2. TheSecondIndustrialRevolution
Railroads essentially cause the Second
Industrial Revolution and become the
country’s first big business
Stimulated the post-war national economy and
marketplace
National rail network
Promoted by federal loans, standardization, and
state aid
Helped contribute to mass production,
distribution, and mass marketing of goods
6. TheSecondIndustrialRevolution
The Industrial Economy
By 1913, the United States produced 1/3 of the
world’s industrial output
The 1880 census indicated that a majority of the
U.S. workforce was engaged in non-farming jobs
(for the first time)
Financing industrialization became an industry in
itself
Pittsburgh and Chicago begin to grow as a result
8. TheSecondIndustrialRevolution
Railroads and Politics
Became a major political issue through the end of
the century
Regulation was a hotly debated issue
However, most people did not want to interfere with
progress
Eventually, the SupremeCourt ruled that railroad
regulatory commissions were legal
Interstate CommerceAct of 1877 allowed for a
commission to hear complaints against railroad
companies accused of charging outrageous rates
9. BigBusiness
Competition and Consolidation
Depression plagued the economy between 1873
and 1897
Businesses engaged in cutthroat competition
To avoid competition, large businesses battled to
control entire industries
Between 1897 and 1904, 4,000 business
consolidated into larger corporations
Many of these large corporations became
monopolies
10.
11. BigBusiness
Andrew Carnegie and Steel Manufacturing
Worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad
By the 1890s, Carnegie dominated the steel
industry
Used vertical integration
Buy everything that can be used to take a product
from raw material to finished
His whole life was focused on success
Also generously gave back to society
12.
13. BigBusiness
John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil
Ran a trust that bought everyone else in the oil
industry out by purchasing stocks
Rockefeller slowly consolidated the oil business
Lowered costs by paying attention to minute details
Focused on production and marketing aspects of the
oil industry
Utilized horizontal integration
Buy everyone else out in the same industry
14.
15. BigBusiness
Factory conditions
35,000 factory and mining workers were killed each
year in work related accidents
Highest rate in the industrial world
Many skilled laborers had their jobs taken by machines
Workers had few protections from mistreatment on
the job
Economic insecurity was a fact of life
Long work hours
No workers’ compensation
16.
17. ClassStratification
Class divisions became more visible
The rich get richer
The poor get poorer
Many wealthy American gave up their old
lives to pursue an aristocratic lifestyle
Consumerism and consumption of goods became
the key to this new form of freedom
18. ClassStratification
The working class lived in terrible conditions
12 hour work days; 7 days a week
1 of 115 workers died in work related accidents
1 in 8 were injured on the job
182,000 children under 16 were employed in
the mining or manufacturing industries
Almost the population ofWaco
19.
20. TheAmericanWest
Farming boomed; more land came into cultivation
in the 30 years after the CivilWar than the previous
2 and ½ centuries of American history combined;
one of the reasons why we have issues during the
1930s with the Dust Bowl; over farming
A great deal of the farming burden fell on women
Caused in part by the push by “Redeemers” in the
South who celebrated the end of Reconstruction and
wanted to bring industrialization and economic
improvements to the South by the expansion of
population and rail networks
21. TheAmericanWest
Bonanza farms
Powell stated that the arid region of the West would
require large-scale irrigation projects and cooperative,
communal farming
Millions of farmers moving to the west to seek crop
bonanzas and a new way of life; by 1900, the west was
settled and it held 30% of the national population
Small farms tuned in and realized that they had to
appeal to a national and international market
(beginning of the international American identity)
Didn’t help the problems as crop production
increased, prices fell, small farmers suffered greatly
difficulties in the last quarter of the 1900s
22.
23. TheAmericanWest
Mining Boom and Bust
California in 1849 was the big mining boom state
Boom came to an end during the 1890s
Western mines contributed millions to the economy,
helped finance the Civil War, supported
industrialization, changed relative value of gold
(leaving room for the amount of silver to change)
Mining populations were primarily based of men;
sounds a lot like early colonialVirginia (men
outnumbered women 2:1)
After towns became unprofitable, mining ventures
moved on leaving Indian reservations, hills, and ghost
towns
24. TheAmericanWest
The ‘real’West; the Cowboys
Cowboys became a symbol of a life of freedom
on the open range; no big cities issues to get
you down
They governed themselves (like miners) and
typically weren’t as violent as OldWest films
portray.
Short lived phenomena, on the way out by
1880s; cattle trails becoming local; regional
only; many cowboys switched to raising sheep
25. TheAmericanWest
New Farming Methods
Barbed wire; fence in the wilderness!
Mechanical technology
What happens to the farmer?
Settlers eventually abandon their farms; become
restless and angry (pre-cursor to the Populist
movement)
Complaining about declining crop prices, rail rates
going up, and heavy mortgages
The “Grange” takes on the issues as a lobby
organization; far from their original goal as one that
provided social, cultural, and educational
opportunities
26.
27. TheWestandIndians
The true “last stand” for the Native Americas;
rights as they knew it were about to be taken
away
Constant warfare between the Plains Indians
and military occurred between 1850 and 1890
US army launches a campaign against the Navajo
One effective method of extermination: kill
off the buffalo
Only 30 million in 1800; nearly extinct by hunting
in 1890
28.
29. TheWestandIndians
Land availability diminishing
HomesteadAct of 1862 – gave farmers public
lands, roughly 160 acres, but that was too small
Timber and Stone Act – help “civilize”
Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada
Land at $2.50 an acre
Ten times the limit of the Homestead Act
Railroads were making a killing because they’re
buying it up at discounted rates
Is it any wonder why the Indians got in the way?
30.
31. TheWestandIndians
1871, Congress eliminates the treaty
system that dated back to the
revolutionary war with the Indians
Forced American assimilation on the Indians;
no choice but to become American
DawesAct – attacked tribalism, essentially
outlawing it in 1887
The policy was one of biggest disasters for
Indians; trying to promote them as small
farmers
32. TheWestandIndians
Indian Citizenship
Must give up tribal identity and be assimilated into
American culture
However, no rights under the 14th and 15
amendments; thanks for playing, but no voting or
citizenship rights
Ghost Dance (Wounded Knee)
American soldiers kill between 150 and 200 women
and children Indians atWounded Knee Creek in SD as
they were taking part in a “Ghost Dance”
Seen as primitive, backwards, etc.; something the
white man should fear
33.
34. PoliticsintheGildedAge
Absolute corruption in politics
NYC BossTweed
Business interests influencing the House and Senate
US was an island of democracy that needed to
help the ignorant nations of the world
Democracy was definitely working; very close
elections throughout the 1880s
State and national elections always very close
The Republican Party dominated national
elections though
Every Republican candidate was a Civil War veteran
from 1868 - 1900
35.
36. PoliticsintheGildedAge
Gilded Age presidents did little legislation except
for big business; did not exert executive
leadership at all
Republican candidates for president had all
fought in the Union army from 1868 to 1900
Democrats dominated the South and Catholic
votes
37. EconomicsintheGildedAge
The government ran on standby was ill prepared to
deal with all the problems of rapid economic
growth
Tariff policy in constant debate
Return to gold standard in 1879 (would soon start
issues with the Populists)
Interstate Commerce Commission
Another oversight organization in the move toward
regulation
Sherman Anti-TrustAct
Building block for regulating big business in the 1900s
38. SocialDarwinism
Survival of the fittest in business, society, etc.;
White people had to make a reason for why there
were rich and why some were poor
Contends that business tycoons deserve everything
they get because “God is on their side” because they
worked hard and they had money
Just have to accept inequality in the world
Failure to advance in society is likely because of your
lack of wits and character
Courts typically sided with business on everything;
just another reflection of this mentality
39. TheSocialGospel
Walter Rauschenbusch insisted that freedom and
spiritual development needed to be in harmony
with an equalization of wealth and power
Fits hand in hand with social Darwinism
Acres of Diamonds speech; needed to have wealth
in order to fulfill the duties of being a good
Christian
Alternative theories included socialism,
communism (things going on in Russia at the time)
Early introduction of socialism by Lawrence
Gronlund’s Cooperative Commonwealth
40.
41. LaborintheGildedAge
1877 Great Railroad Strike
Demonstrated that labor rights/regulations would
become an issue in the GildedAge and beyond
Knights of Labor
Organized workers to improve social conditions in
factories
Conditions essential to liberty
Labor raised the question whether meaningful
freedom could exist in extreme economic
inequality
42.
43. LaborintheGildedAge
Middle-Class Reformers
Alarmed by fear of class warfare and the growing
concentration of wealth in a few
The origins of Progressivism
Henry George’s solution to the labor issue was a
single tax
George also rejected the traditional equation of
liberty with ownership of land
44. LaborintheGildedAge
Socialism
Lawrence Gronlund’s Cooperative Commonwealth
was the first book to popularize socialist concepts and
ideas for an American audience
It explained socialist concepts in common language
Bellamy’s Utopia
Edward Bellamy insisted that freedom was a social
condition
Freedom rested on societal interdependence, not
autonomy
Bellamy believed that material abundance made
possible by industrial capitalism could be maintained
while eliminating inequality
45.
46. TheHaymarketAffair
On 1 May 1886, roughly 350,000 workers across
the country demonstrated for 8 hours
A riot ensued after a bomb killed a police officer
on 4 May
7 of the 8 men accused of plotting the Haymarket
bombing were foreign-born
Employers took the opportunity to use this
incident against the labor movement
Depicted the labor movement as dangerous, un-
American, and prone to violence
Also insisted that labor unions were controlled by
foreign-born radicals