The struggle for hegemony over Butte’s copper industry was defined by the wars of the copper kings in Montana as well as the personal animus and conflict between William A. Clark and Marcus Daly. Mining and political unscrupulousness defined this era of corporate profligacy. Not to mention that this personal, political, and economic struggle, between Daly and Clark, greatly denigrated Montana, and assisted in reducing the state into the status of an eastern corporate colony; which caused extreme detriment to both the environment and Montana’s citizens. This strife between the corporate barons was driven primarily by economic and political reasons; however the backgrounds and personal dispositions of Clark and Daly helped widen the chasm between …show more content…
them. Clark and Daly shared some common origin and both of them were successful venture capitalists; however their personalities and beliefs differed significantly.
Malone states that” The barons of Butte relished their hard-won wealth and prestige. Each having risen from poverty to vast riches, could boast of being a truly self-made man. Aside from being hard-nosed mining millionaires, however, the two men were a study in contrasts.” (BB, 80) Daly was an Irish immigrant and he never abandoned or attempted to extirpate his identity was an immigrant. According to Malone, “Marcus Daly still bore the clear imprint of his Irish peasant and mining frontier background. Unassuming, awkward in speech and expression, quick to love and hate, he remained a man of the earth, a man of simple tastes and emotions.” (BB, 80) Moreover, Daly granted very generous donations to not only the Democratic Party, but nationalist Irish organizations as well. Daly was far less ostentatious than Clark. William Clark on the other hand was not an immigrant and he detested his background as a former working class citizen. Furthermore, he attempted to extirpate any trace of his impoverished history and origins. He was very ostentatious and above all else he wanted to portray himself as a wealthy aristocrat. Clark was apathetic and resigned. Moreover, Clark favored Englishmen and Daly consistently supported Irishman through prejudicial hiring
practices However, Clark was very ambitious and he wanted to make a political career for himself unlike Daly. Clark’s desire to enter politics served as the catalyst which would actuate the war of the copper kings. In addition the economic interests of both men collided and this served as the primary foundation for the personal acrimony between Clark and Daly. According to Malone, “W.A. Clark attempted to cross Daly in his purchase of the Alice Mine for the walker brothers
Many individuals decide to live their life in solitary; though, only a few choose to live in the wild. The book, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer vividly paints the adventurous trek Chris McCandless went on. From the friends he made, to the hardships he went through, McCandless is portrayed as a friendly, sociable person despite the fact that he was a vagabond. Other than McCandless, there are even more individuals that have taken the risks to live in the wilderness such as, Jon Krakauer and Everett Ruess. All three of them had both similarities and differences between their own qualities as a person and their journey.
Eller, Ronald D. Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1982. Print.
Kennedy, Richard S. http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-00394.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Sun Mar 18 12:31:47 2001 Copgyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Publish by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
Political. As an esteemed war hero during the Civil War, Custer was an icon who carried the support of the American people. With the people’s support our government could shift the nation’s progress westward for expansion. Custer had confined the Indians to the Black Hills reservation, and they had made it their home, then he discovered gold in the region. The government immediately wanted the land back in exchange...
Discoveries can be unexpected and sudden or they can transform from a process of careful and calculated planning evoked by curiosity, and wonder. These discoveries can lead individuals to search for meaning through a series of experiences. Simon Nasht’s documentary Frank Hurley - The Man Who Made History (2004) captures the experiences of adventurer, Frank Hurley as he explores the importance of discovery through the challenges that evoke individuals to transform through a process of journeys of discovery and exploration. John Keats’ poem ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’ (1816) portrays the persona discovering Chapman’s translation of Homer’s epic poems evoking a transformative process from a passive reader of literature to be stimulated
1. Lambert, Dale A. Pacific Northwest History. 4th Edition. Wenatchee: Directed Media, 1997. 150-151. Print
Kelly James Clark, who is a former Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College, wrote “Without Evidence or Argument” which is published in Reason and Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy. The article starts off with the scenario of a stranger giving a man a note that his wife is cheating on him. However, there is no evidence and her behavior has not changed at all, how should he react? Does he take the note as complete truth and confront her or should he find security in the trust that he has built up with his wife over the past years together (Feinberg 138)? Clark uses this example, as well as others, to bring attention to the connection between significant beliefs and evidence. Furthermore, Clark goes on to state his
The West: From Lewis and Clark and Wounded Knee: The Turbulent Story of the Settling of Frontier America.
Burton K. Wheeler’s first political election took him to the Montana House of Representatives in 1910, where he was a champion of labor. From 1913 to 1918, he served as the U.S. district attorney for the state. After an unsuccessful bid for governor, to 1947. After public life, he returned to the practice of law (Av2
... middle of paper ... ... This conflict conveys the confrontation of wild American nature with the new-coming European civilization, people like the young hunter?had no qualms about doing harm to nature by thrusting civilization upon it? P. Miller, p. 207.
Orsi, Richard J., and John F. Burns. Taming The Elephant: Politics, Government, And Law In Pioneer California. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. eBook (EBSCOhost). Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
The period in American history between 1900 and 1920 was a very turbulent one. Civil unrest was brewing as a result of many pressures placed upon the working class. Although wealth was accumulating at an astonishing rate in America, most people at the lower economic levels were not benefiting from any of it. Worst of all for them, the federal government seemed to be on the side of the corporations. Their helpless situation and limited options is why the coal strike of 1902 is so important.
Montana is a part of the country that many people do not know much about its history. Montana is divided into two parts, East and West. Eastern Montana is part of the Northern Great Plains and has played pivotal roles in American history since the early 1800’s. Western Montana is a history made up of gold rushes and the Copper King Marcus Daly. The history of Montana is that of many tales from Montanan Indian Tribes going back hundreds and thousands of years before American expansion into the region. On the other side we have white settlers from areas throughout the US and European countries, especially settlers from Germany and the Scandinavian countries. The settlers were brought to Montana by the promise of the American Dream of having a chance at striking it rich from mining or having the chance of owning your own piece of land from the Enlarged Homestead Act.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.