This group of lesson plans and selected annotated bibliographies developed by students enrolled in HIST 385 under the tutelage of Dr. Mary E. Glade focus on the Gilded Age (1870-1900), that era in American History sandwiched between the Civil War/Reconstruction and the Progressive Era.
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David Evensen, Mary E. Glade, Dylan Koenig, Olivia Lee-Benton, Cassandra Nelson, Kayla Peterson, Payton Pulkrabek, Nickolas Szymanski, Alex Voigt, and Nathan Zick As we begin to explore the Gilded Age (1870-1900), that era in American History sandwiched between the Civil War/Reconstruction and the Progressive Era to the Great War, we want students to grasp the enormity of the changes impacting the lives of Americans who have largely been engaged in farming in many cases not so different than their ancestors had for several hundreds of years. Technological changes in the first half of the 19 th century contributed to some mechanization and manufacturing, but the enormity of the Civil War and the acquisition of the entire continental territory in the 1850s, accelerated changes in the production of goods, in the development of communication and transportation, in the growth of cities, in the opportunities for immigrants, for participation in politics, and in the reach of the government. In this lesson, students will dip into the many changes over the decades from 1860 to 1900 by searching for information on a variety of topics, including: Banking or Finance, Demographics, Government, Industrialization, Immigration, Middle Class Angst, Military, Natural Resources, Politics, Racism, Robber Barons/Captains of Industry, Technological Innovations, Transportation, Urbanization, Voter Turnout, and Xenophobia.
David Evensen As we move though our unit on the Gilded Age, we will spend time taking about the era’s Captains of Industry and Robber Barons. In this age, capitalism in the United States begins to reflect our current market economy. In this lesson we will see Captains of Industry and Robber Barons test the boundaries of that system. The emergence of men like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan and how they bring about government subsidies, labor reform, money in politics, political corruption, and larger government over-site in commerce, industry, and labor.
David Evensen As we move though our unit on the Gilded Age, we will spend time taking about the era’s Westward expansion. In this age, the United States (US) made and broke several treaties with Native Americans. In this lesson students will be able to describe and feel the impact of federal policies on indigenous nations. The surrender of Chief Joseph, the Dawes Act, the death of Sitting Bull, and the massacre at Wounded Knee all show how the United States navigated their policy with Native Americans. It is important to teach this portion of US history so students can have an accurate view of the past and can better understand Native American people.
David Evensen Annotated Bibliography to accompany the Native American Land Cessions 1867-1890 lesson plan.
Dylan Koenig As we dive deeper into the Gilded Age, the students begin to understand the idea of change in this era. The prior lesson discussing the chaos and drastic change of America, the students will understand the amount of change. Change is everywhere and is constant. Drastic upgrades with technology are sweeping across the country at a rapid pace. This causes change in industry and improves the lives of people in a general sense. Tasks that were once difficult are made easier with a new invention or an upgrade of an old one. Products that were once made manually and involved a lot of work is now done at a rapid rate and the amount of that same product increases tenfold. We will begin to dig deeper into some changes that occurred by working with material that deals with those who are inventors and create things that dramatically change the way the world runs.
Dylan Koenig As we continue to dig deeper into the Gilded Age, we begin to see the importance the railroad made for the expansion of the United States. The Transcontinental Railroad was one of the America’s biggest accomplishments in all of its history. It gave companies the ability to move resources across the country in ways that were once either very difficult or impossible to do. The railroad system boosted the economy and was developing the country at a pace that would make it one of the most powerful countries in the world. As time went on, more and more expansion of the railroad was occurring. With all its benefits, there were also issues and problems that arose for those who were not benefiting from this development. Workers on the railroad were treated badly, forced to work in harsh conditions and were paid very little for the amount of work they were required to do. Railroad strikes during the Gilded Age is a topic that is not often discussed due to the negative light it may shine on the railroad industry. The railroad system is always seen as one of the greatest accomplishments of the time but not many people are aware of the issues it created.
Olivia Lee-Benton The People’s Party (also known as the Populist Party) was a short-lived political party that was a result of agrarian unrest. The party was formed on the consolidation of multiple organizations, most notably, Farmer’s Alliance and the Knights of Labor. Formally established in 1892 with the creation of the Omaha Platform , the People’s Party called for numerous resolutions, the free coinage of silver in particular. This would have made it so that both silver and gold would be used as a currency with a ratio of 16:1 (bimetallism), causing more money to be in circulation. In this lesson, we will be focusing on the Presidential election of 1896 as the debate over the gold standard and bimetallism was at its center and divided the nation. More importantly, this election marks the fall of the People’s Party as it found itself aligning with the major Democratic Party due this very issue. In 1896, William Jennings Bryan took the Democratic nomination after he moved the crowd at the Democratic National Convention with his famous “Cross of Gold” speech. Two weeks later, the People’s Party accepted Bryan as their candidate, but chose their own vice president, Thomas E. Watson. His opponent, William McKinley received the Republican nomination quite effortlessly with the help of Marcus Hanna. Both men ran contrasting campaigns and ultimately McKinley won. His electoral votes surpassed Bryan's, but the popular vote came quite close.An energetic campaign failed to sway the electorate, except in the farm belt. The Republicans were returned to power and the Populists were badly split between those who wished to remain with the Democrats and those who wanted to reclaim their identity. This lesson will consist of brief lecture, discussion, and the analyzation of primary documents to promote better understanding.
Olivia Lee-Benton This lesson is a discussion based on packets that students have been filling out throughout the course of the unit. These packets call for students to analyze certain legislation enacted by Congress during the Gilded Age: The Pendleton Civil Service Act 1883, The Interstate Commerce Act, The Sherman Silver Purchase Act, The Sherman Antitrust Act, the Gold Standard Act, the Dawes Act, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. By asking my students to answer these questions (Who? What? Why?), I am incorporating the following History Habits of Mind: "Perceive events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present-mindedness."
Olivia Lee-Benton Annotated bibliography to accompany The Election of 1896: the Fall of the People's Party lesson plan.
Cassandra Nelson We will be exploring the platform of the Populist Party and the mission of the Populist Party. In order for students to understand the Populist Movement and why it was extremely popular during this time period, they must understand what the Populist Party stood for and how they were different from the other major political parties of the time. Students will have the opportunity to analyze two primary documents and compare and contrast the ideas for the Populist Party and the goals that the Populist Party wants to reach. There will also be a major focus on vocabulary for this lesson because there are terms in this lesson that are from the primary documents and may be unknown by my students.
Cassandra Nelson This lesson focuses on understand the Farmers’ Alliance, Women of the Farmers’ Alliance, the Colored Alliance and the Knights of Labor. Students will learn about the objectives of each alliance and why each alliance was important to the formation of the third party, the populist movement. Students will also understand the historic figures of the Farmers’ Alliance, Women of the Farmers’ Alliance and the Knights of Labor. Students will understand the historic figures lives and contributions to the above organizations of the gilded age.
Cassandra Nelson Annotated bibliography to accompany the Analyzing Populist Party Primary Documents lesson plan.
Kayla Peterson This lesson will include the students teaching about the technology of the Gilded Age to a classroom of middle school students. The lesson will be one week in length and is designed for an AP US History Class. This information is important for students to know because students can begin to grasp how much is different in today’s society compared to the Gilded Age. It is also important to link back how much changed during this time period with the new innovations and inventions that came about. During the lesson, I would like the students to be thinking like teachers when crafting their lessons for the middle school students. They will accomplish this by preparing their lesson plan and researching into the technology of the Gilded Age.
Kayla Peterson This lesson focuses on the Women’s suffrage movement, which was started during the Gilded Age (1865-1900). By studying and learning about this movement, students will begin to grasp how much was changed during and by the women who continually fought for equality and rights. In this lesson, students will learn the thoughts and thinking of the time period by analyzing primary documents from the era. By studying this information, students will, hopefully, start to really understand and and realize how different our world today would have been different if these women never stood up and fought for their rights.
Payton Pulkrabek As the Carnegie’s and Rockefeller’s led the way for the wealthy and the struggling poor worked tirelessly, there was a rather large portion of individuals that did not quite fit within the two extremes of rich and poor. During the Gilded Age, many institutions were questioned for the first time in United States history, one of them being the class system. While many Americans were weary of actually placing a class system in society because of negative connotations with Europe, a class system already existed in society during the late nineteenth century, it just did not have an official title. The phrase “middle class” was officially inserted into society in 1889. The middle class consisted of professionals who were organized and had specific criteria, like education, for being a part of the group. The middle class changed the social aspects of the United States and also changed the geographic look since most middle class members began moving out of the larger cities to create suburbs. The Gilded Age gave a name to the middle class and its effects are still present today.
Payton Pulkrabek During the Gilded Age, numerous political, social, economic, and cultural reforms were taking place all at once. One of the major reforms of the time was labor because of the problems workers and their employers had with each other. Up until the 1860s, most Americans either worked on a farm or ventured into the city to obtain an industrial position in a cut-throat factory. Life working in the factories was hard and lacked regulation. Child labor, instant job termination, low and unreliable wages, and long hours were the common job expectation. It was not until grassroots movements and labor organizations, such as the Knights of Labor, started forming that workers finally began having a voice. While the Knights of Labor started out small with the members having common goals, the organization grew rapidly into a diverse membership including everyone from factory workers to shop owners. The disagreement over the preference of strikes instead of unions led to the Haymarket Disaster on May 4 th , 1886. This incident occurred in Haymarket Square in Chicago when anarchists threw a bomb into the police line. While eight police officers were killed and eight anarchists were tried for murder, no one to this day knows who threw the bomb.
Payton Pulkrabek Annotated bibliography to accompany The Haymarket Disaster and the Knights of Labor lesson plan.
Tom Stoffel By utilizing primary sources without knowing what the outcome is supposed to be, students will “perceive events and issues as people experienced them at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present-mindedness.” Students will evaluate the message Theodore Roosevelt sent to Dewey and decide if Roosevelt made the correct decision. Students will also learn key terms relating to what lead to the Spanish American War, what events happened in Cuba and debate if Yellow Journalism still occurs today. To finish the day we will cover how and if the Spanish American War changed the course of American foreign policy.
Tom Stoffel Students will learn about immigration during the Gilded Age and how this affected the United States. This lesson will teach kids where immigrants came from, where they settled, why they settled there, the working conditions, living conditions and problems/racism immigrants faced. Students will be broken up into groups to explore multiple perspectives revolving around immigration and brief the class about who, what, where, when and whether or not the article was biased. Students will then be able to critically think about what happened in history and compare this information to their surroundings and the world they live in.
Nickolas Szymanski As we begin to explore the Gilded Age (1870-1900), that era in American History sandwiched between the Civil War/Reconstruction and the Progressive Era to the Great War, students will grasp how the Captains of Industry had a huge part to play in the Chaos of the late 1800s. Students will not only explore who they were and why they were important but to explain why they rose to such great power and how the government had to regulate them. This lesson will cover the three main Captains of Industry Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, and JP Morgan. I will go in depth about how these men lived and how they were so influential in this time period. In the end Students will decide whether these men were Captains of Industry or if they were Robber Barron’s.
Nickolas Szymanski As we begin to explore the Gilded Age (1870-1900), that era in American History sandwiched between the Civil War/Reconstruction and the Progressive Era to the Great War, I want students to be able to understand political cartoons and why they were used so often during this era. They will do this by examining multiple cartoons and deciding what they are about and why they were made. I think it is important to teach this lesson because political cartoons are a big part of history and can help understand certain events better than normal reading material.
Alex Voigt America as a whole was undergoing dramatic changes during the last quarter of the 19 th century. Industrialization was a major part of that change, as it pushed industry to new heights and sparked the biggest wave of immigration in U.S. history. It also helped create a new emphasis on leisure among American workers, as improved production led to shorter work days and higher wages meant those workers had more money to spend with their newfound free time. Additionally, the boom in railroad production and advancement of subways and electric trollies in urban areas made transportation easier and encouraged people to find activities outside their homes. All of those factors resulted in an explosion of recreational activities across all interests and socioeconomic classes. Through an examination of primary sources, this lesson will look at some of those activities and explore the deeper questions of what those activities said about American society during the Gilded Age.
