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LECTURES FOR THE THIRD EXAM

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THE WORLD OF THE FARMER: The middle section of 1302 addresses the evolution of a national conscience. The argument presented in class holds that while the United States in the Gilded Age included many elements known to modern Americans (high technology, an aggressive foreign policy, a closed frontier, labor unions and strikes, an urban culture, etc.), the nation was still rather primitive in one significant way.  It had not yet developed a conscience. 

 

In the second part of 1302, lectures turn to an analysis of how the United States altered this situation. The focus shifts to how Americans addressed some of the abuses of the late-nineteenth-century and to how they began developing the more balanced, humane, and tolerant culture in existence today. 

 

The opening lecture for the second part of 1302 explores the world of the farmer, for it was the late nineteenth-century farmers’ movement, some historians believe, that started the United States down the path of reform.  This lecture identified the American farmer as the group of people uniquely situated to challenge and change the Gilded Age.  It examined some of the problems faced by late-nineteenth-century farmers, their economic behaviors, attitudes towards technology, their isolation and how it affected rural reactions to adversity.

 

You need to know the following:

  • The purpose of the second part of the class and the time period it covers.

  • The number of farmers within the United States in the late nineteenth century; the percentage of the labor force involved in farm labor. 

  • The unique position of the American farmer in the Gilded Age.

  • The ways in which farmers were in synch with the Gilded Age.

  • Farmer ambition, farmer economic activity, farmer inventions, farmer overseas activities.

  • The levels of production achieved by late-nineteenth-century American farmers. 

  • Luther Burbank and John Wesley North

  • The inventions used by American farmers of the late 1800s. 

  • The tractor. 

  • The culture of the farmer. In what ways were they wedded to the Gilded Age? In what ways were they isolated from it? 

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POPULIST MOVEMENT I AND II: These lectures identified the economic and social conditions that affected American farmers in the late 1800s, their complaints about their situation, and the responses farmers developed to address their problems.  The lecture covered early attempts at farmer organization, examined the emergence of the Farmers’ Alliance and the impact of this organization on American politics.  The lectures concluded with an examination of how ideas generated in the farmers’ movement migrated into the Democratic Party and mainstream politics at the hands of William Jennings Bryan.

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You need to know the following:

  • The problem of debt – what happened to farm prices in the late 1800s? 

  • Matt Brown’s story. 

  • Farmer complaints about the federal government and the railroad. 

  • The Grange. 

  • Grange ideas about improving the United States. 

  • The Farmers’ Alliances 

  • Lampasas County, Texas 

  • Northern Alliance, Southern Alliance, Black Alliance 

  • The Ocala Demands 

  • Sockless Jerry Simpson 

  • Mary Elizabeth Lease 

  • The Wizard of Oz 

  • Alliance successes in the election of 1890 

  • The Omaha Convention and Platform 

  • The Depression of 1893 

  • The Election of 1896 

  • William Jennings Bryan 

  • The “Cross of Gold” Speech 

 

THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT: Delving further into the development of a national conscience, this lecture explored the Progressive Movement. It traced how elements of the Middle Class began to challenge the economic and social norms of the Gilded Age as they were deeply affected by the Depression of 1893.  The lecture examines the links between Progressivism and Populism, listed the types of reforms conducted by Progressives, and addressed the legacy of Progressivism.

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You need to know the following:

  • How the Populist Movement ended up triggering the Progressive movement.  Understand how the addition of Silver to the US economy triggered Gresham's law, pulled Gold out of the US economy and ended up causing the Depression of 1893.​​

  • How the Depression of 1893 affected the Middle Class - how it scared them and made them fear they would lose their own status in the US.

  • How middle class fear generated Progressive reform, and Progressive Reform's desire to elevate the poor.

  • The dates when the Progressive Movement took place. 

  • The cause of the Progressive Movement according to the lecture. 

  • The shock and turmoil of the Depression of 1893. 

  • Peak unemployment rates in the Depression of 1893. 

  • Suicide in the Depression of 1893

  • The Pullman Strike

  • Jacob Coxey and Coxey’s Army

  • Social Justice, Political, and Efficiency Reforms. 

  • Muckrakers 

  • Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell 

  • The Shame of the Cities, 1902 

  • Jungle 

  • The 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th Amendments to the Constitution  

  • How and where women got the right to vote. 

  • The role of the Spanish Flu epidemic in generating the female vote.

  • The medical reforms of social justice progressives - bathing reforms, the emergence of the rain bath, the emergence of the swimming pool.

  • The significance of the Flexner Report of 1910 - what it revealed about the state of American medicine and what it recommended. 

  • The long-term effects of Flexner on the US public health system.

  • Why the Progressive Movement did not achieve universal health care in the US.  What various things prevented Progressive reform from setting up national health care?

  • Frederick Winslow Taylor 

  • The Principles of Scientific Management 

  • The Commission Plan of Government 

  • Galveston, 1900

  • Initiative, Referendum 

  • The County Life Movement and the reasons for its failure.

  • All relevant dates. 

 

PROGRESSIVISM AND CIVIL RIGHTS: Here, lectures turned to an analysis of the social impact of Progressivism by examining how reformers took on one of the most appalling aspects of the late-nineteenth-century United States: the nation’s treatment of black Americans.  This lecture examined how Gilded Age politicians, especially in the South, had worked to segregate and disenfranchise African Americans.  It addresses the social and economic effects of segregation, and the efforts of reformers to restore wealth, respect, and opportunity to the black community.

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You need to know the following:

  • The Civil Rights Act of 1875 

  • Joseph Bradley

  • The Civil Rights Cases of 1883 

  • James Z George and his role in segregation and promoting racism.

  • Mississippi Constitution of 1890

  • The Grandfather Clause

  • Early segregation laws.

  • The social effects of segregation and discrimination - the rush to whiteness effect.

  • Efforts to address the growing hate - The various groups that formed to fight segregation in the late 1800s.

  • Rudolphe DuDunes and Ida Wells and what they tell us about the people who resisted.

  • The Case of Homer Plessy

  • Plessy Vs Ferguson and why it is referred to as one of the Supreme Court's most vicious rulings.

  • John Marshall Harlan 

  • The era of lynching

  • Racial violence - The Gomez Lynching, Waco Horror, Paris Horror, Kirven Lynching.

  • The Night Doctors and the abuse of minority cemeteries.  The long-term effects of graverobbing.

  • Minority-on-minority violence in the age of hate - why it developed and why it behaved as it did.

  • The ways minorities responded to the age of segregation and hate.

  • Booker T. Washington 

  • The Atlanta Compromise 

  • Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital

  • The Tulsa Race Riot and Deep Greenwood

  • WEB Dubois 

  • The Souls of Black Folk 

  • The Niagara Movement 

  • The Springfield Riot of 1908 and its significance

  • The NAACP and its fight against segregation

  • Bloody 1919

  • The psychotic Omaha Race Riot of 1919

  • The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 

  • The Harlem Renaissance and what it did to reduce prejudice and hatred.

  • Langston Hughes 

 

PROGRESSIVISM IN THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT: This lecture followed the Progressive zeal into presidential politics, looking at three reform-minded presidents -- Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.

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You should know the following:

  • Theodore Roosevelt. Since he is so important, you should know a little about his biography. You should also have some familiarity with his political history. What offices did he hold before he became president? 

  • How Roosevelt became president. 

  • What happened with Northern Securities 

  • The Square Deal 

  • The Hepburn Act 

  • The Pure Food and Drug Act 

  • The Meat Inspection Act 

  • William Howard Taft 

  • The Payne-Aldrich Tariff 

  • The Election of 1912 

  • “Bull Moose” Party 

  • New Nationalism 

  • Woodrow Wilson 

  • New Freedom 

  • The Underwood Tariff 

  • The Federal Reserve Act 

  • The Clayton Anti-Trust Act 

  • The Adamson Act 

  • The Federal Farm Loan Act 

  • the Keating-Owen Act 

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