600 likes | 730 Views
America Breaks and Grows 1865-1939. Reconstruction: 1865-1877 Gilded Age: 1877-1890 Progressive Era: 1890-1914 WWI: 1914-1919 Roaring 20’s: 1920-1929 Great Depression: 1929-1939. How Did We Get Here?. 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation
E N D
America Breaks and Grows1865-1939 Reconstruction: 1865-1877 Gilded Age: 1877-1890 Progressive Era: 1890-1914 WWI: 1914-1919 Roaring 20’s: 1920-1929 Great Depression: 1929-1939
How Did We Get Here? • 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation • 1864 – Nathaniel Hawthorne died. Opened the doors, so to speak. • 1865 – Twain hits his stride. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" 1835-1910
End of Civil War April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865 • Walt Whitman (1819-1892) saw Lincoln often, but the two never met face to face. Wrote much about Lincoln. • “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” • “O Captain, My Captain” Lincoln Assassinated on April 14
Whitman’s Themes • Transcendent power of love, brotherhood, and comradeship • Imaginative projection into others’ lives • Optimistic faith in democracy and equality • Belief in regenerative and illustrative powers of nature and its value as a teacher • Equivalence of body and soul and the unabashed exaltation of the body and sexuality
Reconstruction: 1865-1877 • Carpetbaggers • Copperheads • 14th amendment – Minorities born in USA get citizenship (not Native Americans) • 15th Amendment – Black men get right to vote • Military rule over South • 1866 – Freedmen’s Bureau • 1870- Grant’s Ku Klux Klan Act designed to curtail the KKK using federal troops
1876: 100 Year Anniversary • Grown from 2.5 M to 46 M people • Exports exceeded imports for first time • Rights of Women movement starts • NYC: Children’s Aid Society contains 11,000 homeless boys; 3000 more abandoned babies on its doorstep • Vanderbilt Family spends $200,000 on a party. Wealth gap increases.
Gilded Age: 1877-1893 • Twain, William Dean Howells, Louisa May Alcott, Bret Harte, Henry James • Blue collar worker expansion • Rural to urban migration • 1870-1900: 12 million immigrants • 70% through New York • Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 • German, English, Irish, Chinese
William Dean Howells: 1837-1920 • Campaign Manager for Lincoln • U.S. Consul to Italy (1861-1865) • Editor of Atlantic Monthly (1871-1881) • Realism author. Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) • Dean of American Letters • Wrote a hundred books in various genres, including novels, poems, literary criticism, plays, memoirs, and travel narratives • Social Issues subject of his books: women’s rights, workers rights, and rights for minorities. • 1887 – execution of Haymarket radicals
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) • 1868 – Little Women • 1871 – Little Men • 1873 – Work • Promoted interracial marriage and racial blurring. Alcott’s novels emphasize the growth their heroines must undergo to become intellectually and emotionally independent. In Alcott's vision of womanhood, only when a woman can stand alone and is not dependent on a man for fulfillment is she capable of finding happiness, whether married or not. By 1882, she was famous and wealthy.
Emily Dickinson: 1830-1886 • Throughout her life, she seldom left her house and visitors were scarce. • Her poems are typically marked by the intimate recollection of inspirational moments, which are decidedly life-giving and suggest the possibility of happiness. Wrote about 800 good poems
Bret Harte: 1836-1902 • Short stories of the West • 1867 – The Lost Galleon • 1869 – Outcasts of Poker Flat • 1876 – Gabriel Conroy • Romanticist thwarted by Realism. Stock characters. • Twain and Harte broke off friendship in 1877, after the flop of a co-written play. Twain said, “"Well, Bret came down to Hartford and we talked it over, and then Bret wrote it while I played billiards, but of course I had to go over it to get the dialect right. Bret never did know anything about dialect."
Henry James: 1843-1916 • 1877 – The American • 1878 – Daisy Miller • 1881 – Portrait of a Lady • 1886 – Bostonians • 1897 – What Maisie Knew • 1898 – Turn of the Screw • W.D.H. on James: “[It is his] realism of Daudet rather than the realism of Zola that prevails [in his work], and it has a soul of its own…” (A compliment)
Westward Ho! • 1849 Gold Rush • 1876 Dakota Gold Rush • 1896 Klondike Gold Rush • Manifest Destiny • Explorers, Outlaws, Lawmen • Land Grant states • Indian Wars
American Gold Rushes • 1848 – California: Before the discovery of gold, California contained 12,000 Mexicans, 20,000 Native Americans and 2,000 Yankees. By 1850, there were more than 100,000 immigrants. • 1874 – South Dakota: 1,000 men, led by General Custer patrolled the Black Hills area, a large region held sacred by the Sioux. A couple miners attached to his party discovered gold. The mines produced 10 percent of the world’s gold supply over the next 125 years. • 1896 – Klondike, Alaska: Gold discovered in the White and Chilkoot passes, each inhumanly forbidding high-altitude areas. Of the 100,000 people who set out for the Klondike, 30-40 thousand got there, and only 15-20 thousand prospected. Possibly 4,000 found some gold.
Explorers, Outlaws, and Lawmen ▪ Cochise, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Custer ▪ "Buffalo Bill" Cody ▪ Theodore Roosevelt ▪ Butch Cassidy and "The Sundance Kid" ▪ John Fremont ▪ Billy the Kid ▪ Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday ▪ Jesse James Gang ▪ Calamity Jane The dead men after the OK Corral Shootout
Manifest Destiny From 1845-1890, this meant Westward expansion. From 1890-1929, it meant expansion outside of North America. Lady Columbia, a personification of America, leads settlers westward, stringing telegraph wire as she travels, while holding a schoolbook. The Indians and wild animals flee. Notice the different socio-economic backgrounds represented.
“Indian” Wars: 1872-1890 • Battle of the Little Big Horn (1876): General Custer’s force of just over 200 engaged the Lakota and Cheyenne Indian force of about 750. Custer and his entire force were killed in about 3 hours. • Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890): fighting lasted less than an hour; over 150 Lakota were killed and 50 wounded. The U.S. Army casualties numbered 25 dead and 39 wounded.
Oklahoma Land Rush • 1889-1895: In 1893 alone, more than 100,000 white settlers rush into Oklahoma's Cherokee Outlet to claim seven million acres of former Cherokee land.
Depression (Panic) of 1893 • Why? Gold standard changed • New building construction • Agrarian factors – limited economic influence and increased competition • High debt (especially to England) • 1870-1890 number of farms rose 80%, to 4.5 Million • 1870-1890 price of farmed goods dropped 60%
Rise of Business, Unions, and Socialism: 1890-1910 • 1890 – Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1 901, 1911) • 1890 – Jane Addams’ Hull House founded • 1891 – Populist Party formed • 1891 – Edison’s Kinetoscope is invented • Hamlin Garland, Sara Orne Jewitt, Stephen Crane, Kate Chopin, Emily Dickinson, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser Naturalism relies on these conditions
Hamlin Garland: 1860-1940 • A novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, and memoirist, Garland lectured widely on American literature and writers for over 40 years. • 1891 – Main-Traveled Roads • “Under the Lion’s Paw” is most famous short story.
Sara Orne Jewitt: 1849-1909 • 1890 – Tales of New England • Her fiction is characterized by intimate views of characters' lives, the growth and trials of friendship, and a good deal of humor, both broad and subtle.
Stephen Crane: 1871-1900 • Realist • 1893 – Maggie, Girl of the Streets • 1895 – Red Badge of Courage • 1897 – “The Open Boat”
1900 Census • 76.2 Million People • 45 states • 1800 Census: 5.3 Million People New York’s Metropolitan Museum excluded the working class, as it was closed on Sunday, the only day workers were free. That changed in 1891 as an early “Progressive” move.
Kate Chopin: 1851-1904 • 1894 – Bayou Folk • “A Pair of Silk Stockings” • “Desiree’s Baby” • “The Story of an Hour” • 1899 – The Awakening • Realist. Distinctly unsentimental in her approach, she often relied on popular period motifs, such as the conflict of the Yankee businessman and the Creole.
Progressive Era: 1893-1914 Congress chartered the National Child Labor Committee in 1907. However, it took until 1938 before Congress disallowed kids under 16 to work in dangerous jobs. Congress also enacted the 40 hour work week in 1938.
Frank Norris: 1870-1902 • Naturalist who takes on Big Business • 1899 – McTeague • 1900 – A Man’s Woman • 1900 – Blix • 1902 – The Pit • Most of his works include realistic descriptions of violence, squalor, and determinism.
Theodore Dreiser: 1871-1945 • 1900 – Sister Carrie • 1912 – The Financier • Naturalist – Social inequality • 1925 – An American Tragedy • From An American Tragedy: "Well, here is one who, whatever her defects, probably does what she believes as nearly as possible."
Early American Imperialism • Panama Canal (1904-1914) • Spanish American War (1898) • Puerto Rico, Philippines, Cuba, Guam • Lending issues with Europe • Chinese ports for trade • Oil contracts • Edith Wharton, Jack London, Robert Frost, Gertrude Stein, Sinclair Lewis, Hamlin Garland, T.S. Eliot, Sherwood Anderson
Edith Wharton: 1862-1937 • 1905 – House of Mirth • 1911 – Ethan Frome • 1920 – The Age of Innocence • Wharton made fun of the narrow-minded and ignorant upper class through irony • Crossed the Atlantic 66 times • Won France’s highest civilian award
Jack London (1876-1916) • Highest paid, most popular writer in America in early 20th Century. • Man vs. Nature • An illegitimate child from California • At 15 became an oyster pirate • At 17 joined a sealing ship for 3 months • 30 day imprisonment; after, went to Cal Berkeley • Gained information for stories from his time in the Klondike searching for gold • Call of the Wild (1903), Sea-Wolf (1904), White Fang (1906) • Died a millionaire at 40 of various diseases and treatments • First real “scientific farmer” – Darwinist stockbreeder • Built his own ship, The Snark, and cruised the South Pacific for 27 months.
Robert Frost (1874-1963) • 4 Pulitzer Prizes • Called the “American Bard” • “Road Not Taken,” “Mending Wall,” “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” • Born in California; named for Robert E. Lee • New England settings; moved there at 11 • Study of contrasts – dark and depressed/beauty of nature • Traditional form and meter
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) • Coined the term “Lost Generation” • Openly lesbian and feminist (Alice B. Toklas) • Volunteered to drive supply vehicles in WWI in France • Spent most of her life abroad, especially in France • Anti-FDR; opposed New Deal • Elitist poet and author • Three Lives (1909); Tender Buttons (1914) • Picasso (1938); Patriarchal Poetry (1953)
Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) • Nobel Prize in 1930 (first American winner) • 22 novels and 3 plays • Main Street (1920); Babbitt (1922) • Socialist (typical of many authors of his time) • Awarded Pulitzer Prize in 1926, but rejected it, saying prizes were silly. He had lost the Pulitzer twice as a runner-up. He accepted the Nobel in 1930.
Hamlin Garland (1860-1940) • Midwestern guy (Wisconsin) • Main-Traveled Roads (1891): “Under the Lion’s Paw” • Realist – can we argue Naturalist, too? • 1922 Pulitzer Prize • Wrote biographies and much about the Wild West and issues concerning the Midwest • The Book of the American Indian (1923) • Forty Years of Psychic Research (1936) • The Mystery of the Buried Crosses (1939)
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) • 1948 Nobel Prize • Literary Critic, poet, essayist, dramatist • “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917) • Wasteland (1922) • Born in USA; became British citizen in 1927 • Modernist – Ezra Pound’s “Make it New!” • Ash Wednesday (1930) – Conversion Poem • Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939) – became the basis for Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical Cats. A book for children.
Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) • Winesburg, Ohio – short story collection (1919) • Fought in Spanish American War (1899) • American Grotesque • Epitaph: “Life, Not Death, is the Great Adventure” • "Everyone in the world is Christ and they are all crucified." • Friends with famous authors of his time: William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Sandburg, and scrapped with Hemingway.
Black America • Jim Crow Laws (1876-1968) • 1896 – Plessy vs Ferguson • Harlem Renaissance (1919-1934) • KKK (1866-1873; 1925-present)
Jim Crow Laws (1876-1954, 1964, 1968) • Enacted in Southern States as Reconstruction ended (1876). • Basically overruled 14th and 15th Amendments (1870) • Horrific laws imposed on Blacks • Examples: voting disfranchisement, public accommodations, living quarters, athletics, separate libraries, advertisements marked “colored” or “white,” etc.
Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) • Upheld the Constitutionality of Racial Segregation (Separate IS Equal) • June 7, 1892, in a planned act, Homer Plessy boarded a whites-only train car. He was an octoroon, and could often “pass.” He did not this time. He refused to leave and was arrested. Lost his case in local, district, and federal courts. • Destroyed most of 1875 Civil Rights Laws • Upheld most of 1890 Louisiana State mandatory separation laws. • Overturned in 1954 Brown vs. Topeka Board of Ed.
Harlem Renaissance (1919-1934) The Harlem Renaissance was more than just a literary movement: it included racial consciousness, "the Back to Africa" movement led by Marcus Garvey, racial integration, the explosion of music particularly jazz, spirituals and blues, painting, dramatic revues, and others. Langston Hughes, WEB DuBois (The Talented Tenth), Booker T. Washington (D. 1915, but impact greatly felt), Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Arna Bontemps, Nella Larsen. William H. Johnson - artist
KKK (1866-1873; 1915-present) • Birth of a Nation (1915) • Founded by Confederate Soldiers after Civil War • Destroyed by Pres. Grant with 1870-1871 Civil Rights Acts (Federal Troops) • In 1925, 15% of all white men (4.7 million) were in KKK • Anti: Catholic, Black, Jew, Communist • Today: 70,000 members nationwide, in numerous small “cells” or “chapters”
WWI (1914-1919) • The Great War • Trench Warfare • Almost 10 million killed • Germany lost, and several European nations earned independence. • Britain lost imperialistic ground • Unresolved issues led to European theatre in WWII • America emerged from limited involvement as world power • Battle of the Somme – 450,000 British Dead • U-Boats and the Lusitania • Zimmerman Telegram (from British Room 40)
Jingoism/Nationalism • “Extreme chauvinism” and Nativism • Imperialism and heavy military influence • Teddy Roosevelt – 1893 • Suppression of rights for immigrants
Modernism: 1917-1939 • Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Wallace Stevens, Ernest Hemingway, William Carlos Williams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner • Political, artistic and cultural movement that is positive and powerful, advocating the use of all scientific and human means of determining a better environment and living it. “Make it new!” • Roughly encompasses 1890-1940
Roaring 20’s (1919-1929) • Intolerance, isolation, cynicism • $5 workday, incredible economic power, first Transatlantic flight, Jazz Age • Gangsters, KKK, harsh immigration laws, Volstead Act (Prohibition) • Flappers, parties, wealth acquisition, automobile, aircraft, radio, telephone
Stock Market Crash (1929) • Buying stock on margin – for each dollar of stock, purchased $9 of stock • DOW increased from 60 to 400 from 1921 to 1929. Did not reach 400 again until 1955. • Economics - banks had invested customer money in stock (on margin). 10,000 banks failed, and $140 Billion in customer money disappeared. Also the Fed had raised interest rates too high to stifle inflation. • Did not learn lessons from the first depression in 1893 • Market lost $16 Billion in capitalization