America in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Overview

Course No. 8535

Witness the transformation of the United States from a war-torn nation to a global leader in this fascinating overview of six profoundly innovative decades. America stands at a dramatic crossroads: Massive corporations wield disturbing power. The huge income gap between the one percent and the other 99 percent grows wider. Astounding new technologies are changing American lives. Sound familiar? These and other issues that characterize the early 21st century were also the hallmarks of the transformative periods known as the Gilded Age (1865-1900) and the Progressive Era (1900-1920).

Before the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, America was a developing nation, with a largely agrarian economy and virtually no role in global affairs. Yet by 1900, within 35 years, the US had emerged as the world’s greatest industrial power. Explore these tumultuous times in America in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Over decades marked by economic, political, social, and technological upheavals, the US went from an agrarian, isolationist country to the world’s greatest industrial power and a nascent geopolitical superpower.

In a time rife with staggering excess, social unrest, and strident calls for reform, these and other remarkable events created the country that we know today: industrialization gave rise to a huge American middle class; voluminous waves of immigration added new material to the “melting pot” of US society; the phenomenon of big business led to the formation of labor unions and the adoption of consumer protections; electricity, cars, and other technologies forever changed the landscape of American life.

In taking the measure of six dramatically innovative decades, you’ll investigate the economic, political, and social upheavals that marked these years, as well as the details of daily life and the cultural thinking of the times. In the process, you’ll meet robber barons, industrialists, socialites, reformers, inventors, conservationists, women’s suffragists, civil rights activists, and passionate progressives, who together forged a new United States.

Video Lessons

01: 1865: “Bind up the Nation’s Wounds”

Begin to investigate the key historical forces that characterized the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, and the competing ideals that defined these eras. As a starting point, take account of the U.S. in 1865, and the extraordinary social, political, and economic changes unleashed by the devastation of the Civil War.

Duration: 32 min

02: The Reconstruction Revolution

The era of Reconstruction following the Civil War was a turbulent and divisive period in American life. Learn about governmental policies and legislation that were enacted to safeguard the welfare of former slaves and average citizens, and how these policies were then progressively dismantled, ultimately returning the South to white-dominated rule.

Duration: 30 min

03: Buffalo Bill Cody and the Myth of the West

Examine the complex and fascinating story of the conquest of the American West. First, assess key myths surrounding the West and how it was settled. Explore the motives and realities of westward migration, the components of the western economy, and the conflicts with Native Americans that led to violence and tragedy.

Duration: 29 min

04: Smokestack Nation: The Industrial Titans

Trace the process by which the U.S. rose from developing nation status in 1865 to become the world’s greatest industrial power by 1900. Study the unfolding of the American industrial revolution; the advent of big business in the railroad, steel, and oil industries; and the concurrent explosion of consumerism and advertising.

Duration: 30 min

05: Andrew Carnegie: The Self-Made Ideal

This lecture examines the notion of the “self-made man” as it pervaded Gilded Age America. Investigate why this idea took on unprecedented popularity in the 19th century, how it was strongly promoted by figures from Horatio Alger to Andrew Carnegie, and explore how the ideal became entwined with social Darwinism.

Duration: 30 min

06: Big Business: Democracy for Sale?

In the late Gilded Age, there was wide agreement that troubling trends threatened the young republic. Explore rising public anxiety over the power of big business and the era’s economic inequality, governmental corruption, and violent conflict between labor and capital. Take account of how business leaders responded to critics and reformers.

Duration: 29 min

07: The New Immigrants: A New America

Here, learn how widespread immigration during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era transformed U.S. society. Delve into the diverse factors underlying immigration, and the perceived threats and social problems posed by immigrants. Observe how society at large reacted to the influx, and grasp the ways in which immigrants fundamentally changed the nation.

Duration: 34 min

08: Big Cities: The Underbelly Revealed

The huge growth of cities was a hallmark of the Gilded Age. Study the forces leading to massive urbanization, such as industrialization, migration and immigration, and revolutionary technologies. Then track the serious social problems that resulted, from crime and disease to political corruption, which spurred intense scrutiny from reformers.

Duration: 31 min

09: Popular Culture: Jazz, Modern Art, Movies

Take a wide-ranging look at the transformation of American art and entertainment during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Chart the accomplishments of the Ashcan School of painting and realist fiction. Witness the birth of ragtime, blues, and jazz, and the rise of spectator sports, stage entertainment, and the new medium of film.

Duration: 30 min

10: New Technology: Cars, Electricity, Records

Technological changes in late 19th-century America radically changed the country and the world. Track the evolution of electrical power, and the impact of both electric lighting and electrified machinery. Grasp the economic and social changes brought about by the automobile and the cultural effects of recorded music as big business.

Duration: 31 min

11: The 1892 Homestead Strike

Travel into the world of American workers, and view the poignant social problems that accompanied industrialization. Learn how technological changes in industry affected living conditions for workers, and follow the rise of labor movements, violent strikes, and intense conflict between labor unions and management.

Duration: 32 min

12: Morals and Manners: Middle-Class Society

Discover how the American middle class was a direct product of industrialization and the new employment categories it created. Investigate the key features of the new middle-class lifestyle, encompassing suburban living, consumption, and leisure. Also identify defining middle-class values, from respectability and manners to personal hygiene and the “cult of domesticity.”

Duration: 29 min

13: Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Gala Ball

Take the measure of the new breed of multimillionaire industrialists that emerged in the Gilded Age as a visible public presence. Contrast the earlier American mindset of republican simplicity with the new rich who displayed and flaunted their wealth through vast estates and European-style aristocratic living.

Duration: 30 min

14: Populist Revolt: The Grangers and Coxey

Follow the dramatic rise of the Populist movement, which aimed to address broad economic suffering. In particular, study the phenomenon of the People’s Party, a political party that demanded major governmental changes to curb injustice and oppression, lighting a fire that lived on in the reforms of the Progressive Era.

Duration: 30 min

15: Rough Riders and the Imperial Dream

Delve into the complex process by which the U.S. reversed its longstanding policy of isolationism to become actively involved in global affairs. Investigate the core ideas that built a case for American internationalism, as they manifested in the events of the Spanish-American War and the building of the Panama Canal.

Duration: 31 min

16: No More Corsets: The New Woman

The lives of American women changed in far-reaching ways during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Trace late-19th-century social trends that led to more public roles for women and emerging ideas of women’s rights. Learn about the women’s suffrage movement and its embattled crusade to gain voting rights for women.

Duration: 31 min

17: Trust-Busting in the Progressive Era

Witness how the Progressive movement took shape in the late 19th century, fueled by alarm over the unbridled power of large corporations. Grasp the era’s new definition of American economic freedom, and examine actions taken under presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson to dismantle railroad, meatpacking, and oil trusts, and to reform banking and taxation.

Duration: 32 min

18: The 1911 Triangle Fire and Reform

Learn about reformers’ efforts to address the miserable living and working conditions of industrial workers, and new labor laws that followed the galvanizing events of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the Bread and Roses Strike. Also study the movements to eradicate child labor and to federally regulate food and medicines.

Duration: 30 min

19: Theodore Roosevelt, Conservationist

Trace the origins of the conservation movement in the 19th century, and its early initiatives to establish federal protection of wilderness in the face of staunch opposition from commercial interests. Grasp the astonishing conservation record of President Theodore Roosevelt, whose efforts created a wide spectrum of national parks, wildlife preserves, and national forests.

Duration: 29 min

20: Urban Reform: How The Other Half Lives

Study how progressive reformers responded to the troubles of big cities through urban planning, new thinking about poverty, and the establishment of “settlement houses” and social work to aid the urban poor. Also learn about activism to address alcohol abuse and prostitution, as well as governmental actions to reform housing, urban sanitation, and public health.

Duration: 30 min

21: The 17th Amendment: Democracy Restored

Sweeping progressive reforms changed the face of American politics. Observe how initiatives at the city level began the eventual transformation of urban political machines into players in political reform. Examine major political reforms at the state and federal levels, culminating in the civil service system, popularly elected senators, and voting rights for women.

Duration: 28 min

22: Early Civil Rights: Washington or Du Bois?

Discover how African Americans fought racism and violence in the early 20th century. Study the system of white supremacy called Jim Crow, and its economic, social, and political oppression. Review significant civil rights activism and legal victories that laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

Duration: 29 min

23: Over There: A World Safe for Democracy

As the Progressive Era ends, follow the complex events that led the United States into World War I. Learn how an initial federal policy of neutrality changed to one of “preparedness” and then intervention, amid conflicting public sentiments and government pro-war propaganda. Also trace the after-effects of the war on U.S. foreign policy.

Duration: 31 min

24: Upheaval and the End of an Era

Finally, take account of the period of national turmoil that followed World War I. Study the wave of labor strikes, anti-radical hysteria, and race riots of the early post-war years. Grasp the economic, political, and social factors that gave way to a climate of renewed isolationism and conservatism during the Roaring 20s.

Duration: 32 min