The triangle fire and the gilded age

1. The triangle fire and the gilded age A brief introduction

2. The Triangle factory fire • Workers concentrated in factories • Workers concentrated in urban areas • Workers were mostly immigrants • Workers respond by attempting to form unions • Government responds by passing progressive laws

3. Main themes Now Later Immigration Unionization Progressive reforms • Industrialization • Urbanization • Growing inequality

4. Two historical eras • The Gilded Age • Roughly 1870-1900 • Tremendous economic growth and increasing inequality • The Progressive Era • Roughly 1900-1916 • Political reforms aimed at expanding women’s and workers’ rights and making government more democratic • The era in which the US becomes a modern nation?

5. industrialization • Technological innovation • Factory production • More people working in factories • Women • Children • Tremendous economic growth

7. urbanization • People leave farms and flock to cities • 1800: 5% of population in cities • 1920: 50% of population in cities • Reasons for urbanization: • Pull of factory work • Immigrants seek other immigrants • Changes in cities • Transportation systems (Tremont St. Subway, 1897) • Tenements; unsanitary living conditions • Skyscrapers (Ames Building, 1893)

8. Chicago, 1820 Population 15

9. Chicago, 1854 Population 55,000

10. Chicago, 1898 Population 1,700,000

11. inequality • Extreme wealth and extreme poverty • Robber barons/captains of industry • J.D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) • Standard Oil (founded 1870) • Vertical integration • Monopoly • Urban poverty • Low wages, long hours, dire conditions • Women and children working