1. The Gilded Age/ Social Darwinism
The Rossers
Section 6.3 ( )
The Spirit of the Gilded Age

2. Today’s Agenda September 21, 2015
Collect “letter home” paragraph
Reminder: HIPE (Essay or Presentation) due in 1 week
Put finished slide show in my Inbox by Monday morning
6.3 The Spirit of the Gilded Age (Conspicuous Consumption)
Homework
Work on Essay or presentation

3. Let Review Father of the Skyscraper Creator of the “safe” elevator
When a nation goes from farms to factories
World’s fair of 1876 held in Philly which featured great inventions and innovations of America
Someone who is Anti-Foreigner
How immigration to US changed after 1890
Corrupt Ward boss of NYC who looked after immigrants
Creators of the Brooklyn Bridge

4. Objectives for Today You should be able to:
Define and list at least 2 characteristics of the Gilded Age
Identify “The Breakers”
Define and give at least 3 examples of Conspicuous Consumption
Develop a position on the role government should play (if any) in dealing with severe economic disparity

5. Was America a great nation circa 1900?
Centennial Exposition showcased American know-how
Growing economy
Thousands of new patents
Click for Clips

6. The Greatness of America (ASof US, D2Ep3 begin at 9:00)

7. What was the Gilded Age?
Another name for America’s Industrial Revolution
America from
Gilded:
to cover something with a thin layer of gold to make it seem more attractive or valuable than it really is.
"Gilded Age"
coined by Mark Twain

9. What was the nation trying to gild?
Poverty
Child Labor
Crime
Alcoholism
Prostitution
Inhumane working conditions
Economic disparity

10. How did the American elite gild themselves?
Conspicuous Consumption
refers to the acquisition of goods in order to flaunt status & wealth
Many poor immigrant families lived on $445 per year
Cornelia Sherman Martin spent $360 thousand on 1 party
Disparagingly called Nouveaux Riches by Old Money People
New Rich
Molly Brown
Wealthy but lacked class, refinement

11. ASofUS, D2 Ep3 , begin at 18:00

12. Today’s Agenda Collect Homework (Diary or Letter Home)
Finish Urban America Slide Show
Homework
Study you notes
Quiz on Gilded Age this Friday (30-40 Points)

13. Let’s Review Gilded Age Alexander Graham Bell Xenophobia Gild
Period in US history noted for growth of factories, urbanization, mass immigration, great architectural accomplishments and horrendous poverty
“Mr. Watson, come here: I want you.”
Extreme dislike of immigrants from American-born people
To cover with gold in order to make it seem more attractive & valuable
Purchasing goods or services in order to flaunt wealth and status
Built Brooklyn Bridge
Area in bottom of ship where most poor immigrants stayed during voyage to America
Writer who said, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Gilded Age
Alexander Graham Bell
Xenophobia
Gild
Conspicuous consumption
John and George Roebling
steerage
Emma Lazarus

14. So how could the wealthy sleep at night?

15. Is there any justification for such economic disparity?

16. Social Darwinism Day 7 Section 6.3 (Appleby 230-232)
Urban America
Click for “Lion King Clip”
Social Darwinism
Day 7 Section 6.3 (Appleby )

17. Should we stop Simba. Or should we let nature take its course
Should we stop Simba? Or should we let nature take its course? What if we applied this to society?

18. Read the following quote. How would you describe his philosophy?
"Before the tribunal (judge) of nature a man has no more right to life than a rattlesnake; he has no more right to liberty than any wild beast; his right to pursuit of happiness is nothing but a license to maintain the struggle for existence..."
—William Graham Sumner, "Earth-hunger, and other essays," p. 234.
THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE

19. Objectives: By the end of this lesson you should be able to:
Define Laissez-faire
Identify William Graham Sumner and his philosophy Social Darwinism
Identify Andrew Carnegie and his philosophy of the Gospel of Wealth
Develop your political view on the role of government in economics

21. Discussion Questions What did you observe?
What justifies who would survive and who would die?

22. Who was Charles Darwin? English Scientist
Wrote Origin of the Species (1859)
Major Theories
Survival of the Fittest
Only species who adapt to changing environments live
Natural Selection
Nature chooses who will live and who will die by creating certain adaptations for some and not others
Seemed to support American ideal of “rugged individualism”
What if we apply this ideology to other aspects of society?
Race, nationality, economics

23. What is a Laissez-Faire Economic Policy?
“let it (nature) be”
Government should stay out of economy
Based on Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”
Hated mercantilism
Let Invisible Hand of nature run economy
Wealth is “merely the working out of the law of nature and the law of God.”
John D. Rockefeller

24. Describe William Graham Sumner’s idea of Social Darwinism.
belief proposed by Sumner that people in society compete for survival and that superior individuals, groups, etc. become powerful and rich
Natural selection
fittest succeed
unfit sink into poverty and become extinct
The rich are so rich because they’re better

25. Describe Carnegie’s childhood and teenage years.
Poor immigrant
Rags to Riches
1st Job as a Bobbin Boy in textile factory
$1 per week
5:30 AM to 7:30 PM (6 days a week)
Messenger in telegraph office (14)
$2.50 per week
Became assistant to president in PA RR
Invested savings in RR & oil
Began own business manufacturing iron bridges
Used Bessemer Process for manufacturing inexpensive steel
Purchased Homestead Steel 1889
Sold to JP Morgan for $480 million ($13.2 billion today)
first job at age 13 in 1848 was as a bobbin boy, changing spools of thread in a cotton mill 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in a Pittsburgh cotton factory
A bobbin boy was a boy who worked in a textile mill in the 18th and early 19th centuries. He would bring bobbins to the women at the looms when they called for them, and collected the full bobbins of spun cotton or wool thread. They also would be expected to fix minor problems with the machines. Average pay was about $1.00 a week, with days often beginning at 5:30 am and ending around 7:30 pm six days a week. One example of rising from this job to great heights in America was young Andrew Carnegie, who at age 13 worked as a bobbin boy in 1848.[1
telegraph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $2.50 per week,[5] following the recommendation of his uncle. His new job gave him many benefits including free admission to the local theater. This made him appreciate Shakespeare's work. He was a very hard worker and would memorize all of the locations of Pittsburgh's businesses and the faces of important men. He made many connections this way. He also paid close attention to his work, and quickly learned to distinguish the differing sounds the incoming telegraph signals produced. He developed the ability to translate signals by ear, without having to write them down,[citation needed] and within a year was promoted as an operator. Carnegie's education and passion for reading was given a great boost by Colonel James Anderson, who opened his personal library of 400 volumes to working boys each Saturday night. Carnegie was a consistent borrower and a "self-made man" in both his economic development and his intellectual and cultural development. His capacity, his willingness for hard work, his perseverance, and his alertness soon brought forth opportunities

26. What is the Gospel of Wealth ?
Carnegie’s essay that says justifies social Darwinism
‘Natural aristocracy’ should control economy
BUT, Wealthy have obligation to aid the less fortunate
Help them help themselves
Laissez-Faire is beneficial to all because weak links are eliminated, best rise to the top