and Wilson (Democratic). While they did not
have Roosevelt’s brash style, they both worked in their own ways to break up trusts and reduce the overarching
power of big businesses.

The United States Overseas
Seeking Empire
Since the early days of Jamestown colony, Americans were constantly stretching their
boundaries to encompass more territory. When the US government was formed, the
practice continued. The first half of the nineteenth century was spent defining the nation’s
borders through negotiation and war, and the second half was spent populating the fruits of
the labor. As the twentieth century dawned, many believed that the expansion should
continue.
Many different groups pushed for American expansion overseas. Industrialists sought new
markets for their products and sources for cheaper resources. Nationalists claimed that
colonies were a hallmark of national prestige. The European powers had already claimed
much of the globe; America would have to compete or perish. Missionaries continually
preached to spread their messages of faith. Social Darwinists such as Josiah Strong
believed that American civilization was superior to others and that it was an American’s
duty to diffuse its benefits. Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote an influential thesis declaring that
throughout history, those that controlled the seas controlled the world. Acquiring naval
bases at strategic points around the world was imperative.
Before 1890, American lands consisted of little more than the contiguous states and
Alaska. By the end of World War I, America could boast a global empire. American Samoa
and Hawaii were added in the 1890s by force. The Spanish-American War brought Guam,
Puerto Rico, and the Philippines under the American flag. The Roosevelt Corollary to the
Monroe Doctrine declared the entire western hemisphere an American sphere of influence.
Through initial negotiation and eventual intimidation, the United States secured the rights
to build and operate an isthmian canal in Panama. The German naval threat in World War I
prompted the purchase of the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917.
The country that had once fought to throw off imperial shackles was now itself an empire.
With the economic and strategic benefits came the expected difficulties. Filipinos fought a
bloody struggle for independence. America became entangled with distant conflicts to
defend the new claims. Regardless of the nobility or self-interest of the intent, the United
States was now poised to claim its role as a world power in the twentieth century.
Early Stirrings
Manifest destiny didn’t die when Americans successfully lay claim to the West Coast. The
newly won territory was the source of heated argument in the 1850s and a major reason

for the War Between the States. Once the Union was patched back together, Americans
were mostly content with settling the land already under the US flag. But as the decades
passed and America grew strong with industrial might, the desire to spread the eagle’s
wings over additional territory came back into vogue. Between 1890 and the start of World
War I, the United States earned a seat at the table of imperial powers.
Purchase of Alaska
e Alaska Purchase
When William Seward proposed the purchase of Alaska in 1867, his peers thought he had
gone mad. Russian America, as it was called, was a vast frozen wasteland surely not
worth 7.2 million American dollars. “Seward’s Folly,” some scoffed. “Seward’s icebox,”
others razzed. The Senate saw the potential of its vast natural resources and approved the
treaty, but the House stalled the purchase of the “Polar Bear Garden” for over a year. Not
too much attention was paid to the new acquisition at first. Americans were too busy
mending the fractured Union and then settling the continental West.
Five Near Wars
By the middle of the 1890s, it was clear that Americans were looking outward. Five near
wars dotted the first half of the decade. The Samoan Islands of the South Pacific were
coveted by Britain, Germany, and the United States. In 1889, the American and German
navies almost exchanged gunfire before a settlement dividing the islands among the three
powers could be reached. In 1891, when 11 Italians were brutally lynched in New Orleans,
the United States approached a state of war with Italy before a compromise was arranged.

A similar situation erupted the following year in Chile. This time, two American sailors were
killed in a bar in Valparaiso. The US government forced the Chileans to pay compensation
to avoid war. Even our neighbors to the North weren’t immune. A fracas over seal hunting
rights near Alaska caused tempers to flare. In 1895, Great Britain insisted that the
boundary of its British Guiana colony included gold-enriched forest land that was also
claimed by Venezuela. President Cleveland cited the Monroe Doctrine as a reason to keep
the British in their own hemisphere. Threatening war with Britain if they failed to submit
their claim to arbitration, the United States defended its influence in the Western
Hemisphere.
The signs were clear. It had been 50 years since the United States had waged war with a
foreign power, and Americans seemed to be in the mood for a fight. Little disturbances
involving the likes of Venezuela, Chile, and American Samoa wouldn’t curb the desire to
expand or prove America’s new strength to the entire world. Soon new territories were
seized, and the war that seemed inevitable finally arrived.
Hawaiian Annexation
By the time the United States got serious about looking beyond its own borders to conquer
new lands, much of the world had already been claimed. Only a few distant territories in
Africa and Asia and remote islands in the Pacific remained free from imperial grasp. Hawaii
was one such plum. Led by a hereditary monarch, the inhabitants of the kingdom prevailed
as an independent state. American expansionists looked with greed on the strategically
located islands and waited patiently to plan their move.
Foothold in Hawaii
Interest in Hawaii began in America as early as the 1820s, when New England
missionaries tried in earnest to spread their faith. Since the 1840s, keeping European
powers out of Hawaii became a principal foreign policy goal. Americans acquired a true
foothold in Hawaii as a result of the sugar trade. The US government provided generous
terms to Hawaiian sugar growers, and after the Civil War, profits began to swell. A turning
point in US-Hawaiian relations occurred in 1890, when Congress approved the McKinley
Tariff, which raised import rates on foreign sugar. Hawaiian sugar planters were now being
undersold in the American market, and as a result, a depression swept the islands. The
sugar growers, mostly white Americans, knew that if Hawaii were to be annexed by the
United States, the tariff problem would naturally disappear. At the same time, the Hawaiian
throne was passed to Queen Liliuokalani, who determined that the root of Hawaii’s
problems was foreign interference. A great showdown was about to unfold.
Annexing Hawaii
In January 1893, the planters staged an uprising to overthrow the Queen. At the same
time, they appealed to the US armed forces for protection. Without presidential approval,
marines stormed the islands, and the American minister to the islands raised the stars and
stripes in Honolulu. The Queen was forced to abdicate, and the matter was left for
Washington politicians to settle. By this time, Grover Cleveland had been inaugurated

president. Cleveland was an outspoken anti-imperialist and thought Americans had acted
shamefully in Hawaii. He withdrew the annexation treaty from the Senate and ordered an
investigation into potential wrongdoings. Cleveland aimed to restore Liliuokalani to her
throne, but American public sentiment strongly favored annexation.
The matter was prolonged until after Cleveland left office. When war broke out with Spain
in 1898, the military significance of Hawaiian naval bases as a way station to the Spanish
Philippines outweighed all other considerations. President William McKinley signed a joint
resolution annexing the islands, much like the manner in which Texas joined the Union in
1845. Hawaii remained a territory until granted statehood as the 50th state in 1959.
“Remember the Maine!”
There was more than one way to acquire more land. If the globe had already been claimed
by imperial powers, the United States could always seize lands held by others. Americans
were feeling proud of their growing industrial and military prowess. The long-dormant
Monroe Doctrine could finally be enforced. Good sense suggested that when treading on
the toes of empires, America should start small. In 1898, Spain was weak and Americans
knew it. Soon the opportunity to strike arose.
Involvement in Cuba
Cuba became the nexus of Spanish-American tensions. Since 1895, Cubans had been in
open revolt against Spanish rule. The following year, Spain sent General Valeriano Weyler
to Cuba to separate the rebels. Anyone suspected of supporting independence was
removed from the general population and sent to concentration camps. Although few were
summarily executed, conditions at the camps led over 200,000 to die of disease and
malnutrition. The news reached the American mainland through the newspapers of the
yellow journalists. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were the two most
prominent publishers who were willing to use sensational headlines to sell papers. Hearst
even sent the renowned painter Frederic Remington to Cuba to depict Spanish misdeeds.
The American public was appalled.
The Maine Sinks
In February 1898, relations between the United States and Spain deteriorated further.
Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish minister to the United States had written a stinging letter
about President McKinley to a personal friend. The letter was stolen and soon found itself
on the desk of Hearst, who promptly published it on February 9. After public outcry, de
Lôme was recalled to Spain and the Spanish government apologized. The peace was
short-lived, however. On the evening of February 15, a sudden and shocking explosion
tore a hole in the hull of the American battleship Maine, which had been on patrol in
Havana Harbor. The immediate assumption was that the sinking of the Maine and the
concomitant deaths of 260 sailors was the result of Spanish treachery. Although no
conclusive results have ever been proven, many Americans had already made up their
minds, demanding an immediate declaration of war.

American Cartoon, Published in 1898: "Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans!"
McKinley proceeded with prudence at first. When the Spanish government agreed to an
armistice in Cuba and an end to concentration camps, it seemed as though a compromise
was in reach. But the American public, agitated by the yellow press and American
imperialists, demanded firm action. “Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!” was the cry.
On April 11, 1898, McKinley asked the Congress for permission to use force in Cuba. To
send a message to the rest of the world that the United States was interested in Cuban
independence instead of American colonization, Congress passed the Teller Amendment,
which promised that America wouldn’t annex the precious islands. After that conscience-
clearing measure, American leaders threw caution to the wind and declared open warfare
on the Spanish throne.
The Spanish-American War and Its Consequences
The United States was simply unprepared for war. What Americans had in enthusiastic
spirit, they lacked in military strength. The navy, although improved, was simply a shadow
of what it would become by World War I. The US Army was understaffed, underequipped,
and undertrained. The most recent action seen by the army was fighting the Native
Americans on the frontier. Cuba required summer uniforms; the US troops arrived with
heavy woolen coats and pants. The food budget paid for substandard provisions for the
soldiers. What made these daunting problems more manageable was one simple reality.
Spain was even less ready for war than the United States.
Battle of Manila Bay

Before the building of the Panama Canal, each nation required a two-ocean navy. The
major portion of Spain’s Pacific fleet was located in the Spanish Philippines at Manila Bay.
Under orders from Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, Admiral George
Dewey descended upon the Philippines before the declaration of war. Dewey was in the
perfect position to strike, and when given his orders to attack on May 1, 1898, the
American navy was ready. Those who look back with fondness on American military
triumphs must count the Battle of Manila Bay as one of the greatest success stories. The
larger, wooden Spanish fleet was no match for the newer American steel navy. After
Dewey’s guns stopped firing, the entire Spanish squadron was a hulking disaster. The only
American casualty came from sunstroke. The Philippines remained in Spanish control until
the army had been recruited, trained, and transported to the Pacific.
Invading Cuba
The situation in Cuba was far less pretty for the Americans. At the outbreak of war, the
United States was outnumbered seven to one in army personnel. The invading force led by
General William Shafter landed rather uneventfully near Santiago. The real glory of the
Cuban campaign was grabbed by the Rough Riders. Comprising cowboys, adventurous
college students, and ex-convicts, the Rough Riders were a volunteer regiment
commanded by Leonard Wood, but organized by Theodore Roosevelt. Supported by two
African American regiments, the Rough Riders charged up San Juan Hill and helped
Shafter bottle the Spanish forces in Santiago harbor. The war was lost when the Spanish
Atlantic fleet was destroyed by the pursuing American forces.
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris was most generous to the winners. The United States received the
Philippines and the islands of Guam and Puerto Rico. Cuba became independent, and
Spain was awarded $20 million dollars for its losses. The treaty prompted a heated debate
in the United States. Anti-Imperialists called the US hypocritical for condemning European
empires while pursuing one of its own. The war was supposed to be about freeing Cuba,
not seizing the Philippines. Criticism increased when Filipino rebels led by Emilio
Aguinaldo waged a three-year insurrection against their new American colonizers. While
the Spanish-American War lasted 10 weeks and resulted in 400 battle deaths, the
Philippine-American War lasted nearly three years and claimed 4,000 American lives.
Nevertheless, President McKinley’s expansionist policies were supported by the American
public, who seemed more than willing to accept the blessings and curses of their new
expanding empire.
The Roosevelt Corollary and Latin America
For many years, the Monroe Doctrine was practically a dead letter. The bold proclamation
of 1823 that declared the Western Hemisphere forever free from European expansion
bemused the imperial powers who knew the United States was simply too weak to enforce
its claim. By 1900, the situation had changed. A bold, expanding America was spreading

its wings, daring the old world order to challenge its newfound might. When Theodore
Roosevelt became President, he decided to reassert Monroe’s old declaration.
The Platt Amendment
Cuba became the foundation for a new Latin American Policy. Fearful that the new nation
would be prey to the imperial vultures of Europe, US diplomats sharpened American talons
on the island. In the Platt Amendment of 1901, Cuba was forbidden from entering any
treaty that might endanger their independence. In addition, to prevent European gunboats
from landing on Cuban shores, Cuba was prohibited from incurring a large debt. If any of
these conditions were violated, Cuba agreed to permit American troops to land to restore
order. Lastly, the United States was granted a lease on a naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
Independent in name only, Cuba became a legal protectorate of the United States.
Roosevelt Corollary
Convinced that all of Latin America was vulnerable to European attack, President
Roosevelt dusted off the Monroe Doctrine and added his own corollary. While the Monroe
Doctrine blocked further expansion of Europe in the Western Hemisphere, the Roosevelt
Corollary went one step further. Should any Latin American nation engage in “chronic
wrongdoing,” a phrase that included large debts or civil unrest, the US military would
intervene. Europe was to remain across the Atlantic, while America would police the
Western Hemisphere. The first opportunity to enforce this new policy came in 1905, when
the Dominican Republic was in jeopardy of invasion by European debt collectors. The
United States invaded the island nation, seized its customs houses, and ruled the
Dominican Republic as a protectorate until the situation was stabilized.
A Big Stick

William Allen Rogers's 1904 cartoon recreates an episode in Gulliver's Travels with eodore Roosevelt and his Big Stick in the Caribbean.
The effects of the new policy were enormous. Teddy Roosevelt had a motto: “Speak softly
and carry a big stick.” To Roosevelt, the big stick was the new American navy. By
remaining firm in resolve and possessing the naval might to back its interests, the United
States could simultaneously defend its territory and avoid war. Latin Americans didn’t look
upon the corollary favorably. They resented US involvement as Yankee Imperialism, and
animosity against their large neighbor to the North grew dramatically. By the end of the
twentieth century, the United States would send troops of invasion to Latin America over 35
times, establishing an undisputed sphere of influence throughout the hemisphere.
Reaching to Asia
The United States couldn’t ignore the largest continent on earth forever. Since Commodore
Matthew Perry “opened” Japan in 1854, trade with Asia was a reality, earning millions for
American merchants and manufacturers. Slowly but surely the United States acquired
holdings in the region, making the ties even stronger. Already Alaska, Hawaii, and
American Samoa flew the American flag. The Spanish-American War brought Guam and
the Philippines as well. These territories needed supply routes and defense, so ports of
trade and naval bases became crucial.
Open Door Policy

The most populous nation on earth was already divided between encroaching European
empires. China still had an emperor and system of government, but the foreign powers
were truly in control. Although the Chinese Empire wasn’t carved into colonies such as
Africa, Europe did establish quasi-colonial entities called Spheres of Influence after 1894.
Those enjoying special privileges in this fashion included Great Britain, France, Russia,
Germany, and Japan. Secretary of State John Hay feared that if these nations established
trade practices that excluded other nations, American trade would suffer. Britain agreed
and Hay devised a strategy to preserve open trade. He circulated letters among all the
powers called Open Door Notes, requesting that all nations agree to free trade in China.
While Britain agreed, all the other powers declined in private responses. Hay, however, lied
to the world and declared that all had accepted. The imperial powers, faced with having to
admit publicly to greedy designs in China, remained silent and the Open Door went into
effect.
The Boxer Rebellion
In 1900, foreign occupation of China resulted in disaster. A group of Chinese nationalists

called the Fists of Righteous Harmony attacked Western property. The Boxers, as they
were known in the West, continued to wreak havoc until a multinational force invaded to
stop the uprising. The Boxer Rebellion marked the first time US armed forces invaded
another continent without aiming to acquire the territory. The rebels were subdued, and
China was forced to pay an indemnity of $330 million to the United States.
Nobel Peace Prize for Roosevelt
Japan was also a concern for the new imperial America. In 1904, war broke out between
Russia and Japan. The war was going poorly for the Russians. Theodore Roosevelt
offered to mediate the peace process as the war dragged on. The two sides met with
Roosevelt in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and before long, a treaty was arranged. Despite
agreeing to its terms, the Japanese public felt that Japan should have been awarded more
concessions. Anti-American rioting swept the island. Meanwhile, Roosevelt was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. This marked the first time an American president
received such an offer.
Relations with Japan remained icy. In California, Japanese immigrants to America were
faced with harsh discrimination, including segregated schooling. In the informal
Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907, the United States agreed to end the practice of separate
schooling in exchange for a promise to end Japanese immigration. That same year,
Roosevelt decided to display his “big stick,” the new American navy. He sent the flotilla,
known around the world as the Great White Fleet, on a worldwide tour. Although it was
meant to intimidate potential aggressors, particularly Japan, the results of the journey were
uncertain. Finally, in 1908, Japan and the United States agreed to respect each other’s
holdings on the Pacific Rim in the Root-Takahira Agreement. Sending troops overseas,
mediating international conflicts, and risking trouble to maintain free trade, the United
States began to rapidly shed its isolationist past.
The Panama Canal

A canal was inevitable. A trip by boat from New York to San Francisco forced a luckless
crew to sail around the tip of South America—a journey amounting to some 12,000 miles.
The new empire might require a fast move from the Atlantic to the Pacific by a naval
squadron. Teddy Roosevelt decided that the time for action was at hand. The canal would
be his legacy, and he would stop at nothing to get it.
First Obstacles
There were many obstacles to such a project. The first was Great Britain. Fearing that
either side would build an isthmian canal and use it for national advantage, the United
States and Great Britain agreed in the 1850 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty that neither side would
build such a canal. A half-century later, the now dominant United States wanted to nullify
this deal. Great Britain, nervous about its South African Boer War and an increasingly
cloudy Europe, sought to make a friend in the United States. The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
permitted the United States to build and fortify a Central American canal, so long as the
Americans promised to charge the same fares to all nations. One roadblock was clear.
Selecting Panama
President Roosevelt sits at the controls of a steam shovel.
The next question was where to build. Ferdinand de Lesseps, the same engineer who
designed the Suez Canal, had organized a French attempt in Panama in the 1870s.

Disease and financial problems left a partially built canal behind. While it made sense that
the United States should buy the rights to complete the effort, Panama posed other
problems. Despite being the most narrow nation in the region, Panama was very
mountainous, and a complex series of locks was necessary to move ships across the
isthmus. Nicaragua was another possibility. The canal would be situated closer to the
United States. The terrain was flatter, and despite Nicaragua’s width, there were numerous
lakes that could be connected. Volcanic activity in Nicaragua prompted the United States to
try to buy the territory in Panama.
But Panama wasn’t an independent state. To obtain the rights to the territory, the United
States had to negotiate with Colombia. The 1903 Hay-Herrán Treaty permitted the United
States to lease a six-mile-wide strip of land at an annual fee. The treaty moved through the
United States Senate, but the Colombian Senate held out for more money. Roosevelt was
furious. Determined to build his canal, Roosevelt sent a US gunboat to the shores of
Colombia. At the same time, a group of “revolutionaries” declared independence in
Panama. The Colombians were powerless to stop the uprising. The United States became
the first nation in the world to recognize the new government of Panama. Within weeks, the
Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty awarded a 10-mile strip of land to the United States, and the last
hurdle was cleared.
Constructing the Canal
Or so it seemed. Construction on the canal was extremely difficult. The world had never
known such a feat of engineering. Beginning in 1907, American civilians blasted through
tons of mountain stone. Thanks to the work of Walter Reed and William Gorgas, the threats
of yellow fever and malaria were greatly diminished. When Theodore Roosevelt visited the
blast area, he became the first sitting American President to travel outside the country.
Finally, the deed was done. In 1914, at the cost of $345 million, the Panama Canal was
open for business.

Exercise 5.9
Open Link

Key Points
After most of the continental United States was secured, many Americans looked to expand US in uence beyond.
Trade and foreign policy concerns would soon draw the United States into Asia and Latin America.
In 1893, American traders overthrew the Queen of Hawaii. Military concerns brought President William McKinley
and Congress to eventually annex Hawaii.
Tensions over Spanish treatment of its colony in Cuba led to war between the United States and Spain in 1898. e
United States won and took Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and other territories from Spain and became a
colonial power.
After the Spanish-American War, the US took a much more active role in Latin American A airs. With laws such as
the Platt Amendment and executive policies like the Roosevelt Corollary, the US began aggressively looking
beyond its own borders.
Increased trade with Asia brought about a demand for faster ocean travel between the East Coast of the US and
Asia. By 1914, the Panama Canal was created (with massive amounts of American urging and money) to make
trade more e cient.

The First World War
America in the First World War
Isolation was a long American tradition. Since the days of George Washington, Americans
struggled to remain protected by the mighty oceans on its border. When European conflicts
erupted, as they frequently did, many in the United States claimed exceptionalism. America
was different. Why get involved in Europe’s self-destruction? When the Archduke of
Austria-Hungary was killed in cold blood, igniting the most destructive war in human
history, the initial reaction in the United States was the expected will for neutrality. The war
pitted the Central Powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire
against a group of countries known as the Allies: the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and
Italy. As a nation of immigrants, the United States would have difficulty picking a side.
Despite the obvious ties to Britain based on history and language, there were many US
citizens who claimed Germany and Austria-Hungary as their parent lands. Support of either
the allies or the central powers might prove divisive.
In the early days of the war, as Britain and France struggled against Germany, American
leaders decided it was in the national interest to continue trade with all sides as before. A
neutral nation can’t impose an embargo on one side and continue trade with the other and
retain its neutral status. In addition, United States merchants and manufacturers feared
that a boycott would cripple the American economy. Great Britain, with its powerful navy,
had different ideas. A major part of the British strategy was to impose a blockade on
Germany. American trade with the Central Powers simply could not be permitted. The
results of the blockade were astonishing. Trade with England and France more than tripled
between 1914 and 1916, while trade with Germany was cut by over ninety percent. It was
this situation that prompted submarine warfare by the Germans against Americans at sea.
After two and a half years of isolationism, America entered the Great War.

Scenes from World War I
The contributions of the US military to the Allied effort were decisive. Since the Russians
decided to quit the war, the Germans were able to move many of their troops from the
eastern front to the stalemate in the West. The seemingly infinite supply of fresh American
soldiers countered this potential advantage and was demoralizing to the Germans.
American soldiers entered the bloody trenches and by November 1918, the war was over.
Contributions to the war effort weren’t confined to the battlefield. The entire American
economy was mobilized to win the war. From planting extra vegetables to keeping the
furnace turned off, American civilians provided extra food and fuel to the war effort. The US
government engaged in a massive propaganda campaign to raise troops and money.
Where dissent was apparent, it was stifled, prompting many to question whether American
civil liberties were in jeopardy. In the end, the war was won, but the peace was lost. The
Treaty of Versailles, as presented by President Wilson, was rejected by the Senate. Two
dangerous decades of political isolationism followed, only to end in an ever more
cataclysmic war.
Farewell to Isolation
With American trade becoming more and more lopsided toward the Allied cause, many
feared that it was only a matter of time before the United States would be at war. The issue
that propelled most American fence-sitters to side with the British was German submarine
warfare.
The British, with the world’s largest navy, had effectively shut down German maritime
trade. Because there was no hope of catching the British in numbers of ships, the
Germans felt that the submarine was their only key to survival. One “U-boat” could
surreptitiously sink many battleships, only to slip away unseen. This practice would stop
only if the British would lift their blockade.

Sinking the Lusitania
The isolationist American public had little concern if the British and Germans tangled on
the high seas. The incident that changed everything was the sinking of the Lusitania. The
Germans felt they had done their part to warn Americans about the danger of overseas
travel.
The German government purchased advertisement space in American newspapers

warning that Americans who traveled on ships carrying war contraband risked submarine
attack. When the Lusitania departed New York, the Germans believed the massive
passenger ship was loaded with munitions in its cargo hold. On May 7, 1915, a German U-
boat torpedoed the ship without warning, sending 1,198 passengers, including 128
Americans, to an icy grave. The Lusitania, as it turned out, was carrying over 4 million
rounds of ammunition.
President Wilson was enraged. The British were breaking the rules, but the Germans were
causing deaths.
Wilson’s Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, recommended a ban on American

travel on any ships of nations at war. Wilson preferred a tougher line against the German
Kaiser. He demanded an immediate end to submarine warfare, prompting Bryan to resign
in protest. The Germans began a two-year practice of pledging to cease submarine
attacks, reneging on that pledge, and issuing it again under US protest.
Wilson had other reasons for leaning toward the Allied side. He greatly admired the British
government, and democracy in any form was preferable to German authoritarianism. The
historical ties with Britain seemed to draw the United States closer to that side.
Many Americans felt a debt to France for their help in the American Revolution. Several
hundred volunteers, appropriately named the Lafayette Escadrilles, already volunteered to
fight with the French in 1916. In November of that year, Wilson campaigned for reelection
with a peace platform. “He kept us out of war,” read his campaign signs, and Americans
narrowly returned him to the White House. But peace wasn’t to be.
The Zimmermann Telegram
In February 1917, citing the unbalanced US trade with the Allies, Germany announced a
policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. All vessels spotted in the war zone would be sunk
immediately and without warning. Wilson responded by severing diplomatic relations with
the German government.
Later that month, British intelligence intercepted the notorious Zimmerman Telegram. The
German foreign minister sent a message courting support from Mexico in the event the
United States should enter the war. Zimmermann promised Mexico a return of Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona—territories it had lost in 1848.
Relations between the United States and Mexico were already strained. The US had sent
troops across the border in search of Pancho Villa, who had conducted several cross-
border raids of American towns. Failing to find Villa, the troops had been withdrawn only in

January 1917. Despite the recent souring between Mexico and its Northern neighbor, the
United States, the Mexican government declined the offer. In a calculated move, Wilson
released the captured telegram to the American press.
War Declared on Germany
A tempest of outrage followed. More and more Americans began to label Germany as the
true villain in the war. When German subs sank several American commercial ships in
March, Wilson had an even stronger hand to play. On April 2, 1917, he addressed the
Congress, citing a long list of grievances against Germany. Four days later, by a wide
margin in each house, Congress declared war on Germany, and the United States was
plunged into the bloodiest battle in history.
Still, the debate lived on. Two Senators and 50 Representatives voted against the war
resolution, including the first female ever to sit in Congress, Jeannette Rankin of Montana.
Although a clear majority of Americans now supported the war effort, there were large
segments of the populace who still needed convincing.
Over There
The United States was developing a nasty pattern of entering major conflicts woefully
unprepared.
When Congress declared war in April 1917, the army had enough bullets for only two days
of fighting. The army was small in numbers at only 200,000 soldiers. Two-fifths of these
men were members of the National Guard, which had only recently been federalized. The
type of warfare currently plaguing Europe was unlike any the world had ever seen.
The Western front, which ran through Belgium and France, was a virtual stalemate since
the early years of the war. A system of trenches had been dug by each side. Machine-gun
nests, barbed wire, and mines blocked the opposing side from capturing the enemy trench.
Artillery shells, mortars, flamethrowers, and poison gas were employed to no avail.
The defensive technology was simply better than the offensive technology. Even if an
enemy trench was captured, the enemy would simply retreat into another dug 50 yards
behind. Each side would repeatedly send their soldiers “over the top” of the trenches into
the no man’s land of almost certain death with very little territorial gain. Now young
American men would be sent to these killing fields.
Feeling a Draft
The first problem was raising the necessary number of troops. Recruitment was of course
the preferred method, but the needed numbers couldn’t be reached simply with volunteers.
Conscription was unavoidable, and Congress passed the Selective Service Act in May
1917.

All males between the ages of 21 and 30 were required to register for military service. The
last time a draft had been used resulted in great rioting because of the ability of the wealthy
to purchase exemptions. This time, the draft was conducted by random lottery.
Ten million men registered for the draft in 1917.
By the end of the war, over four and a half million American men, and 11,000 American
women, served in the armed forces. 400,000 African Americans were called to active duty.
In all, two million Americans fought in the French trenches.
The first military measures adopted by the United States were on the seas. Joint Anglo-
American operations were highly successful at stopping the dreaded submarine. Following
the thinking that there is greater strength in numbers, the United States and Britain
developed an elaborate convoy system to protect vulnerable ships. In addition, mines were
placed in many areas formerly dominated by German U-boats. The campaign was so
effective that not a single American soldier was lost on the high seas in transit to the
Western front.
The American Expeditionary Force began arriving in France in June 1917, but the original
numbers were quite small. Time was necessary to inflate the ranks of the US Army and to
provide at least a rudimentary training program. The timing was critical.
When the Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1917 in a domestic revolution, Germany signed a
peace treaty with the new government. The Germans could now afford to transfer many of
their soldiers fighting in the East to the deadlocked Western front. Were it not for the fresh
supply of incoming American troops, the war might have followed a very different path.

The addition of the United States to the Allied effort was as elevating to the Allied morale
as it was devastating to the German will. Refusing to submit to the overall Allied
commander, General John Pershing retained independent American control over the US
troops.
Paris: Ooh, La La
The new soldiers began arriving in great numbers in early 1918. The “Doughboys,” as they
were labeled by the French were green indeed. Many fell prey to the trappings of Paris
nightlife while awaiting transfer to the front. An estimated fifteen percent of American
troops in France contracted venereal disease from Parisian prostitutes, costing millions of
dollars in treatment.
The African American soldiers noted that their treatment by the French soldiers was better
than their treatment by their white counterparts in the American army. Although the
German army dropped tempting leaflets on the African American troops promising a less-
racist society if the Germans would win, none took the offer seriously.
Soldiers and Sailors in Front of the Allies' Headquarters Building
By the spring of 1918, the doughboys were seeing fast and furious action. A German
offensive came within 50 miles of Paris, and American soldiers played a critical role in
turning the tide at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood. In September 1918, efforts were
concentrated on dislodging German troops from the Meuse River. Finding success, the

Allies chased the Germans into the trench-laden Argonne Forest, where America suffered
heavy casualties.
But the will and resources of the German resistance were shattered. The army retreated
and on November 11, 1918, the German government agreed to an armistice. The war was
over. Over 14 million soldiers and civilians perished in the so-called Great War, including
112,000 Americans. Countless more were wounded.
The bitterness that swept Europe and America would prevent the securing of a just peace,
imperiling the next generation as well.
Over Here
The First World War was a total war. In previous wars, the civilian population tried to steer
clear of the war effort. Surely expectations were placed on civilians for food and clothing,
and of course, since the nineteenth century, troops were conscripted from the general
population. But modern communication and warfare required an all-out effort from the
entire population. New weapons technology required excess fuel and industrial capacity.
The economic costs of twentieth-century warfare dwarfed earlier wars, therefore extensive
revenue raising was essential. Without the support of the whole population, failure was
certain. Governments used every new communications technology imaginable to spread
pro-war propaganda. American efforts geared to winning World War I amounted to nothing
less than a national machine.
Rallying the Country
Once Congress declared war, President Wilson quickly created the Committee on Public
Information under the direction of George Creel. Creel used every possible medium
imaginable to raise American consciousness. Creel organized rallies and parades. He
commissioned George M. Cohan to write patriotic songs intended to stoke the fires of
American nationalism. Indeed, “Over There” became an overnight standard. James
Montgomery Flagg illustrated dozens of posters urging Americans to do everything from
preserving coal to enlisting in the service. Flagg depicted a serious Uncle Sam staring at
young American men declaring: “I Want You for the US Army.” His powerful images were
hard to resist. An army of “Four Minute Men” swept the nation making short, but poignant,
powerful speeches. Films and plays added to the fervor. The Creel Committee effectively
raised the national spirit and engaged millions of Americans in the business of winning the
war.
Dealing With Dissenters
Still, there were dissenters. The American Socialist Party condemned the war effort. Irish-
Americans often displayed contempt for the British ally. Millions of immigrants from
Germany and Austria-Hungary were forced to support initiatives that could destroy their
homelands. But this dissent was rather small. Nevertheless, the government stifled
wartime opposition by law with the passing of the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917.
Anyone found guilty of criticizing the government war policy or hindering wartime directives

could be sent to jail. Many cried that this was a flagrant violation of precious civil liberties,
including the right to free speech. The Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision
on this issue in the Schenck v. United States verdict. The majority court opinion ruled that
should an individual’s free speech present a “clear and present danger” to others, the
government could impose restrictions or penalties. Schenck was arrested for sabotaging
the draft. The Court ruled that his behavior endangered thousands of American lives and
upheld his jail sentence. Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned and ran for
president from his jail cell in 1920. He polled nearly a million votes.
Frankfurters to Hot Dogs
There was a sinister side to the war hysteria. Many Americans couldn’t discern between
enemies abroad and enemies at home. German Americans became targets for countless
hate crimes. On a local level, schoolchildren were pummeled on schoolyards, and yellow
paint was splashed on front doors. One German American was lynched by a mob in
Collinsville, Illinois, only to be found innocent by a sympathetic jury. Colleges and high
schools stopped teaching the German language. The city of Cincinnati banned pretzels,
and esteemed city orchestras refused to play music by German composers. Hamburgers,
sauerkraut, and frankfurters became known as liberty meat, liberty cabbage, and hot dogs.
The temperance movement received a boost by linking beer drinking with support for
Germany. These undeserved crimes against innocent German Americans went completely
unpunished.
Why Victory Gardens?
Once support for the war was in full swing, the population was mobilized to produce war
materiel. In 1917, the War Industries Board was established to coordinate production of
munitions and supplies. The board was empowered to allocate raw materials and
determine what products would be given high priority. Women shifted jobs from domestic
service to heavy industry to compensate for the labor shortage owing to military service.
African Americans flocked northward in greater and greater numbers in the hope of
winning industry jobs. Herbert Hoover was appointed to head the Food Administration.
Shortages of food in the Allied countries had led to shortages and rationing all across
Western Europe. Hoover decided upon a plan that would raise the necessary foodstuffs by
voluntary means. Americans were encouraged to participate in “Meatless Mondays” and
“Wheatless Wednesdays.”Additional food could be raised by planting “victory gardens” in
small backyard patches or even in window boxes on fire escapes. President Wilson
showed his support by allowing a flock of sheep to graze on the White House lawn. Similar
measures were employed by the Fuel Administration. The government also adopted
Daylight Savings Time to conserve energy.
World War I was the most expensive endeavor by the United States up to that point in
history. The total cost to the American public amounted to over $110 billion. Five successful
Liberty Bond Drive raised about two-thirds of that sum. Of course, bonds are loans to be
paid by future generations. The first income tax under the Sixteenth Amendment was
levied. The tax rate at the top level was 70 percent. All in all, great sacrifices were made on
behalf of the US people in their venture to make the world safe for democracy.

The Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations
As the war drew to a close, Woodrow Wilson set forth his plan for a “just peace.” Wilson
believed that fundamental flaws in international relations created an unhealthy climate that
led inexorably to the World War. His Fourteen Points outlined his vision for a safer world.
Wilson called for an end to secret diplomacy, a reduction of armaments, and freedom of
the seas. He claimed that reductions to trade barriers, fair adjustment of colonies, and
respect for national self-determination would reduce economic and nationalist sentiments
that lead to war. Finally, Wilson proposed an international organization comprising
representatives of all the world’s nations that would serve as a forum against allowing any
conflict to escalate. Unfortunately, Wilson couldn’t impose his world view on the victorious
Allied Powers. When they met in Paris to hammer out the terms of the peace, the
European leaders had other ideas.
The Paris Peace Conference
Most of the decisions made at the Paris Peace Conference were made by the Big Four,
consisting of President Wilson, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau
of France, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy. The European leaders weren’t interested in a just
peace. They were interested in retribution. Over Wilson’s protests, they ignored the
Fourteen Points one by one. Germany was to admit guilt for the war and pay unlimited
reparations. The German military was reduced to a domestic police force and its territory
was truncated to benefit the new nations of Eastern Europe. The territories of Alsace and
Lorraine were restored to France. German colonies were handed in trusteeship to the
victorious Allies. No provisions were made to end secret diplomacy or preserve freedom of
the seas. Wilson did gain approval for his proposal for a League of Nations. Dismayed by
the overall results, but hopeful that a strong League could prevent future wars, he returned
to present the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate.
Defeating the League of Nations
Unfortunately for Wilson, he was met with stiff opposition. The Republican leader of the
Senate, Henry Cabot Lodge, was very suspicious of Wilson and his treaty. Article X of the
League of Nations required the United States to respect the territorial integrity of member
states. Although there was no requirement compelling an American declaration of war, the
United States might be bound to impose an economic embargo or to sever diplomatic
relations. Lodge viewed the League as a supranational government that would limit the
power of the American government from determining its own affairs. Others believed the
League was the sort of entangling alliance the United States had avoided since George
Washington’s Farewell Address. Lodge sabotaged the League covenant by declaring the
United States exempt from Article X. He attached reservations, or amendments, to the
treaty to this effect. Wilson, bedridden from a debilitating stroke, was unable to accept
these changes. He asked Senate Democrats to vote against the Treaty of Versailles unless
the Lodge reservations were dropped. Neither side budged, and the treaty went down to
defeat.

Why did the United States fail to ratify the Versailles Treaty and join the League of
Nations? Personal enmity between Wilson and Lodge played a part. Wilson might have
prudently invited a prominent Republican to accompany him to Paris to help ensure its later
passage. Wilson’s fading health eliminated the possibility of making a strong personal
appeal on behalf of the treaty. Ethnic groups in the United States helped its defeat.
German Americans felt their fatherland was being treated too harshly. Italian Americans felt
more territory should have been awarded to Italy. Irish Americans criticized the treaty for
failing to address the issue of Irish independence. Diehard American isolationists worried
about a permanent global involvement. The stubbornness of President Wilson led him to
ask his own party to scuttle the treaty. The final results of all these factors had mammoth
long-term consequences. Without the involvement of the world’s newest superpower, the
League of Nations was doomed to failure. Over the next two decades, the United States
would sit on the sidelines as the unjust Treaty of Versailles and the ineffective League of
Nations would set the stage for an even bloodier, more devastating clash.

Exercise 5.10
Open Link

Key Points
e assassination of the heir to the Austrian-Hungary throne triggered a war between European powers that
would have major consequences for the modern world. e Allied powers (Britain, France, and Russia) went to
war against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) starting in July of 1914.
e United States broke its tendency towards isolationism by trading with Britain during the war. German
submarine activity and a secret German deal to try to get Mexico to move against the United States drew America
into the war on the Allied side in 1917.
e American military was unprepared for large-scale warfare and needed to institute a draft to build up the
needed manpower. What the United States could contribute was an army of fresh soldiers not beat down by years
of warfare, and materials needed by the Allies.
On November 11, 1918, a cease- re was agreed upon and the Central Powers were defeated. e Treaty of
Versailles was signed to end the war and the details of the treaty would set up the circumstances that would lead to
World War II.
President Woodrow Wilson had hoped to build an international organization known as the League of Nations to
avoid another world war. Domestic politics got in the way of the US joining the League of Nations, which was a
large part contributing to the organization’s failure.

The Roaring Twenties
The Decade That Roared
The 1920s saw the culmination of 50 years of rapid American industrialization. New
products seemed to burst from American production lines with the potential of
revolutionizing American life. Other products that had previously been toys for the rich
were now available to a majority of Americans. The standard of living increased as the
economy grew stronger and stronger. The results were spectacular. The America of 1929
was vastly different from the America of 1919.
The automobile was first and foremost among these products. The practices of Henry Ford
made these horseless carriages affordable to the American masses. Widespread use of
the automobile ushered in changes in work patterns and leisure plans. A host of support
industries were launched. Dating and education were changed by the automobile. Radio
usage brought further changes. For the first time, a national popular culture was
supplanting regional folkways. Americans across the continent were sharing the same
jokes, participating in the same fads, and worshipping the same heroes. Housework was
minimized with the introduction of labor-saving devices. As a result, leisure time was
increased.
The bleak outlook and large sacrifices of the wartime era were now a part of the past.
Young Americans were looking to cut loose and have a good time. Prohibition didn’t end
alcohol usage. The romantic subculture of the speakeasy kept the firewater flowing.
Organized crime flourished as gangland violence related to bootlegged liquor plagued
America’s cities. Flapper women strove to eliminate double standard values. Young
females engaged in behaviors previously reserved for men including smoking and drinking.
Sigmund Freud’s assertion that sexual behavior was a natural instinct brought down more
barriers as young Americans delved into sexual experimentation. The Harlem Renaissance
brought a new form of entertainment. The sounds of jazz bands had appeal that
transcended African American audiences, as thousands flocked to hear the new sounds.
The 1920s ushered in more lasting changes to the American social scene than any
previous decade. Escapism loomed large as many coped with change by living in the
present and enjoying themselves. The economic boom that unleashed the transformation
and its consequences made the Roaring Twenties an era to remember.
The Age of the Automobile

Perhaps no invention affected American everyday life in the twentieth century more than
the automobile.
1919 Ford Model T (Image by Sfoskett~commonswiki [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Although the technology for the automobile existed in the nineteenth century, it took Henry
Ford to make the useful gadget accessible to the American public. Ford used the idea of
the assembly line for automobile manufacturing. He paid his workers an unprecedented $5
a day when most laborers were bringing home two, hoping that it would increase their
productivity. Furthermore, they might use their higher earnings to purchase a new car.
Ford reduced options, even stating that the public could choose whatever color car they
wanted—so long as it was black.
The Model T sold for $490 in 1914, about one quarter the cost of the previous decade. By
1920, there were over eight million registrations. The 1920s saw tremendous growth in
automobile ownership, with the number of registered drivers almost tripling to 23 million by
the end of the decade.
Economic Spin-Offs

The growth of the automobile industry caused an economic revolution across the United
States. Dozens of spin-off industries blossomed. Of course, the demand for vulcanized
rubber skyrocketed. Road construction created thousands of new jobs, as state and local
governments began funding highway design.
Even the federal government became involved with the Federal Highway Act of 1921. Gas
stations began to dot the land, and mechanics began to earn a living fixing the inevitable
problems. Oil and steel were two well-established industries that received a serious boost
by the demand for automobiles. Travelers on the road needed shelter on long trips, so
motels began to line the major long-distance routes.
Even cuisine was transformed by the automobile. The quintessential American foods—
hamburgers, French fries, milk shakes, and apple pies—were hallmarks of the new
roadside diner. Drivers wanted cheap, relatively fast food so they could be on their way in a
hurry. Unfortunately, as new businesses flourished, old ones decayed. When America
opted for the automobile, the nation’s rails began to be neglected. As European nations
were strengthening mass transit systems, individualistic Americans invested in the
automobile infrastructure.
Effects of the Automobile
The social effects of the automobile were as great. Freedom of choice encouraged many
family vacations to places previously impossible. Urban dwellers had the opportunity to
rediscover pristine landscapes, just as rural dwellers were able to shop in towns and cities.
Teenagers gained more and more independence with driving freedom.
Americans experienced traffic jams for the first time, as well as traffic accidents and
fatalities. Soon demands were made for licensure and safety regulation on the state level.
Despite the drawbacks, Americans loved their cars. As more and more were purchased,
drivers saw their worlds grow much larger.
The Fight Against “Demon Rum”
Saloons were closed, bottles were smashed, and kegs were split wide open. When the
states ratified the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, the manufacture, sale, and
transportation of alcoholic beverages were outlawed. Protestant ministers and progressive
politicians rejoiced and proclaimed a holier and safer America. It was predicted that worker
productivity would increase, families would grow closer, and urban slums would disappear.
Yet for all its promise, prohibition was repealed fourteen years later, after being deemed a
dismal failure.
Advantages to Prohibition
In fairness, there were advantages to prohibition. Social scientists are certain that actual
consumption of alcohol actually decreased during the decade. Estimates indicate that
during the first few years of prohibition, alcohol consumption declined to a mere third of its
prewar level. Although no polls or surveys would be accurate, health records indicate a

decrease in alcoholism and alcohol-related diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver. Family
savings did increase during the decade, but it was difficult to determine whether the
increase was due to decreased alcohol consumption or a robust economy.
Disadvantages to Prohibition
The minuses seemed to outweigh the pluses. First, federal allocation of funds to enforce
prohibition was woefully inadequate. Gaping loopholes in the Volstead Act, the law
implemented to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, encouraged abuse. Alcohol
possession was permitted for medical purposes, and production of small amounts was
permitted for home use. The manufacturing of “near beer”—regular beer without the
alcohol—was also permitted. The problem was that to make near beer, it was first
necessary to brew the real variety, so illegal breweries could insist their product was
scheduled to have the alcohol removed. Soon a climate of lawlessness swept the nation,
as Americans everywhere began to partake in illegal drink. Every city had countless
speakeasies, which were not-so-secret bars hidden from public view.
While the number of drinkers may have decreased, the strength of the beverages
increased. People drank as much as they could as fast as they could to avoid detection.
Because alcoholic production was illegal, there could be no regulation. Desperate
individuals and heartless profiteers distilled anything imaginable, often with disastrous
results. Some alcohol sold on the black market caused nerve damage, blindness, and even
death. While women of the previous generation campaigned to ban alcohol, the young
women of the twenties consumed it with a passion.
Organized Crime
The group that profited most from the illegal market was organized crime. City crime
bosses such as Al Capone of Chicago sold their products to willing buyers and even
intimidated unwilling customers to purchase their illicit wares. Crime involving turf wars
among mobsters was epidemic. Soon the mobs forced legitimate businessmen to buy
protection, tainting those who tried to make an honest living. Even city police took booze
and cash from the likes of Al Capone. After several years of trying to connect Capone to
bootlegging, federal prosecutors were able to convict him for income tax evasion.
The Eighteenth Amendment was different from all previous changes to the Constitution. It
was the first experiment in social engineering. Critics pointed out that it was the only
amendment to date that restricted rather than increased individual rights. Civil liberties
advocates considered prohibition an abomination. In the end, economics doomed
prohibition. The costs of ineffectively policing the nation were simply too high. At the
deepest point of the Great Depression, government officials finally ratified the Twenty-First
Amendment, repealing the practice once and for all.
The Invention of the Teenager
In the nineteenth century, the American world consisted of children and adults. Most
Americans tried their best to allow their children to enjoy their youth while they were slowly

prepared for the trials and tribulations of adulthood. Although child labor practices still
existed, more and more states were passing restrictions against such exploitation. The
average number of years spent in school for young Americans was also on the rise.
Parents were waiting longer to goad their youngsters into marriage rather than pairing
them off at the tender age of 16 or 17. In short, it soon became apparent that a new stage
of life—the teenage phase—was becoming a reality in America. American adolescents
were displaying traits unknown among children and adults. Although the word teenager did
not come into use until decades later, the teenage mindset dawned in the 1920s.
From Courtship to Dating
The single greatest factor that led to the emergence of the independent teenager was the
automobile. Teens enjoyed freedom from parental supervision unknown to previous
generations. The courtship process rapidly evolved into dating. In earlier times, young boys
and girls spent their first dates at home. The boy would meet the girl’s parents, they would
have a sitting in the parlor, followed by dinner with the entire family. Later in the evening,
the couple might enjoy a few moments alone on the front porch. After several meetings,
they could be lucky enough to be granted permission for an unchaperoned walk through
town. The automobile simply shattered these old-fashioned traditions.
Impact of the Automobile
Automobile technology led directly to the other major factor that fostered a teenage culture:
the consolidated high school. Buses could now transport students farther from their homes,
leading to the decline of the one-room schoolhouse. Furthermore, Americans were
realizing the potential of a longer education, and states were adding more years to their
compulsory schooling laws. As a result, a larger number of teenagers were thrown into a
common space than ever before. It was only natural that discussions about commonalties
would occur. Before long, schools developed their own cultural patterns, completely unlike
the childhood or adult experience. School athletics and extracurricular activities only
enhanced this nascent culture. The American teenager was born.
Flappers
The battle for suffrage was finally over. After a 72-year struggle, women had won the
precious right to vote. The generations of suffragists that had fought for so long proudly
entered the political world. Carrie Chapman Catt carried the struggle into voting awareness
with the founding of the League of Women Voters. Alice Paul vowed to fight until an Equal
Rights Amendment was added to the Constitution. Margaret Sanger declared that female
independence could be accomplished only with proper birth control methods. To their
dismay, the daughters of this generation seemed uninterested in these grand causes. As
the 1920s roared along, many young women of the age wanted to have fun.
Life of the Flappers

Flappers were northern, urban, single, young, middle-class women. Many held steady jobs
in the changing American economy. The clerking jobs that blossomed in the Gilded Age
were more numerous than ever. Increasing phone usage required more and more
operators. The consumer-oriented economy of the 1920s saw a burgeoning number of
department stores. Women were needed on the sales floor to relate to the most precious
customers—other women. But the flapper wasn’t all work and no play.
By night, flappers engaged in the active city nightlife. They frequented jazz clubs and
vaudeville shows. Speakeasies were a common destination, as the new woman of the
twenties adopted the same carefree attitude toward prohibition as her male counterpart.
Ironically, more young women consumed alcohol in the decade it was illegal than ever
before. Smoking, another activity previously reserved for men, became popular among
flappers. With the political field leveled by the Nineteenth Amendment, women sought to
eliminate social double standards. Consequently, the flapper was less hesitant to
experiment sexually than previous generations. Sigmund Freud’s declaration that the libido
was one of the most natural of human needs seemed to give the green light to explore.
The Flapper Look
e Flapper

The flapper had an unmistakable look. The long locks of Victorian women lay on the floors
of beauty parlors as young women cut their hair to shoulder length. Hemlines of dresses
rose dramatically to the knee. The cosmetics industry flowered as many women used
make-up. Flappers bound their chests and wore high heels. Clara Bow, Hollywood’s “It”
Girl, captured the flapper image for the nation to see.
Many women celebrated the age of the flapper as a female declaration of independence.
Experimentation with new looks, jobs, and lifestyles seemed liberating compared with the
socially silenced woman in the Victorian Age. The flappers chose activities to please
themselves, not a father or husband. But critics were quick to elucidate the shortcomings of
flapperism. The political agenda embraced by the previous generation was largely ignored
until the feminist revival of the 1960s. Many wondered if flappers were expressing
themselves or acting like men. Smoking, drinking, and sexual experimentation were
characteristic of the modern young woman. Short hair and bound chests added to the
effect. One thing was certain, despite the potential political and social gains or losses, the
flappers of the 1920s sure managed to have a good time.
The Harlem Renaissance
It was time for a cultural celebration. African Americans had endured centuries of slavery
and the struggle for abolition. The end of bondage hadn’t brought the promised land many
had envisioned. Instead, white supremacy was quickly, legally, and violently restored to the
New South, where ninety percent of African Americans lived. Starting in about 1890,
African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers. This Great Migration eventually
relocated hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the rural South to the urban
North. Many discovered they had shared common experiences in their past histories and
their uncertain present circumstances. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, the recently
dispossessed ignited an explosion of cultural pride. Indeed, African American culture was
reborn in the Harlem Renaissance.
The Great Migration
The Great Migration began because of a “push” and a “pull.” Disenfranchisement and Jim
Crow laws led many African Americans to hope for a new life up north. Hate groups and
hate crimes cast alarm among African American families of the Deep South. The promise
of owning land had not materialized. Most blacks toiled as sharecroppers trapped in an
endless cycle of debt. In the 1890s, a boll weevil blight damaged the cotton crop
throughout the region, increasing the despair. All these factors served to push African
Americans to seek better lives. The booming northern economy forged the pull. Industrial
jobs were numerous, and factory owners looked near and far for sources of cheap labor.
Unfortunately, northerners didn’t welcome African Americans with open arms. While the
legal systems of the northern states weren’t as obstructionist toward African American
rights, the prejudice among the populace was as acrimonious. White laborers complained
that African Americans were flooding the employment market and lowering wages. Most
new migrants found themselves segregated by practice in run-down urban slums. The
largest of these was Harlem. Writers, actors, artists, and musicians glorified African
American traditions, and at the same time created new ones.

Writers and Actors
The most prolific writer of the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes. Hughes cast off
the influences of white poets and wrote with the rhythmic meter of blues and jazz. Claude
McKay urged African Americans to stand up for their rights in his powerful verses. Jean
Toomer wrote plays and short stories, as well as poems, to capture the spirit of his times.
Book publishers soon took notice and patronized many of these talents. Zora Neale
Hurston was noticed quickly with her moving novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Music
met prose in the form of musical comedy. The 1921 production of Shuffle Along is
sometimes credited with initiating the movement. Actor Paul Robeson electrified audiences
with his memorable stage performances.
Musicians
Jazz Musician Duke Ellington
No aspect of the Harlem Renaissance shaped America and the entire world as much as
jazz. Jazz flouted many musical conventions with its syncopated rhythms and improvised
instrumental solos. Thousands of city dwellers flocked night after night to see the same
performers. Improvisation meant that no two performances would ever be the same.
Harlem’s Cotton Club boasted the talents of Duke Ellington.

Singers such as Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday popularized blues and jazz vocals. Jelly
Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong drew huge audiences as white Americans as well as
African Americans caught jazz fever.
The continuing hardships faced by African Americans in the Deep South and the urban
North were severe. It took the environment of the new American city to bring in close
proximity some of the greatest minds of the day. Harlem brought notice to great works that
might otherwise have been lost or never produced. The results were phenomenal. The
artists of the Harlem Renaissance undoubtedly transformed African American culture. But
the impact on all American culture was equally strong. For the first time, white America
couldn’t look away.
A Consumer Economy
The 1920s was a decade of increasing conveniences for the middle class. New products
made household chores easier and led to more leisure time. Products previously too
expensive became affordable. New forms of financing allowed every family to spend
beyond their current means. Advertising capitalized on people’s hopes and fears to sell
more and more goods.
Changing Housework
By the end of the 1920s, household work was revolutionized. A typical work week for a
housewife before the 1920s involved many tedious chores. All the furniture was moved off
the carpets, which were rolled up and dragged outside to beat out the week’s dirt and dust.
The ice in the icebox was replaced and the water pan that lay beneath was repeatedly
changed. The clothes were scrubbed in a washing tub on a washboard. An iron was
heated on the stove to smooth out the wrinkles. Women typically spent the summer
months canning food for the long winter. Clothes were made from patterns, and bread was
made from scratch. Very few of these practices were necessary by the end of the decade.
Vacuum cleaners displaced the carpet beater. Electric refrigerators, washing machines,
and irons saved hours of extra work. New methods of canning and freezing made store-
bought food cheap and effective enough to eliminate this chore. Off-the-rack clothing
became more and more widespread. Even large bakeries were supplying bread to the new
supermarkets. The hours saved in household work were countless.
Buying on Credit
“Buy now, pay later” became the credo of many middle-class Americans of the Roaring
Twenties. For the single-income family, all these new conveniences were impossible to
afford at once. But retailers wanted the consumer to have it all. Department stores opened
up generous lines of credit for those who couldn’t pay up front but could demonstrate the
ability to pay in the future. Similar installment plans were offered to buyers who couldn’t
afford the lump sum, but could afford “12 easy payments.” Over half of the nation’s
automobiles were sold on credit by the end of the decade. America’s consumers could
indeed have it all, if they had an iron stomach for debt. Consumer debt more than doubled
between 1920 and 1930.

Advertising
Fueling consumer demand were new techniques in advertising. This wasn’t a new
business, but in the increasingly competitive marketplace, manufacturers looked to more
and more aggressive advertising campaigns. One major trend of the decade was to use
pop psychology methods to convince Americans that the product was needed. The classic
example was the campaign for Listerine. Using a seldom heard term for bad breath—
halitosis—Listerine convinced thousands of Americans to buy their product. Consumers
might not have known what halitosis was, but they surely knew they didn’t want it.
Advertisers were no longer simply responding to demand; they were creating demand.
Radio became an important new means of communicating a business message.
Testimonials from Hollywood film stars sold products in record numbers.
The advertising business created demand for the gadgets and appliances being
manufactured by American factories.
Radio Fever
Commercial radio in America had humble beginnings. Frank Conrad, an engineer for
Westinghouse, set up an amateur radio station above his garage in a Pittsburgh suburb.
Since the wireless technology was developed by Guglielmo Marconi in the late nineteenth
century, thousands of enthusiasts across the world experimented with the new toy. After
World War I, Conrad began broadcasting a variety of programming from his “station.” High
school music groups performed, phonograph records were played, and news and baseball
scores were reported. Conrad had dramatically improved the transmitter, and soon
hundreds of people in the Pittsburgh area were sending requests for air time. The bosses
of Westinghouse knew that Conrad was on to something and convinced him to make his
hobby commercially profitable.
KDKA on the Air
On the night of November 2, 1920, Conrad and his Westinghouse associates announced
that Warren G. Harding had defeated James Cox to become the next president. The
message was heard as far north as New Hampshire and as far south as Louisiana. The
federal government granted the call letters KDKA to the Pittsburgh station and a new
industry was born. For nearly a year, KDKA monopolized the airwaves. But competition
came fast and furious; by the end of 1922, there were over 500 such stations across the
United States. The federal government exercised no regulation over the nascent
enterprise, and the result was complete chaos. Stations fought over call letters and
frequencies, each trying to out-broadcast the closest competitor. Finally, in 1927, Congress
created the Federal Radio Commission to restore order.
Ad Time

One of the great attractions to the radio listener was that once the cost of the original
equipment was covered, radio was free. Stations made money by selling air time to
advertisers. The possibility of reaching millions of listeners at once had advertising
executives scrambling to take advantage. By the end of the decade, advertisers paid over
$10,000 for an hour of premium time.
The Radio Corporation of America created a new dimension to the venture in 1926. By
licensing telephone lines, RCA created America’s first radio network and called it the
National Broadcasting Company. For the first time, citizens of California and New York
could listen to the same programming simultaneously. Regional differences began to
dissolve as the influence of network broadcasting ballooned. Americans listened to the
same sporting events and took up the same fads. Baseball games and boxing matches
could now reach those far away from the stadiums and arenas. A mass national
entertainment culture was flowering.
Fads and Heroes
The Roaring Twenties was a time of great change. As exciting as dynamic times may
seem, such turmoil generates uncertainty. Sometimes, in an effort to obscure tensions,
people seek outlets of escape. Fads—sometimes entertaining, sometimes senseless—
swept the nation. Another coping strategy in a time of great uncertainty is to find role
models who embody tried and true values. National heroes heretofore unknown to
peacetime America began to dominate American consciousness.
New Fads
The radio created the conditions for national fads. Without such a method of live and
immediate communication, fads could amount only to local crazes. Roaring Twenties fads
ranged from the athletic to the ludicrous. One of the most popular trends of the decade was
the dance marathon. New dance steps such as the Charleston swept the nation’s dance
halls, and young Americans were eager to prove their agility. In a typical dance marathon,
contestants would dance for 45 minutes and rest for 15. The longest marathons lasted 36
hours or more. Beauty pageants came into vogue. The first Miss America Pageant was
staged in Atlantic City in 1921. One of the most bizarre fads was flagpole sitting. The object
was simple: be the person who could sit atop the local flagpole for the longest period of
time. Fifteen-year-old Avon Foreman of Baltimore set the amateur standard—ten days, ten
hours, ten minutes, and ten seconds.
Mahjong is a Chinese tile game. Colored tiles with different symbols were randomly
arranged geometrically. The object is to remove all the game pieces. Crossword puzzle
fever swept the nation when Simon and Schuster published America’s first crossword
puzzle book. The Book of the Month Club drew thousands of readers into literary circles.
Two new periodicals began to grace American coffee tables. The nation’s first weekly news
magazine, Time, was founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden. Their punchy writing on
timely stories and eye-grabbing pictures hit the newsstands in 1923. DeWitt Wallace made
a business out of condensing articles from other periodicals. His publication, Reader’s
Digest, began in 1921 and boasted a half million subscriptions a decade later.

New Heroes
No individual personified the All-American hero more than Charles Lindbergh. His courage
was displayed to the nation when he flew his Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris,
becoming the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. National and international
news was hidden in the back pages of the major newspapers while Lindbergh stole the
front pages. Confetti flew and bugles sounded in New York City when he returned
successfully, and President Coolidge hosted a gala celebration. There was more to
Lindbergh’s appeal than his bravery. Throughout the ordeal, Lindbergh maintained a
hometown modesty. He declined dozens of endorsement opportunities, ever refusing to
sell out. Spectator sports provided opportunities for others to grab the limelight. Ty Cobb
and Babe Ruth were role models for hundreds of thousands of American boys. Fortunately,
Cobb’s outward racism and Ruth’s penchant for drinking and womanizing were shielded
from admiring youngsters. Football had Red Grange, and boxing had Jack Dempsey.
Gertrude Ederle impressed Americans by becoming the first woman to swim the English
Channel. These heroes gave Americans—anxious about the uncertain future and rapidly
fading past—a much-needed sense of stability.

Exercise 5.11
Open Link

Key Points
After years of sacri ce to ght World War I, America found itself in a time of peace and economic boom during the
1920s. e good times would change the country in ways that would focus its society on the pursuit of pro t and
entertainment.
By the1920s, millions of automobiles were on American roads, spurred by Henry Ford’s assembly line method of
mass producing cars. Cars changed American culture in not only the distances that could be covered but in large
aspects of the economy and culture built around cars.
e temperance movement scored a major victory with the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 which prohibited the
manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. e prohibition led to a large underground economy
for illicit alcohol.
In the late 1800s, large numbers of African Americans moved to northern cities to take industrial jobs in what was
known as the Great Migration. Harlem in New York was one area where people settled in the North which led to a
cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Radio became the main source of entertainment and news for millions of Americans during the 1920s. In 1927, the
Federal Radio Commission was established to create order out of the rapidly growing radio market.

Political and Social Events of the Twenties
Old Values versus New Values
Not all Americans embraced the new way of life. Many saw the United States as a
civilization in decline. The original purpose of the Puritan city-upon-a-hill seemed to be
slipping away in the pursuit of materialism and self-gratification. The morals of the Victorian
Age were forgotten in the age of Freud and the flapper. Immigrants brought new cultures,
religions, and languages to the increasingly complex American mosaic. The success of the
Bolshevik Revolution brought a widespread suspicion of socialists, radicals, and labor
unions. There were those in America who clung tenaciously to the values of the past. They
wouldn’t give up without a fight.
The first group to feel the heat were suspected Socialists. The wave of postwar strikes
touched off an anti-labor sentiment across America. Fears fueled by the Russian
Revolution touched off a witch hunt for potential threats to national security. Immigrants,
whose numbers had been transmuting the American ethnic fabric, became targets for
intolerance. Ethnic purists succeeded at slamming the open door for immigrants shut. Hate
groups such as the Ku Klux Klan gained in popularity as working-class Americans took aim
at African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. The churches of America were
similarly torn by the struggle between old and new. Modernists reconciled the theories of
Charles Darwin with scripture, while fundamentalists persisted with a strict interpretation of
creation theory.
Throughout the struggle, America’s political leadership remained remarkably aloof. The
White House was occupied by the most conservative presidents in a generation during the
decade of change. Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover seemed content
with the status quo, and delegated much of the decision-making to Congress and key
Cabinet members. Businesses took advantage of the laissez-faire approach.
By the end of the decade, America was on the brink of something special. An industrial
revolution was now complete. The United States had proven itself as a global power in
acquiring an empire and intervening in the First World War, yet lacked the physical
destruction of the conflict that plagued the European continent. The standard of living was
rising faster than anywhere in the world. Indeed, when Herbert Hoover took office, he
predicted that America would soon see the end of poverty. No one predicted the sheer
calamity that was so soon to follow.
The Red Scare

World War I was over, but the hysteria lingered. The Eastern front hadn’t gone well for
Russia. The pressures of their losing effort forced the Russian czar to abdicate. The new
government hadn’t fared much better. Finally, in November 1917, Lenin led a successful
revolution of the Bolshevik workers. The ideas of Karl Marx had been known since 1848,
but nowhere in the world until now had a successful communist revolution occurred. Once
the war against Germany was over, the Western powers focused their energies at restoring
Czar Nicholas. Even the United States sent troops to Russia hoping the White Russians
could oust the communist Reds. All this effort was in vain. The Bolsheviks murdered the
entire royal family and slowly secured control of the entire nation.
The Communist Party Forms
Back in the United States, veterans were returning home. Workers who avoided striking
during the war were now demanding wage increases to keep pace with spiraling inflation.
Over 3,300 postwar strikes swept the land. A small group of radicals formed the
Communist Labor Party in 1919. Progressive and conservative Americans believed that
labor activism was a menace to American society and must be squelched. The hatchet
man against American radicals was President Wilson’s Attorney General, A. Mitchell
Palmer. Palmer was determined that no Bolshevik Revolution would happen in the United
States.
The Sacco-Vanzetti Case
On April 15, 1921, two employees of a shoe warehouse in South Braintree,

Massachusetts, were murdered during a robbery. The police investigating
the crime arrested two Italian immigrants named Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
Sacco and Vanzetti maintained their innocence, but they already had a
strike against them: they were anarchists and socialists. Just a little over
two weeks after their arrest, they were found guilty.
Many people, particularly fellow socialists, protested the verdict, saying the
two men were convicted more on political and ethnic prejudice than on any
real evidence. Indeed, four years later, another man said he had committed
the crime with a local gang.
Despite appeals, Sacco and Vanzetti were never granted a retrial. When
they were sentenced to death on April 9, 1927, protests erupted around the
country. But to no avail—the men were executed on Aug. 23, 1927. They
claimed they were innocent until the moment of their deaths.
Scholars still debate the guilt and innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti, but
there is little question that the trial was biased against them.

Palmer’s Efforts
From 1919 to 1920, Palmer conducted a series of raids on individuals he believed were
dangerous to American security. He deported 249 Russian immigrants without just cause.
The so-called “Soviet Ark” was sent back to Mother Russia. With Palmer’s sponsorship, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation was created under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover. In
January of 1920, federal agents broke into the homes of suspected anarchists without
search warrants, jailed labor leaders, and held about 5,000 citizens without respecting their
right to legal counsel. Palmer felt that American civil liberties were less important than
rooting out potential wrongdoers. Eventually, most of the detainees were released, but
some were deported.
The climate set by Palmer and Hoover couldn’t be contained. Still agitated by wartime
propaganda, members of the American public took matters into their own hands.
American Legionnaires in Centralia, Washington attacked members of the Wobblies.

Twelve radicals were arrested; one of them was beaten, castrated, and then shot. The New
York State Legislature expelled five Socialist representatives from their ranks. Twenty-eight
states banned the public display of red flags. It seemed as though the witch hunt would
never end. Responsible Americans began to speak out against Palmer’s raids and demand
that American civil liberties be respected. By the summer of 1920, the worst of the furor
had subsided.
The Monkey Trial
When Darwin announced his theory that humans and apes had descended from a
common ancestor, he sent shock waves through the Western world.
In the years that followed his 1859 declaration, America’s churches hotly debated whether
to accept the findings of modern science or continue to follow the teachings of ancient
scripture. By the 1920s, most of the urban churches of America had been able to reconcile
Darwin’s theory with the Bible, but rural preachers preferred a stricter interpretation.
Amid the dizzying changes brought by the roaring decade, religious fundamentalists saw
the Bible as the only salvation from a materialistic civilization in decline.
Darwin Banned
In 1925, the Tennessee legislature passed the Butler Law, which forbade the teaching of
Darwin’s theory of evolution in any public school or university. Other Southern states
followed suit.
The Butler Law

PUBLIC ACTS
OF THE
STATE OF TENNESSEE
PASSED BY THE
SIXTY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1925
________
CHAPTER NO. 27
House Bill No. 185
(By Mr. Butler)
An Act prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the

Universities, Normals and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are
supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to
provide penalties for the violations thereof.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of

Tennessee, That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the
Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are
supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to
teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as
taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a
lower order of animals.
Section 2. Be it further enacted, That any teacher found guilty of the

violation of this Act, Shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction,
shall be fined not less than One Hundred $ (100.00) Dollars nor more than
Five Hundred ($ 500.00) Dollars for each offense.
Section 3. Be it further enacted, That this Act take effect from and after its
passage, the public welfare requiring it.
Passed March 13, 1925
W.F. Barry,
Speaker of the House of Representatives
L.D. Hill,
Speaker of the Senate
Approved March 21, 1925.
Austin Peay,
Governor.

The American Civil Liberties Union led the charge of evolution’s supporters. It offered to
fund the legal defense of any Tennessee teacher willing to fight the law in court. Another
showdown between modernity and tradition was unfolding.
The man who accepted the challenge was John T. Scopes, a science teacher and football
coach in Dayton, Tennessee. In the spring of 1925, he walked into his classroom and read,
from Dayton’s Tennessee-approved textbook Hunter’s Civic Biology, part of a chapter on
the evolution of humankind and Darwin’s theory of natural selection. His arrest soon
followed, and a trial date was set.
Darrow versus Bryan
Outdoor Scene from the Scopes Trial
Representing Scopes was the famed trial lawyer Clarence Darrow. Slick and sophisticated,
Darrow epitomized the urban society in which he lived.
The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential candidate and
former secretary of state. The “Great Commoner” was the perfect representative of the
rural values he dedicated his life to defend.
Bryan was a Christian who lobbied for a constitutional amendment banning the teaching of
evolution throughout the nation.

A Media Circus—with Monkeys
The trial turned into a media circus. When the case was opened on July 14, journalists
from across the land descended upon the mountain hamlet of Dayton. Preachers and
fortune seekers filled the streets. Entrepreneurs sold everything from food to Bibles to
stuffed monkeys. The trial became the first ever to be broadcast on radio.
Scopes himself played a rather small role in the case: the trial was reduced to a verbal
contest between Darrow and Bryan. When Judge John Raulston refused to admit expert
testimony on the validity of evolutionary theory, Darrow lost his best defense.
He decided that if he wasn’t permitted to validate Darwin, his best shot was to attack the
literal interpretation of the Bible. The climax of the trial came when Darrow asked Bryan to
take the stand as an expert on the Bible. Darrow hammered Bryan with tough questions on
his strict acceptance of several Bible’s stories from the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib to
the swallowing of Jonah by a whale.
In the following famous excerpt from the trial transcript, Darrow questions Bryan about the
flood described in the Bible’s book of Genesis.
DARROW: But what do you think that the Bible itself says? Do you know
how that estimate (of the year the flood occurred) was arrived at?
BRYAN: I never made a calculation.
DARROW: A calculation from what?
BRYAN: I could not say.
DARROW: From the generations of man?
BRYAN: I would not want to say that.
DARROW: What do you think?
BRYAN: I could not say.
DARROW: From the generations of man?
BRYAN: I would not want to say that.
DARROW: What do you think?
BRYAN: I do not think about things I don’t think about.
DARROW: Do you think about things you do think about?
BRYAN: Well, sometimes.

Who Made Who Look Like a Monkey
While on the witness stand, William Jennings Bryan frustrated Darrow by

not directly answering the defense attorney’s questions. Bryan was a
Christian, but he didn’t necessarily interpret the Bible literally. He wouldn’t
give in, however, to Darrow on the subject of miracles. Bryan believed that
miracles happen, though he couldn’t explain how.
The “Great Commoner” felt it important for an articulate defender of the

Bible to speak on its behalf. At one point in the testimony, Bryan claimed
that the defense had “no other purpose than ridiculing every Christian who
believes in the Bible.”
Bryan wasn’t opposed to science. He was well regarded in some scientific

circles and belonged to several national science organizations.
Darrow’s Defense
The key to Clarence Darrow’s defense strategy was to have scientists

testify. On the trial’s sixth day, Judge Raulston stated, “It is not within the
province of the court under these issues to decide and determine which is
true, the story of divine creation as taught in the Bible, or the story of the
creation of man as taught by evolution.” In short, no experts were needed to
understand the simple language of the Butler law. Darrow’s scientific
experts were barred from testifying. By day’s end, the sardonic Darrow had
been charged with contempt of court.
The trial’s seventh day featured charged exchanges between Darrow and
Bryan, who was on the stand. But on the trial’s eighth day, Judge Raulston
ruled that Bryan’s testimony would not be allowed to stand on the record.
It was clear to Darrow that all was lost in this courtroom. In order to appeal
the case to a higher court, Darrow asked the jury to find his client guilty. On
July 21, 1925, it did.
It is interesting to speculate how history would have played out had Bryan
been able to examine Darrow on the witness stand, which was Bryan’s
intention. But the trial concluded before Bryan had the chance.
Neither lawyer came out looking like a monkey.

The jury sided with the law. Clearly, Scopes was in violation of Tennessee statute by
teaching that humans evolved from apes. He was fined $100 and released. But the battle
that played out before the nation proved a victory for supporters of evolutionary theory. A
later court dismissed the fine imposed on Scopes, though in the short term, the
antievolution law was upheld.
Fundamental Christians were down but not out. Through the radio airwaves, ministers such
as Billy Sunday reached audiences of thousands. Aimee Semple McPherson of California
preached her fundamentalist message over loudspeakers to arena-sized crowds. At one
point, she used a giant electric sports scoreboard to illustrate the triumph of good over evil,
foreshadowing generations of televangelists who would follow her lead.
Clearly, the 1920s didn’t see the end to these conflicts or the answers to their major
questions.
Intolerance
Sometimes the battle got ugly. Old versus new wasn’t a conscious topic to be discussed
calmly at the nation’s dinner tables. In an effort to preserve so-called true American values,
the forces against change sometimes displayed intolerance ranging from restrictive
legislation to outright violence. Immigrants from areas outside Northern and Western
Europe became targets of narrow-mindedness. African Americans faced new threats from
a resurgent Ku Klux Klan. Socialists, anarchists, and atheists beware! The message was
simple and clear. Conform or else.
Restricting Immigration
Since the 1880s, America’s shores were flooded with immigrants primarily from Southern
and Eastern Europe. The old nativist arguments grew louder in the first two decades of the
twentieth century. Critics of an open immigration policy cried that America’s racial stock
was being overrun by undesirable ethnicities. Protestant fundamentalists worried as the
numbers of Jewish and Catholic Americans grew larger. Labor leaders claimed that
immigration lowered wages. As a result, Congress slowly built walls against the
newcomers. The first line of defense was a literacy test, passed in 1917. The results
weren’t as encouraging as the nativists had hoped. About 1.25 million immigrants still
entered America in the first two years of the twenties. An outright cap on immigrant
numbers was enacted in 1921. Ethnic nationalists claimed that these conditions favored
Southern and Eastern immigrants too favorably. The result was the National Origins Act of
1924. This law based admission to America on nationality. Immigrants from Northern and
Western Europe were granted higher quotas than from other parts of the world. Asian
immigration was banned completely. As a sign of pan-Americanism, there were no
restrictions placed on immigrants from the western hemisphere.
Resurgence of the KKK
By 1915, the Ku Klux Klan was almost dead. William Simmons of Atlanta, a history teacher
at Lanier College, summoned a secret gathering on Stone Mountain on Thanksgiving Day.

As the sun set, the participants massed around a burning cross and pledged once again to
reassert white supremacy. The Klan grew slowly, boasting only about five thousand
members in 1920. That year, Elizabeth Tyler and Edward Y. Clarke used their professional
fundraising experience to boost the Klan’s numbers. They raised membership dues and
sold a great variety of Klan merchandise, including the infamous hoods and robes.
Simmons is credited with much of the Klan terminology. Local chapters were called
Klaverns, songs were called Klodes, and the leader was called the Imperial Wizard. By the
middle of the decade, there were an estimated five million Klansmen, with a significant
women’s auxiliary. This new Klan was national, particularly strong in the Midwest and
South, but powerful as far west as Oregon. The targets of this group went beyond African
Americans. Catholics, Jews, and “non-Nordic” immigrants were victimized by the new reign
of terror. Toward the end of the decade, corruption and sex scandals among the national
leadership discredited the high and mighty message the Klan was trying to promote, and
membership numbers sharply dropped.
“Back to Africa” Movement
The environment of intolerance and a new KKK prompted a drastic response by Marcus
Garvey. Garvey believed that equality for African Americans could never be achieved in the
United States. He formed the United Negro Improvement Association to promote economic
cooperation among black businesses. Garvey made fiery speeches and created uniforms
and flags to symbolize a new black pride. The ultimate goal for blacks across the world
should be to return to the “Motherland.” Only in Africa could a strong nation dedicated to
promotion of black culture flourish. After amassing about 80,000 followers, Garvey founded
the Black Star Steamship Company to begin transporting African Americans “back to
Africa.” Closely watched by government officials, Garvey was convicted of mail fraud in
1923 and deported to Jamaica.
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
The intolerance of the decade is embodied in the murder trial of Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti. These two self-avowed anarchists and atheists were arrested in April
1920 for two Massachusetts murders. From the start, it was clear their trial was not about
the murders, but about their backgrounds and beliefs. The judge violated all semblance of
impartiality by criticizing their political views in court. Their guilt or innocence remains
uncertain, and the circumstantial evidence on which they were convicted was murky. The
jury found them guilty, and after six years of delay, Sacco and Vanzetti were silenced
permanently by the electric chair.
Books and Movies
They were called the Lost Generation. America’s most talented writers of the 1920s were
completely disillusioned by the world and alienated by the changes in modern America.
The ghastly horrors of trench warfare were a testament to human inhumanity. The ability of
the human race to destroy itself had never been more evident. The materialism sparked by
the Roaring Twenties left many intellectuals empty. Surely there was more to life than

middle-class conformity, they pined. Intolerance toward immigrants and socialists led many
writers to see America as grossly provincial. Thus the literature of the decade was that of
disaffection and withdrawal, and many of America’s greatest talents expatriated to Europe
in despair.
The Writers
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the excesses of the Jazz Age. He and his wife Zelda
operated among the social elite in New York, Paris, and on the French Riviera. The Great
Gatsby, his most famous novel, highlights the opulence of American materialism while
harshly criticizing its morality. Ernest Hemingway wrote of disillusioned youths wandering
Europe in the wake of World War I in search of meaning in The Sun Also Rises. T.S. Elliot
commented on the emptiness of American life in his epic poem, The Waste Land.
American theater earned worldwide acclaim in the 1920s. The foremost playwright of this
newly respected American genre was Eugene O’Neill, noted for Desire Under the Elms
and A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. The sharpest critic of American middle-class lifestyle
was Sinclair Lewis. In Main Street, he takes aim on small-town American life. Babbitt
denounced the emptiness of middle-class life in the city. After a string of successful novels,
Lewis brought honor to American writers by becoming the first to win the Nobel Prize for
literature.
The Movies
While the written page marked a quest for intellectual insight, the movie industry catered to
mass audiences. Every town seemed to have at least one theater for the new craze. The
early decade saw millions flock to the screens to see silent action films and slapstick
comedies by the likes of Charlie Chaplin. Sex appeal reigned supreme as American
women swooned for Rudolph Valentino and American men yearned for the all-American
beauty, Mary Pickford. To keep standards of morality high in the film industry, the Hays
Office stifled artistic license by censoring objectionable scenes. Because of soaring profits,
studios sought quantity rather than quality. Therefore the decade saw few pictures of merit.
The first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, appeared in 1927. Walt Disney introduced
Mickey Mouse to the American public the following year in Steamboat Willie. By the end of
the decade, over 100 million viewers attended movie houses each week, more than the
number of weekly churchgoers.
Domestic and International Politics
Despite all the verve of the American social scene in the 1920s, the Presidential leadership
of the decade was quite unremarkable. Warren Harding won his bid for the White House in
1920 with the campaign slogan: “Return to normalcy.” Republicans believed Americans
had grown weary of the turmoil caused by World War I and promised tranquility. Harding
found himself mired in scandals unknown in America since the Grant administration.
Although Harding himself was above the graft, his friends were more than willing to dip into
the public treasury. Fraud and bribery plagued the Veterans Bureau and the Justice
Department. The Teapot Dome Scandal exposed Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall for

accepting bribes for allowing private oil companies to lease public lands. Harding fell ill in
1923 and died shortly thereafter.
The Progressives
Calvin Coolidge brought no significant change to Harding’s laissez-faire, pro-business

style. Progressives bemoaned the end of activist presidents protecting the public good,
prompting Fighting Bob Lafollette to launch an unsuccessful run for the presidency under
the Progressive Party banner in 1924. The only successful progressive reforms occurred
on the state and local levels. Politics became interesting in the election year of 1928. The
Democrats nominated Al Smith, the first Catholic ever to earn the nomination of a major
party. Smith raised eyebrows with an open opposition to the Prohibition amendment. As a
result, the South broke with a long tradition of supporting Democrats and helped Herbert
Hoover to continue Republican domination of the Presidency.
The International Scene
On the international scene, two themes dominated American diplomacy. The first was to
take steps to avoid the mistakes that led to World War I. To this end, President Harding
convened the Washington Naval Arms Conference in 1921. The United States, Great
Britain, and Japan agreed to a 10-year freeze on the construction of battleships and to
maintain a capital ship ratio of 5:5:3. They also agreed to uphold the Open Door Policy and
to respect each other’s holdings in the Pacific. In 1928, the United States and France led
an initiative called the Kellogg-Briand Pact, in which 62 nations agreed to outlaw war.
These two measures showed the degree to which Americans hoped to forestall another
disastrous war. The second priority dealt with outstanding international debt. While
practicing political isolation, the United States was completely entangled with Europe,
economically. The Allies owed the United States an enormous sum of money from World
War I. Lacking the resources to reimburse America, the Allies relied on German
reparations. The German economy was so debased by the Treaty of Versailles provisions
that they relied on loans from American banks for support. In essence, American banks
were funding the repayment of the foreign debt. As Germany slipped further and further
into depression, the United States intervened again. The Dawes Plan allowed Germany to
extend their payments on more generous terms. In the end, when the Great Depression
struck, only Finland was able to make good on its debt to the United States.

Exercise 5.12
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Key Points
In 1917, a group of radical Bolsheviks (communists) revolted in Russia and changed the very nature of that nation.
Socialist political organizations formed in the United States, leading to fear that a communist revolution might
happen in America.
A famous debate broke out that a ected American society in the form of the Scopes Monkey Trial. e State of
Tennessee passed a law banning the teaching of evolution. When a teacher by the name of John Scopes taught
evolution, he was ned, and the trial ended up becoming national news.
In the 1920s, America experienced a time of extreme intolerance. Movements pushed to limit immigration as a
response to the large numbers of people coming from Eastern and Southern Europe.
e 1920s saw a return to the late-1800s type of passive presidency, and a bit of corruption returned, too. e
Progressive movement slowed as Republican presidents returned to a stance of little government regulation of the
economy.

Self Check: Lesson 5
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[5] Lesson 5 Exam
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American History: Part 2 / Lesson 5: The Gilded Age through the Roaring Twenties

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Identify political and business leaders of the Gilded Age

Describe the progressive era

Summarize the presidencies of the progressive presidents

Recognize America's role in World War I

Describe life in the roaring twenties

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The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age

The so-called captains of industry became household names: John D. Rockefeller of

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Binding the Nation by Rail

The Transcontinental Railroad

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I’ve Been Working on the Railroad

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steel and wood were required.

The Golden Spike

The Interstate Commerce Commission

To reduce competition, railroad companies established pools. These were informal

The New Tycoons: John D. Rockefeller

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He was America’s first billionaire.

Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?

Whatever conclusions can be drawn, Rockefeller’s impact on the American economy

e Birthplace of John D. Rockefeller, Richford, New York

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Standard Oil—A Trust-Worthy Company?

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The New Tycoons: Andrew Carnegie

The Bessemer Process

When William Kelly and Henry Bessemer perfected a process to convert

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Vertical Integration: Moving on Up

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The New Tycoons: J. P. Morgan

Morgan the Banker

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Trouble with the Government

New Attitudes Toward Wealth

Survival of the Fittest

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Horatio Alger’s American Dream

Is Alger’s dream a reality or just folklore? There simply is no answer. Thousands of

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Politics of the Gilded Age

A Soldier in the White House

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Key Points and Links

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Young Boys Working in a Cotton Mill

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The Great Upheaval

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The Strike Spreads

What Did This Mean for America?