Justin Crowe
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691152936
- eISBN:
- 9781400842575
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691152936.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter considers the restructuring of the federal judiciary during the period of Republican dominance from the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877 to the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson ...
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This chapter considers the restructuring of the federal judiciary during the period of Republican dominance from the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877 to the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson in 1913. It shows that Gilded Age and Progressive Era politicians pursued judicial reform that focused less on the extent of judicial power and more on the structural logic and internal consistency of the institutional judiciary more generally. The chapter discusses the two stages in which judicial institution building occurred during the period: first, the Gilded Age attempt to unburden the Supreme Court by appointing a new slate of judges to staff circuit courts (1877–1891); and second, the Progressive Era unification and synchronization of all laws concerning the judiciary in one statute (1892–1914). The role played by Republicans and Democrats in judicial institution building in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is also examined.Less
This chapter considers the restructuring of the federal judiciary during the period of Republican dominance from the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877 to the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson in 1913. It shows that Gilded Age and Progressive Era politicians pursued judicial reform that focused less on the extent of judicial power and more on the structural logic and internal consistency of the institutional judiciary more generally. The chapter discusses the two stages in which judicial institution building occurred during the period: first, the Gilded Age attempt to unburden the Supreme Court by appointing a new slate of judges to staff circuit courts (1877–1891); and second, the Progressive Era unification and synchronization of all laws concerning the judiciary in one statute (1892–1914). The role played by Republicans and Democrats in judicial institution building in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is also examined.
Christopher McKnight Nichols
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195342536
- eISBN:
- 9780199867042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342536.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines three important strands of progressive thought in the late nineteenth century to reveal the tensions between ideas about progress, religion, and science, and resulting ...
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This chapter examines three important strands of progressive thought in the late nineteenth century to reveal the tensions between ideas about progress, religion, and science, and resulting predictions about America's religious future. This chapter first delineates a populist‐secular group of thinkers, exemplified by Robert Ingersoll, “the great agnostic” proponent of freethinking, whose prophecies blended the older jeremiad form with a heightened emphasis on atheistical science and Enlightment rationality. The second strand of thought explored in this chapter came from the ranks of progressive intellectuals, represented in part by the powerful pragmatic philosophy of religion developed by William James in his book, Varieties of Religious Experience. Finally, this chapter argues for a third diverse group comprised largely of ministers and social gospel activists, such as Walter Rauschenbusch, who attempted to reform the nation along explicitly Christian lines.Less
This chapter examines three important strands of progressive thought in the late nineteenth century to reveal the tensions between ideas about progress, religion, and science, and resulting predictions about America's religious future. This chapter first delineates a populist‐secular group of thinkers, exemplified by Robert Ingersoll, “the great agnostic” proponent of freethinking, whose prophecies blended the older jeremiad form with a heightened emphasis on atheistical science and Enlightment rationality. The second strand of thought explored in this chapter came from the ranks of progressive intellectuals, represented in part by the powerful pragmatic philosophy of religion developed by William James in his book, Varieties of Religious Experience. Finally, this chapter argues for a third diverse group comprised largely of ministers and social gospel activists, such as Walter Rauschenbusch, who attempted to reform the nation along explicitly Christian lines.
Randall Fuller
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195313925
- eISBN:
- 9780199787753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313925.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines four 19th-century biographer-critics of Emerson in order to address the notion of canonicity as it applies to the Gilded Age and, by implication, as it relates to the complex ...
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This chapter examines four 19th-century biographer-critics of Emerson in order to address the notion of canonicity as it applies to the Gilded Age and, by implication, as it relates to the complex forces at work in any age. Canonicity here is revealed as less a matter of monolithically enshrining the dominant culture than it is an effort to establish a framework of established authors, within which fierce cultural struggles may take place as different parties with different agenda try to establish their Emerson as a “usable” ancestor who might inspire the present to create a desired future. From the beginning of Emerson's critical reception, commentators have sought either to contain the radical energies of his prose or to release them so as to effect social change.Less
This chapter examines four 19th-century biographer-critics of Emerson in order to address the notion of canonicity as it applies to the Gilded Age and, by implication, as it relates to the complex forces at work in any age. Canonicity here is revealed as less a matter of monolithically enshrining the dominant culture than it is an effort to establish a framework of established authors, within which fierce cultural struggles may take place as different parties with different agenda try to establish their Emerson as a “usable” ancestor who might inspire the present to create a desired future. From the beginning of Emerson's critical reception, commentators have sought either to contain the radical energies of his prose or to release them so as to effect social change.
Emily Satterwhite
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813130101
- eISBN:
- 9780813135854
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813130101.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Chapter 5 argues that anxieties about culturelessness and the disappearance of authentic places during the Neo-Gilded Age beginning in the 1980s spurred the resurgence of literary regionalism at a ...
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Chapter 5 argues that anxieties about culturelessness and the disappearance of authentic places during the Neo-Gilded Age beginning in the 1980s spurred the resurgence of literary regionalism at a time when the market expansion of the trade paperback novel opened up a new venue for regional writing. Customer reviews posted to the Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites regarding four best sellers—Jan Karon's At Home in Mitford (1994), Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain (1997), Adriana Trigiani's Big Stone Gap (2000), and Silas House's Clay's Quilt (2001)—reveal that they evoked for white readers ideals of home, hometown, home place, and ancestral homeland, though readers' precise interpretations depended upon their personal geographic histories and loyalties. Touristic, nostalgic, charmed Appalachian, and affirmed Appalachian readers embraced a notion of the region as protected from the consumer capitalism that permeated their own lives. Many relied upon Appalachian-set bestsellers as a means to participate in the era's search for roots, heritage, and identity. Despite readers' faith in the documentary accuracy of popular novels, the novels do not offer the diversity of stories that might allow them to satisfactorily fulfill their frequently assigned role as “Appalachian Studies 101.”Less
Chapter 5 argues that anxieties about culturelessness and the disappearance of authentic places during the Neo-Gilded Age beginning in the 1980s spurred the resurgence of literary regionalism at a time when the market expansion of the trade paperback novel opened up a new venue for regional writing. Customer reviews posted to the Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites regarding four best sellers—Jan Karon's At Home in Mitford (1994), Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain (1997), Adriana Trigiani's Big Stone Gap (2000), and Silas House's Clay's Quilt (2001)—reveal that they evoked for white readers ideals of home, hometown, home place, and ancestral homeland, though readers' precise interpretations depended upon their personal geographic histories and loyalties. Touristic, nostalgic, charmed Appalachian, and affirmed Appalachian readers embraced a notion of the region as protected from the consumer capitalism that permeated their own lives. Many relied upon Appalachian-set bestsellers as a means to participate in the era's search for roots, heritage, and identity. Despite readers' faith in the documentary accuracy of popular novels, the novels do not offer the diversity of stories that might allow them to satisfactorily fulfill their frequently assigned role as “Appalachian Studies 101.”
Kolan Thomas Morelock
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125046
- eISBN:
- 9780813135113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125046.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Although Lexington and other towns and cities in Kentucky acquired some damage during the Civil War that also signified the end of Reconstruction as well as the military occupation of the South, ...
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Although Lexington and other towns and cities in Kentucky acquired some damage during the Civil War that also signified the end of Reconstruction as well as the military occupation of the South, Kentucky was generally secured as it did not experience the worst of the desolation and the physical destruction. However, that series of events led to political institutions, and the economy, infrastructure, and social structure being left in unfavorable conditions. While the white sentiment was usually perceived to have favored the South, the Confederacy's “Lost Cause” was honored in various monuments in Lexington and other places. This chapter illustrates Lexington during the Gilded Age—from 1870 to 1900— when “Victorian” practices and values proliferated.Less
Although Lexington and other towns and cities in Kentucky acquired some damage during the Civil War that also signified the end of Reconstruction as well as the military occupation of the South, Kentucky was generally secured as it did not experience the worst of the desolation and the physical destruction. However, that series of events led to political institutions, and the economy, infrastructure, and social structure being left in unfavorable conditions. While the white sentiment was usually perceived to have favored the South, the Confederacy's “Lost Cause” was honored in various monuments in Lexington and other places. This chapter illustrates Lexington during the Gilded Age—from 1870 to 1900— when “Victorian” practices and values proliferated.
Zoltan J. Acs
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148625
- eISBN:
- 9781400846818
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148625.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This chapter examines American-style capitalism from the perspective of the currents of prosperity, and how philanthropy became a part of American-style capitalism. American philanthropists ...
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This chapter examines American-style capitalism from the perspective of the currents of prosperity, and how philanthropy became a part of American-style capitalism. American philanthropists presumably value a strong capitalist system because it is the system that nurtured their individual success. Thus, they seem to recognize that the strength of American capitalism resides neither in the size or influence of an industry or a set of firms nor in a country's GDP. Rather, as philanthropists have put it, the strength of capitalism is measured in a more aspirational way. The chapter first provides an overview of changes in American capitalism and the rise of a new Gilded Age economy before discussing the role of universities in sustaining a society that valued learning, innovation, and competition. It also considers the estate tax as a policy that could strengthen the relationship between entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and opportunity in America.Less
This chapter examines American-style capitalism from the perspective of the currents of prosperity, and how philanthropy became a part of American-style capitalism. American philanthropists presumably value a strong capitalist system because it is the system that nurtured their individual success. Thus, they seem to recognize that the strength of American capitalism resides neither in the size or influence of an industry or a set of firms nor in a country's GDP. Rather, as philanthropists have put it, the strength of capitalism is measured in a more aspirational way. The chapter first provides an overview of changes in American capitalism and the rise of a new Gilded Age economy before discussing the role of universities in sustaining a society that valued learning, innovation, and competition. It also considers the estate tax as a policy that could strengthen the relationship between entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and opportunity in America.
Nathan Wolff
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198831693
- eISBN:
- 9780191869556
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198831693.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This chapter sheds new light on the US Gilded Age (roughly the final three decades of the nineteenth century), revealing it—and its literature—to be a period defined as much by cynicism about ...
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This chapter sheds new light on the US Gilded Age (roughly the final three decades of the nineteenth century), revealing it—and its literature—to be a period defined as much by cynicism about corruption as by actual political venality. It sets out three of the book’s overarching interventions: first, calling us to expand our vocabulary of “political emotion” beyond sympathy to a wider range of disagreeable and in-between feelings; second, providing frameworks for analyzing the relation, rather than the opposition, between reason and emotion in political contexts (in particular, via the affective tenor of late-nineteenth-century bureaucratic discourse); third, claiming that we must supplement accounts of nineteenth-century US literature’s utopian moods with a view of those quotidian feelings—so often negative—that define encounters with existing political institutions, as foregrounded by Gilded Age fiction. Authors discussed include Frances Hodgson Burnett, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman.Less
This chapter sheds new light on the US Gilded Age (roughly the final three decades of the nineteenth century), revealing it—and its literature—to be a period defined as much by cynicism about corruption as by actual political venality. It sets out three of the book’s overarching interventions: first, calling us to expand our vocabulary of “political emotion” beyond sympathy to a wider range of disagreeable and in-between feelings; second, providing frameworks for analyzing the relation, rather than the opposition, between reason and emotion in political contexts (in particular, via the affective tenor of late-nineteenth-century bureaucratic discourse); third, claiming that we must supplement accounts of nineteenth-century US literature’s utopian moods with a view of those quotidian feelings—so often negative—that define encounters with existing political institutions, as foregrounded by Gilded Age fiction. Authors discussed include Frances Hodgson Burnett, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman.
Josephine Nock-Hee Park
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195332735
- eISBN:
- 9780199868148
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332735.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, American, 20th Century Literature
The introduction reads figures of transpacific alliance in the Orientalist verse of Walt Whitman and Ernest Fenollosa. Their grand visions of a union between East and West installed a poetics of ...
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The introduction reads figures of transpacific alliance in the Orientalist verse of Walt Whitman and Ernest Fenollosa. Their grand visions of a union between East and West installed a poetics of transpacific accord and fueled modernist innovation. Against this backdrop, the introduction considers the rise of Asian America and sketches a genealogy of theorizing Asian American literature which grapples with a legacy of resistance to an Orientalist past.Less
The introduction reads figures of transpacific alliance in the Orientalist verse of Walt Whitman and Ernest Fenollosa. Their grand visions of a union between East and West installed a poetics of transpacific accord and fueled modernist innovation. Against this backdrop, the introduction considers the rise of Asian America and sketches a genealogy of theorizing Asian American literature which grapples with a legacy of resistance to an Orientalist past.
Cecelia Tichi
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469622668
- eISBN:
- 9781469625065
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469622668.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Jack London (1876–1916) found fame with his wolf-dog tales and sagas of the frozen North, but this text challenges the long-standing view of London as merely a mass-market producer of potboilers. A ...
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Jack London (1876–1916) found fame with his wolf-dog tales and sagas of the frozen North, but this text challenges the long-standing view of London as merely a mass-market producer of potboilers. A onetime child laborer, London led a life of poverty in the Gilded Age before rising to worldwide acclaim for stories, novels, and essays designed to hasten the social, economic, and political advance of America. In this major reinterpretation of London's career, the book examines how the beloved writer leveraged his written words as a force for the future. Tracing the arc of London's work from the late 1800s through the 1910s, the text profiles the writer's allies and adversaries in the cities, on the factory floor, inside prison walls, and in the farmlands. Thoroughly exploring London's importance as an artist and as a political and public figure, the book brings to life a man who merits recognition as one of America's foremost public intellectuals.Less
Jack London (1876–1916) found fame with his wolf-dog tales and sagas of the frozen North, but this text challenges the long-standing view of London as merely a mass-market producer of potboilers. A onetime child laborer, London led a life of poverty in the Gilded Age before rising to worldwide acclaim for stories, novels, and essays designed to hasten the social, economic, and political advance of America. In this major reinterpretation of London's career, the book examines how the beloved writer leveraged his written words as a force for the future. Tracing the arc of London's work from the late 1800s through the 1910s, the text profiles the writer's allies and adversaries in the cities, on the factory floor, inside prison walls, and in the farmlands. Thoroughly exploring London's importance as an artist and as a political and public figure, the book brings to life a man who merits recognition as one of America's foremost public intellectuals.
Andrew B. Arnold
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814764985
- eISBN:
- 9780814724958
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814764985.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
If the railroads won the Gilded Age, the coal industry lost it. Railroads epitomized modern management, high technology, and vast economies of scale. By comparison, the coal industry was ...
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If the railroads won the Gilded Age, the coal industry lost it. Railroads epitomized modern management, high technology, and vast economies of scale. By comparison, the coal industry was embarrassingly primitive. Miners and operators dug coal, bought it, and sold it in 1900 in the same ways that they had for generations. In the popular imagination, coal miners epitomized anti-modern forces as the so-called “Molly Maguire” terrorists. Yet the sleekly modern railroads were utterly dependent upon the disorderly coal industry. Railroad managers demanded that coal operators and miners accept the purely subordinate role implied by their status. They refused. This book shows how disorder in the coal industry disrupted the strategic plans of the railroads. It does so by expertly intertwining the history of two industries—railroads and coal mining—that historians have generally examined from separate vantage points. It shows the surprising connections between railroad management and miner organizing; railroad freight rate structure and coal mine operations; and railroad strategy and strictly local legal precedents. It combines social, economic, and institutional approaches to explain the Gilded Age from the perspective of the relative losers of history rather than the winners. It examines the still-unresolved nature of America's national conundrum and asks how to reconcile the competing demands of national corporations, local businesses, and employees.Less
If the railroads won the Gilded Age, the coal industry lost it. Railroads epitomized modern management, high technology, and vast economies of scale. By comparison, the coal industry was embarrassingly primitive. Miners and operators dug coal, bought it, and sold it in 1900 in the same ways that they had for generations. In the popular imagination, coal miners epitomized anti-modern forces as the so-called “Molly Maguire” terrorists. Yet the sleekly modern railroads were utterly dependent upon the disorderly coal industry. Railroad managers demanded that coal operators and miners accept the purely subordinate role implied by their status. They refused. This book shows how disorder in the coal industry disrupted the strategic plans of the railroads. It does so by expertly intertwining the history of two industries—railroads and coal mining—that historians have generally examined from separate vantage points. It shows the surprising connections between railroad management and miner organizing; railroad freight rate structure and coal mine operations; and railroad strategy and strictly local legal precedents. It combines social, economic, and institutional approaches to explain the Gilded Age from the perspective of the relative losers of history rather than the winners. It examines the still-unresolved nature of America's national conundrum and asks how to reconcile the competing demands of national corporations, local businesses, and employees.
Kolan Thomas Morelock
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125046
- eISBN:
- 9780813135113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125046.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Attorney Joseph Tanner, who served as Lexington's Democratic city treasurer, ran for reelection in that position in February 1884. Tanner's first seat in city government was acquired in 1881. During ...
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Attorney Joseph Tanner, who served as Lexington's Democratic city treasurer, ran for reelection in that position in February 1884. Tanner's first seat in city government was acquired in 1881. During that period, Dennis Mulligan, Lexington's political boss, was disappointed as Claud M. Johnson again won as mayor. Mulligan's power was then passed on to William Klair, one of Tanner's good friends. Tanner's loss in 1884 signified the beginning of the decline of his professional life as an attorney as well. During the Progressive Era, Tanner left the legal profession to pursue real estate, and this move was found to be in favor of government bureaucracy since he became the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) storekeeper-gauger. This chapter explores various aspects of Tanner's life, particularly his contributions as a Gilded Age Lexingtonian.Less
Attorney Joseph Tanner, who served as Lexington's Democratic city treasurer, ran for reelection in that position in February 1884. Tanner's first seat in city government was acquired in 1881. During that period, Dennis Mulligan, Lexington's political boss, was disappointed as Claud M. Johnson again won as mayor. Mulligan's power was then passed on to William Klair, one of Tanner's good friends. Tanner's loss in 1884 signified the beginning of the decline of his professional life as an attorney as well. During the Progressive Era, Tanner left the legal profession to pursue real estate, and this move was found to be in favor of government bureaucracy since he became the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) storekeeper-gauger. This chapter explores various aspects of Tanner's life, particularly his contributions as a Gilded Age Lexingtonian.
Dawn Langan Teele
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691180267
- eISBN:
- 9780691184272
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691180267.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter presents a case study of women's enfranchisement in the United States. It argues that the formation of a broad coalition of women, symbolized by growing membership in a large ...
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This chapter presents a case study of women's enfranchisement in the United States. It argues that the formation of a broad coalition of women, symbolized by growing membership in a large non-partisan suffrage organization, in combination with competitive conditions in state legislatures, was crucial to securing politicians' support for women's suffrage in the states. The chapter first gives a broad overview of the phases of the US suffrage movement, arguing that the salience of political cleavages related to race, ethnicity, nativity, and class influenced the type of movement suffragists sought to build. It then describes the political geography of the Gilded Age, showing how the diversity of political competition and party organization that characterized the several regions mirrors the pattern of women's enfranchisement across the states.Less
This chapter presents a case study of women's enfranchisement in the United States. It argues that the formation of a broad coalition of women, symbolized by growing membership in a large non-partisan suffrage organization, in combination with competitive conditions in state legislatures, was crucial to securing politicians' support for women's suffrage in the states. The chapter first gives a broad overview of the phases of the US suffrage movement, arguing that the salience of political cleavages related to race, ethnicity, nativity, and class influenced the type of movement suffragists sought to build. It then describes the political geography of the Gilded Age, showing how the diversity of political competition and party organization that characterized the several regions mirrors the pattern of women's enfranchisement across the states.
Kevin E. O’Donnell
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617030253
- eISBN:
- 9781617030260
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617030253.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter presents a reading of Woolson’s last novel Horace Chase, where she links the industrial and commercial exploitation of the South with her contributions to illustrated magazines. By ...
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This chapter presents a reading of Woolson’s last novel Horace Chase, where she links the industrial and commercial exploitation of the South with her contributions to illustrated magazines. By connecting periodical writing with Gilded-Age commercial development, the novel thus provides an oblique commentary on Woolson’s own avocation and livelihood, even as her pages offer an elegy for the lost landscapes of the South.Less
This chapter presents a reading of Woolson’s last novel Horace Chase, where she links the industrial and commercial exploitation of the South with her contributions to illustrated magazines. By connecting periodical writing with Gilded-Age commercial development, the novel thus provides an oblique commentary on Woolson’s own avocation and livelihood, even as her pages offer an elegy for the lost landscapes of the South.
Andrew B. Arnold
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814764985
- eISBN:
- 9780814724958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814764985.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book analyzes the persistence of disorder in the coal industry and and its impact on the strategic plans of railroads during the Gilded Age. Focusing on the bituminous coal mining region that ...
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This book analyzes the persistence of disorder in the coal industry and and its impact on the strategic plans of railroads during the Gilded Age. Focusing on the bituminous coal mining region that shipped to the Eastern Seaboard in the years 1870–1900, it considers how railroad managers, coal operators, and coal miners all tried but failed to bring some level of order to the coal industry. It considers how the Gilded Age of railroads and steam interacted with coal, its main source of fuel, and discusses the structural limits to managerial capitalism as well as its triumphs. The book examines the role of labor unionism and local business in the growth of industrial capitalism, along with the partial solutions improvised by coal miners, coal operators, and railroad managers to tackle ongoing problems. It also highlights the organizational loyalties and authority between levels of corporate enterprise, labor unions, and market regions.Less
This book analyzes the persistence of disorder in the coal industry and and its impact on the strategic plans of railroads during the Gilded Age. Focusing on the bituminous coal mining region that shipped to the Eastern Seaboard in the years 1870–1900, it considers how railroad managers, coal operators, and coal miners all tried but failed to bring some level of order to the coal industry. It considers how the Gilded Age of railroads and steam interacted with coal, its main source of fuel, and discusses the structural limits to managerial capitalism as well as its triumphs. The book examines the role of labor unionism and local business in the growth of industrial capitalism, along with the partial solutions improvised by coal miners, coal operators, and railroad managers to tackle ongoing problems. It also highlights the organizational loyalties and authority between levels of corporate enterprise, labor unions, and market regions.
Andrew B. Arnold
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814764985
- eISBN:
- 9780814724958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814764985.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book has explored the history of the eastern bituminous coal mining region that shipped to the Eastern Seaboard during the Gilded Age as well as the failure of coal miners, coal operators, and ...
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This book has explored the history of the eastern bituminous coal mining region that shipped to the Eastern Seaboard during the Gilded Age as well as the failure of coal miners, coal operators, and railroad managers to organize it and bring some level of order to the coal industry. It has considered how the institutional search for order and simplicity created disorder and complexity, as evidenced by the backlash resulting from the efforts of railroad managers to subordinate and administer the coal industry mostly in service of their own interests. It has discussed the attempts of coal operators and coal miners to limit the power of the railroads while also battling each other. It has also examined how coal miners' unionism evolved into dynamic complexes of interrelated cultural practices, leaders, and institutions. This concluding chapter assesses the broader implications of the disorder that persisted in the coal industry during the Gilded Age.Less
This book has explored the history of the eastern bituminous coal mining region that shipped to the Eastern Seaboard during the Gilded Age as well as the failure of coal miners, coal operators, and railroad managers to organize it and bring some level of order to the coal industry. It has considered how the institutional search for order and simplicity created disorder and complexity, as evidenced by the backlash resulting from the efforts of railroad managers to subordinate and administer the coal industry mostly in service of their own interests. It has discussed the attempts of coal operators and coal miners to limit the power of the railroads while also battling each other. It has also examined how coal miners' unionism evolved into dynamic complexes of interrelated cultural practices, leaders, and institutions. This concluding chapter assesses the broader implications of the disorder that persisted in the coal industry during the Gilded Age.
James Marten (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479894147
- eISBN:
- 9781479804078
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479894147.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In the decades after the Civil War, urbanization, industrialization, and immigration marked the start of the Gilded Age, a period of rapid economic growth but also social upheaval. Reformers ...
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In the decades after the Civil War, urbanization, industrialization, and immigration marked the start of the Gilded Age, a period of rapid economic growth but also social upheaval. Reformers responded to the social and economic chaos with a “search for order,” as famously described by historian Robert Wiebe. Most reformers agreed that one of the nation's top priorities should be its children and youth, who, they believed, suffered more from the disorder plaguing the rapidly growing nation than any other group. This book explores both nineteenth-century conditions that led Progressives to their search for order and some of the solutions applied to children and youth in the context of that search. The book offers case studies relevant to educational reform, child labor laws, underage marriage, and recreation for children, among others. Including important primary documents produced by children themselves, the book foregrounds the role that youth played in exerting agency over their own lives and in contesting the policies that sought to protect and control them.Less
In the decades after the Civil War, urbanization, industrialization, and immigration marked the start of the Gilded Age, a period of rapid economic growth but also social upheaval. Reformers responded to the social and economic chaos with a “search for order,” as famously described by historian Robert Wiebe. Most reformers agreed that one of the nation's top priorities should be its children and youth, who, they believed, suffered more from the disorder plaguing the rapidly growing nation than any other group. This book explores both nineteenth-century conditions that led Progressives to their search for order and some of the solutions applied to children and youth in the context of that search. The book offers case studies relevant to educational reform, child labor laws, underage marriage, and recreation for children, among others. Including important primary documents produced by children themselves, the book foregrounds the role that youth played in exerting agency over their own lives and in contesting the policies that sought to protect and control them.
Richard T. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042065
- eISBN:
- 9780252050800
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042065.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Capitalism in the United States is unthinkable apart from the myth of White Supremacy, for capitalism was built on stolen land and stolen people. Further, white Americans imagined that capitalism was ...
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Capitalism in the United States is unthinkable apart from the myth of White Supremacy, for capitalism was built on stolen land and stolen people. Further, white Americans imagined that capitalism was God-ordained, grounded in “Nature and Nature’s God,” and heralded a golden age of peace and prosperity for all humankind. Following the Civil War, the myth of the Chosen Nation morphed into the myth that God blessed the righteous with wealth and the wicked with poverty—the central assumption of the Gospel of Wealth. Andrew Carnegie appealed to all these myths in his 1889 essay, “Wealth,” in the North American Review. Likewise, many American industrialists invoked these myths to justify their goal: the economic conquest of the world. Government and industry, however, typically excluded blacks from this engine of economic prosperity, thereby contributing to realities already in place—systemic racism and white privilege. In the early twentieth century, laissez-faire capitalism and the myths that sustained it came under withering assault from labor, the Social Gospel movement, and black social critics like W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Langston Hughes, especially since the wealth of the Gilded Age contrasted with unprecedented numbers of lynchings of America’s blacks.Less
Capitalism in the United States is unthinkable apart from the myth of White Supremacy, for capitalism was built on stolen land and stolen people. Further, white Americans imagined that capitalism was God-ordained, grounded in “Nature and Nature’s God,” and heralded a golden age of peace and prosperity for all humankind. Following the Civil War, the myth of the Chosen Nation morphed into the myth that God blessed the righteous with wealth and the wicked with poverty—the central assumption of the Gospel of Wealth. Andrew Carnegie appealed to all these myths in his 1889 essay, “Wealth,” in the North American Review. Likewise, many American industrialists invoked these myths to justify their goal: the economic conquest of the world. Government and industry, however, typically excluded blacks from this engine of economic prosperity, thereby contributing to realities already in place—systemic racism and white privilege. In the early twentieth century, laissez-faire capitalism and the myths that sustained it came under withering assault from labor, the Social Gospel movement, and black social critics like W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Langston Hughes, especially since the wealth of the Gilded Age contrasted with unprecedented numbers of lynchings of America’s blacks.
Kolan Thomas Morelock
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125046
- eISBN:
- 9780813135113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125046.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
As the collegiate literary societies in Lexington, as well as those in other places, were not able to maintain student loyalty and relevance, they became less and less important compared to a number ...
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As the collegiate literary societies in Lexington, as well as those in other places, were not able to maintain student loyalty and relevance, they became less and less important compared to a number of other campus organizations. There were some, however, who reacted remorsefully to this incidence, as the Crimson Rumbler pointed out the lack of patronage of campus literary societies. Although four of the traditional literary societies were still operating during the school year 1919–1920, this was marked with a significant decline in participation in extracurriculum activities. Lexington after the war experienced a number of different changes as it veered away from the Gilded Age. Although the Gilded Age may have been characterized by gentility and refinement as well as racism and violence, it is important to note that this period marks significant advances in terms of Lexington's intellectual life.Less
As the collegiate literary societies in Lexington, as well as those in other places, were not able to maintain student loyalty and relevance, they became less and less important compared to a number of other campus organizations. There were some, however, who reacted remorsefully to this incidence, as the Crimson Rumbler pointed out the lack of patronage of campus literary societies. Although four of the traditional literary societies were still operating during the school year 1919–1920, this was marked with a significant decline in participation in extracurriculum activities. Lexington after the war experienced a number of different changes as it veered away from the Gilded Age. Although the Gilded Age may have been characterized by gentility and refinement as well as racism and violence, it is important to note that this period marks significant advances in terms of Lexington's intellectual life.
Thomas O. McGarity
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300141245
- eISBN:
- 9780300195217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300141245.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter explores how the emergence of the corporate form blended nicely with the laissez faire ideology of an expanding class of economic elites in the growing American industrial economy. For ...
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This chapter explores how the emergence of the corporate form blended nicely with the laissez faire ideology of an expanding class of economic elites in the growing American industrial economy. For the laissez faire gurus of the Gilded Age, the ultimate repository of virtue was the marketplace. For Gilded Age elites who believed that economic liberty and individual liberty were inextricably linked, the logical next step was to afford corporations the status of personhood. Laissez faire minimalism yielded undeniable benefits for society. By almost every conceivable measure, the United States economy grew during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The American Mining Congress came up with its own standards for mine safety, and persuaded Congress to establish a mine safety program in the Bureau of Mines to adopt those standards and pre-empt more stringent state standards.Less
This chapter explores how the emergence of the corporate form blended nicely with the laissez faire ideology of an expanding class of economic elites in the growing American industrial economy. For the laissez faire gurus of the Gilded Age, the ultimate repository of virtue was the marketplace. For Gilded Age elites who believed that economic liberty and individual liberty were inextricably linked, the logical next step was to afford corporations the status of personhood. Laissez faire minimalism yielded undeniable benefits for society. By almost every conceivable measure, the United States economy grew during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The American Mining Congress came up with its own standards for mine safety, and persuaded Congress to establish a mine safety program in the Bureau of Mines to adopt those standards and pre-empt more stringent state standards.
James W. Ely
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195323337
- eISBN:
- 9780199851508
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323337.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter investigates how the Gilded Age and the challenge of industrialization affected property rights in America. It discusses the actions taken by the Supreme Court that showed its ...
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This chapter investigates how the Gilded Age and the challenge of industrialization affected property rights in America. It discusses the actions taken by the Supreme Court that showed its determination to defend the national market against parochial state-imposed obstructions. These included protection of entrepreneurs from unduly onerous restrictions and invalidation of state regulations that blocked interstate commerce. The chapter suggests that the court's property-conscious constitutionalism both fulfilled the vision of the framers linking individual liberty with security of private property and harmonised with the prevailing entrepreneurial ethic of the Gilded Age.Less
This chapter investigates how the Gilded Age and the challenge of industrialization affected property rights in America. It discusses the actions taken by the Supreme Court that showed its determination to defend the national market against parochial state-imposed obstructions. These included protection of entrepreneurs from unduly onerous restrictions and invalidation of state regulations that blocked interstate commerce. The chapter suggests that the court's property-conscious constitutionalism both fulfilled the vision of the framers linking individual liberty with security of private property and harmonised with the prevailing entrepreneurial ethic of the Gilded Age.
