C. Thesis Statement: In Chapter 11, Robber Barons and Rebels, Zinn uses primary sources and evidence to explain how behind the great achievements in America in the early 1900s, there was usually a man of great wealth with a vision as well as millions of others doing the back-breaking work in order to fulfill the capitalists’ dreams. D. Evidence used: 1. To accomplish the growth in production of goods such as cloth, coal, steel, and copper, ingenious inventors of new processes and new machines, clever organizers and administrators of new corporations, a country with land and minerals, and a large supply of human beings to do the back-breaking, unhealthful, and dangerous work were required. Immigrants came from Europe and China to make the …show more content…
In the 1890s, the spread of public school education enabled the learning of writing, reading, and arithmetic for a whole generation of workers who would be the literate labor force of the new industrial age. It was important that these people learned obedience to authority and responsibility. A journalist observer of the schools wrote, "The unkindly spirit of the teacher is strikingly apparent; the pupils, being completely subjugated to her will, are silent and motionless, the spiritual atmosphere of the classroom is damp and chilly." The children were not being educated for the purpose of creating sense of wonder, to increase their knowledge, or even to learn; they were being educated simply so that they could work more …show more content…
The significance of Populist belief was shown in one of its most important leaders in, Charles Macune, who was a radical in economics, a conservative in politics, and a racist. He came up with a plan that would become central to the Populist platform; the sub-Treasury plan. The government would have its own warehouses where farmers could store produce and get certificates from the sub-Treasury. These would be greenbacks, and thus much more currency would be made available; not dependent on gold or silver, but based on the amount of farm produce. At this time, farmers were struggling to make money off of their grain. Their land, machines, the railroad for transportation, the grain merchant for handling their grain, and the storage elevator for storing it all costed money. Farmers soon found the prices for their produce going down, and the prices of transportation and loans going up. They dealt with the financial stress and did the work while Macune reaped the
The increase in crop yield caused a change in the economy, which the party set out to straighten out in 1892. On their party platform they demanded that the government take control of the railroad. The railroad was charging extremely high prices to transport grain. They asked the government to use the railroads for the benefit of the people. They also wished to set the economy straight and asked for an unlimited coinage of gold and silver at a ratio of sixteen to one and a graduat...
Through this time period in education the main focus of the era was to build an educational system that was right for the students. Also there was a need for a curriculum that would serve to organize students to participate in the world of business. Schools have become to have very low principles and also low value that would not suitable for the students to have the best level to be successful outside of school. With what was happening in schools the government than started to believe that the low standards and quality the students had put the nation at jeopardy and even the economy around them. Schools were than being accused for the disasters in education and the main purpose during this time was to change the school system that was getting bad. The curricula changed, it became stricter for students,
"The Myth of The Robber Barons" by Burton W. Folsom, JR. tells a unique story about entrepreneurs in early America. The book portrays big businessmen as being behind America's greatness.
Robber Barons are known as ruthless capitalist or industrialist of the late 19th century, known to have gain wealthyness by exploiting natural resources, corrupting legislators, or other unethical means. The Myth of the Robber Barons is a book about the entrepreneurs Cornelius Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, Andrew Mellon, Johne D. Rockefeller, the Scranton family, and Charles Schwab. Many in todays sociaty would argure that these men were all robber barons, but this book gives us a hole new look in the history of these men and there lives and all they did for the rise in the U.S economic power.
Another example of him being a robber baron is because of how he ran his railroad. His disregard for worker safety was very poor. The poor railroad working conditions made for underpaid workers and safety hazards for everyone working for him. It would cost him money to provide safety measures and precautions in the railways. This is how he treated his workers and this shows how greedy and conservative he was with his money. His workers deserved at least a little more safety than what he was providing. His cheap ways were very detrimental to his workers in those conditions. This is a clear example of how he had no consideration for his employers and installed no safety precautions.
Gatto begins his article by explaining that boredom is an everyday issue in modern schooling. Teachers struggle with boredom due to the attitudes and behavior of students and find it exhausting to teach kids when they behave in an immature manner. However, students also become frustrated with the repetition of useless information, as well as being forced to fit society’s standards. Gatto shifts the focus to his thoughts on the importance of mandatory schooling. He thinks that the lengthy school days are completely unnecessary. There are homeschoolers who go without the eight-hour school days and become just as successful as others. For example, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln- who are historical icons- received little to no schooling at all. Mandatory school attendance did not become important until the early 1900s when James Bryant Conant, who was a poison gas specialist in Prussia during
Republicans claimed that their policies of tariffs encouraged “home industry.” This was supposed to secure “the American market for the American producer…” (Reading 7). The Populist platform had a few similarities to the Republican platform. One of which was the concern for foreign control inside the country. They believed land inside the U.S. should be owned by citizens or the government, not by aliens. This was mostly to give the farmers more control and a deal them a better hand, which was what made the ideal different from the
Farmers united to protect their interests, even creating a major political party. The party was called the peoples party which became known as the populist party. Populists drew its strength from rural areas. Populists tended to be poor and uneducated. They had ideas such as government ownership of major industries. The Populists supported labors demand for an eight hour work day. The most controversial Populist demand concerned the money supply. Farmers being both sellers and debtors, saw inflation as a way to improve their standard of living, but they wanted to expand the money supply. Farmers convinced the government to use silver as well as gold to back the money supply. The congress passed the Bland-Allison Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase. Populist platform urged congress to authorize free and unlimited minting of silver. The Populists were united in favoring the minting of silver to expand the money supply. Democrats agreed with the Populist, but most Republicans favored the gold standard and a smaller money supply. Democrats agreed on a presidential candidate that was with the mint silver, wh...
American had an economy based on manual labour which was replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. It began with the expansion of the textile industries and the development of iron-making techniques, and trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways.
During the latter part of the 19th century, many laborers faced numerous problems. Some of these problems included, “mechanization of industry, emergence of giant corporations, nationalization of labor, public sentiment greatly admired the ‘Captains of Industry,’ and immigration” (Farless). After years of knowledge, man was introduced to machines. When machines played a part in the latter part of the 19th century, it caused trouble with the laborers. These new machines would replace laborers, which meant more laborers were remaining unemployed and that there were lower wages (Farless). Another problem laborers faced were the introduction to immigrants. Immigrants were coming to the United States of America from foreign land to work. With these immigrants, it kept the wages low because the immigrants were new inexpensive labor (Farless).
The population of the North consisted of forward thinking individuals. They realized that a change had to be made from agriculture to industry if they were to prosper and for them to use free labor to accomplish prosperity would be to take a step backwards. This ushered in an small and early Industrial Revolution. Factories and mills that produced finished goods sprung up all over the Northern United States along major waterways. These factories produced fabric, iron, machinery, weapons. Raw materials such as cotton was bought from the South and then sold back to them in the form of clothes. Iron workers made iron railroad ties for the growing railroads across the country. More machinery was being built than ever before. These machines were able to multiply the work that could be accomplished. These industries drew in people from rural areas because they were paying for work. As more people came, they settled around the factori...
The increase in population meant that there were more people in surplus from agricultural jobs and they had to find work in industrial factories, which was the basis of the Industrial Revolution. One of the darker causes for the Industrial Revolution was the slave trade with overseas colonies at the time. For many merchants who saw the easy money to be made from the voyages, the merchants became extremely rich – and as it is in human nature – these rich merchants wanted to become even more rich, the seemingly best way to do this was to invest profits from the slave trade into the new factories that were arising, this is called “Commercial Revolution”. Britain was one of the few countries that was able to bring in profits from other countries and keep profits in their country, aiding them into being the first country to Revolutionise Industrially. The new invention of steam power was one of the great motives for the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, steam was used to power many of the machines, thus with the invention of steam power, the Industrial Revolution was powered onwards.
America was a time of rapid growth for people all across the country. The Industrial Revolution began a few years after the Civil War with the invention of steam powered machines. From there, America faced a time of massive expansion and modern industrialized cities popped up across the United States. While there was much success across the nation, such as manual labor becoming easier and a huge population growth, the negative effects of industrialization outweigh the positives. A few of the issues that made industrialization an atrocious time for many was the racism and segregation towards immigrants and unsafe and unfair working conditions/the deprivation of a regular childhood for kids across the nation.
middle of paper ... ... as farmers became more conscious of prices rising to transport their goods, they were forced to find other means of transportation to distribute their goods. Even though these men attempted to build a stable foundation for America to grow on, their negative aspects dramatically outweighed the positive. Even though Andrew Carnegie donated his fortunes to charity, he only acquired the money through unjustifiable actions. As these industrialists continued to monopolize companies through illegal actions, plutocracy- government controlled by the wealthy, took control of the Constitution.
In his essay “Against School,” John Taylor Gatto illustrates his view point that the American population would be better off by managing their own education. He compares the school system to the concept of boredom; that students as well as teachers are victims of the long ago adopted Prussian educational system: “We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simply and glorious. Let them manage themselves.” In other words, Gatto believes that the main reason for the existence of schooling consists in that it trains our children to be obedient citizens who can’t think on their own. His point is that as a society we cut off the intelligence and creativity