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ESSAY TOPICS FOR UNIT 9 EXAM: GILDED AGE 1. Gilded Age politics - corruption
- money issue in 1870s (Greenbackers)
- tariff issue in 1880s (also civil service reform)
- money issue in 1890s (gold vs. silver)
2. Industrialism - impact of transcontinental railroad (and railroad industry as a whole)
- steel industry
- oil industry
- trusts and holding companies
- legislation aimed at curbing trusts
- relevant Supreme Court decisions.
- "Gospel of Wealth"
- The "New South"
3. Unionization - National Labor Union, 1866
- Great Railroad Strike, 1877
- Knights of Labor
- American Federation of Labor
- Homestead & Pullman strikes
- Anti-labor Court decisions, injunctions, and legislation.
4. Urbanization - Growth of cities
- "New Immigration" and responses to immigration:
- Political machines
- Social Gospel and Social Crusaders
- Nativism (also discuss Chinese)
- Living and working conditions for workingclass
- Class stratification by 1900
- Reformers: prohibition, women’s suffrage
- Challenges for Protestant churches
- Education
- Culture: literature, art
- Reform writers:George, Bellamy, et al
5. Great West - Impact of Transcontinental RR
- Indian Wars and Indian policies
- Three frontiers: mining, ranching, farming (farm as a factory)
- Plight of the farmer
6. 1890s politics - Populism
- Panic of 1893
- Election of 1896
- Jim Crow
- Washington vs. Du Bois
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