Guilded Age & Progressive Era

      Although the history of the United states is indeed a history of immigration(1), during the period of 1890 to 1914, some 15 millions of immigrants arrived in th United States adding to the 31 million of Americans already here. As consequence of the Industrial Revolution, wealth and prosperity was at its high, American cities were booming with new construction and developing very fast. Immigrants were coming from various European countries to work, and cities became overcrowded. Crime, poverty, and almost inhumane conditions described American slumps in the East, especially in the New York area where most immigrants arrived. While in the West, cowboys ruled the frontier, they had an independent mentality and sense of a lawless authority. 

The Progressive Era was a period of social activism and political reform. It aimed to eliminate corruption but at the same time reform government on a state/national level. The United States was not ready to absorb such a large amount of people, it lacked infrastructure and social organizational laws. The Progressives wanted to justified social and economic differences with a scientific explanation. Social Darwinism explained survival of the fittest were only the strongest can survive, as it was an excuse to race discrimination. Two distinctive social classes were divided by economics. The “better class, the most refined and intelligent of our citizens, the high minded”(2), including the White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) and the new immigrants with their “overwhelming flood of vulgarity which was sweeping over our land”(3). WAPs were not only outraged by immigrants lack of “bon-ton” but Irish, Italians, and German immigrants were Catholics too, which was seen by them as a threat to purified Christianity of Protestantism (4). These two sides of society, Gilded on one side and rusted on another will be exposed while Progressives aim to force the government to set rules and regulations.


      At a time where the great European opera singers were journeying to America(5). The cultural leaders influence the culture to what they believed it should be, aimed to transform the audience and performers in to “marionettes”, novelist  Joseph Conrad continued to state that “to make art possible, performers and audiences had to submit to creators and become mere instruments of the will, mere auditors of the productions of the artist” (6). L. Levine also includes Theodore Thomas as a example of enormous importance in the development of American culture, but for him opera was not where the action was, he believed “symphony orchestra show the culture of the community”(7), he meant “the list of audiences sins was long and troublesome”(8), a reflection of their lack of musical culture and manners, stated Henry Finck. Regulation was encourage, New York Philharmonic president George Templeton Strong stated that music lovers had to follow the disciplinary process as those who visit museums and parks “we must enforce our regulations against that abuse more strictly”(9).


   With railroad expansion, Americans were able to travel from East to West in six days, opposed of three months before the railroad reached the West. The Homestead act encourage settlement in areas along the Mid-West all the way to the Pacific Ocean. War Veterans found a great deal of money hunting Buffalo down and selling hide for the manufacture of a variety of items. Extermination of Buffaloes ended Native American life-style, Buffaloes were not only their primary natural resource but a way of life. They were forced in to government reservation areas. Deloria argued that Indians offered patriotic role models for American youth(10), which helped shape modern American character for children. As a consequence of Indians extermination way of life, and the need to expose them to such, the Boy Scout of America was founded by Ernest Thompson Seton who believed that “our civilization was a failure”(11)as a result of progress. He also stated “how easy it was to lose track of individual and social identities, which seemed to fragment the instant they collided with the corporation, the factory, and the city”, people of different races, ethnicity, and national origins melted together in the growing industrial working class”(12)had to find common ground to better their existence.

     America society was changing fast, progress was exposing the country to new challenges including a working class who had no rights, working security, or benefits.  The dominant issues were rights for Black Americans, tariff policy, and monetary policy. Reformers worked for civil service reform, prohibition, and woman suffrage. As the number of work related casualties increased and poor working conditions were exposes, government was forced to take action. The book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, was one of the tools in which industry unsanitary conditions were disclosed, forcing government at a national level to take action and regulate work conditions, public health, and provide food regulation. In 1906, FDA ( Food and Drug Agency)was created. To improve city living situations, the government regulated building and added construction codes including bathrooms to be built inside rental units eliminating outdoor sewage and minimizing the spread of disease. During the first decade of the 20th century, Unions were created to guarantee employees  working conditions, higher pay, and job security. The Government improved many sector at national and state level including Mugshot system which allowed the police to maintain a criminal record and guns, which were part of America identity, had to be produced with serial numbers. Waste collection system was also established. American character was challenged but has proven to overcome difficulties shaping the 20th century we see today.


Footnote:
(1) Gaustad, Edwin. The Religious History of America, 209.
(2) Levine, Lawrence. Highbrow and Lowbrow: The Emergency of Cultural Hierarchy in America
( Cambridge Harvard University Press), 101.
(3) Levine, Lawrence. Highbrow and Lowbrow: The Emergency of Cultural Hierarchy in America
( Cambridge Harvard University Press), 173.
(4) Gaustad, Edwin. The Religious History of America, 171.
(5) Levine, Lawrence. Highbrow and Lowbrow: The Emergency of Cultural Hierarchy in America
 ( Cambridge Harvard University Press), 89.
(6) Levine, Lawrence. Highbrow and Lowbrow: The Emergency of Cultural Hierarchy in America
 ( Cambridge Harvard University Press), 184/185.
(7 ) Levine, Lawrence. Highbrow and Lowbrow: The Emergency of Cultural Hierarchy in America
 ( Cambridge Harvard University Press), 112.
(8) Levine, Lawrence. Highbrow and Lowbrow: The Emergency of Cultural Hierarchy in America
 ( Cambridge Harvard University Press), 182.
(9) Levine, Lawrence. Highbrow and Lowbrow: The Emergency of Cultural Hierarchy in America
 ( Cambridge Harvard University Press), 186.
(10) Deloria, Philip. Playing Indians, (New Haven: Yale Historical Publication, 1998), 96.
(11) Deloria, Philip. Playing Indians, (New Haven: Yale Historical Publication, 1998), 99.
(12) Deloria, Philip. Playing Indians, (New Haven: Yale Historical Publication, 1998), 99.