Learning outcomes:
Citation: Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2016). Overview of the Gilded Age. Digital History.
Retrieved June 16th, 2017 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=9&smtid=1
Mark Twain satirically called the 1880s and 1890s the “Gilded Age” because he saw America
during this time as superficially great while also harbouring corruption beneath the surface. This
was a time of rising racial tension and violence, rising labor violence, and militance among
farmers. Key characteristics of the Gilded Age include an explosion of technological
advancement, mass migration, strong political partisanship concerning currency, tariffs, and
railroad/industry trusts.
Westward Expansion
“By 1893, the Census Bureau was able to make the claim that the entire western frontier was
now occupied” (Mintz and McNeil, 2016). Transportation systems facilitated Western
settlement which resulted in the displacement of over a quarter million Great Plain Native
Americans. Key events include the Gold (and other precious metals/minerals) Rush in California
(1849), Nevada and Colorado (1850), Idaho and Montana (1860s), and South Dakota (1870s).
Modernization of America
Technological innovations during this time include the phonograph, the telephone, the radio,
mass circulation of newspapers, automobiles, electric trains and trolleys, etc. The modern
economy begins to develop, characterized by national communication and transportation
networks, corporations becoming the dominant business structure, a managerial revolution, a
move towards global markets, and an influx of factory production, automation, and business
consolidation. Some key terms: capitalism, corporations, automation, and monopoly. Tensions
between farmers and the industrialists/the bankers/financial speculators catalyzed the formation
of the Populist party.
Urban growth caused problems such as sanitation, pollution, and exploitation of the working
class. This era saw a huge influx of Irish, Eastern European, and Southern European immigrants
who were mostly Catholic and Jewish. Many of these immigrants came from countries such as
Ireland, Italy, Poland, and various slavic states.
Citation: Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2016). Overview of America Becomes a Great Power. Digital
History. Retrieved June 16th, 2017 from
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=10&smtid=1
Compared to the world’s great powers during the 1890s, the United States’ military might was
small. This could possibly be contributed to a lack of interest in foreign affairs in the years
leading up to the 1890s. But as the end of the 19th century drew nearer, interest in foreign
affairs was mounting due to American businesses not wanting to get beaten by foreign
competitors, a naval strategy which suggested that American prosperity depends on control of
the sea lanes, and an attitude of responsibility towards “inferior” nations around the world.
Key events include: the annexation of several Pacific islands such as Hawaii and the
Philippines, the Spanish-American War, the 1899 Open Door Note, the Roosevelt Corollary, and
the US’ involvement in the building of the Panama Canal. Key question: Do annexed peoples
receive the same rights as American citizens?
Citation: Citation: Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2016). Overview of the Progressive Era. Digital
History. Retrieved June 16th, 2017 from
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=11&smtid=1
“Many far-reaching economic and social changes transformed American society in the 20th
century, including innovations in science and technology, economic productivity, mass
communication and mass entertainment, health and living standards, the role of government,
gender roles, and conceptions of freedom.” (Mintz and McNeil, 2016)
Progressivism
A key term: muckraking journalism which brought the public’s attention to unethical business
methods of tycoons such as John D. Rockefeller.
“Tight labor market during WWI triggered the “great migration” of African Americans to the
North, which continued into the 1920s. The Great Migration was marred by racial violence in
Chicago, East St. Louis, Houston, Tulsa, and more. The Great Migration was surrounded by a
revamping of African American efforts towards political and economic agency and artistic,
literary, and musical expression. Key term: Harlem Renaissance.
Women’s Suffrage
“By the early 19th century, American women had the highest female literacy rate in the world”
(Mintz and McNeil, 2016). Proponents of women’s suffrage were inspired by the political
philosophy of the American Revolution. They wanted to realize the guarantee of equality stated
by our founders. During this era, women had a fraction of the legal rights of men. They could
not own property (if married), draw contracts, file lawsuits, or attend jury duty. Suffragettes
fought for not only the vote, but also for divorce, access to higher education, professional
careers, birth control and abortion. They were fighting the “oldest form of exploitation and
subordination”; the patriarchy (Mintz and McNeil, 2016).
Citation: Jacob Betz et al., “Life in Industrial America,” David Hochfelder, ed., in The American
Yawp, Joseph Locke and Ben Wright, eds, last modified August 1, 2016,
http://www.americanyawp.com/text/18-industrial-america/
Industrialization was a major catalyst of urbanization in the late 19th and early 20th century. Key
facts:
In the 50 years after the civil war, American city population size increased sevenfold
By 1920, more Americans lived within a city than outside one.
Between 1870 and 1920, over 25 million people immigrated to the United States
Cities with several factories (e.g. New York, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis) were
considerably attractive for immigrants. Immigrants underwent both assimilation to American
culture as well as a strengthening of ethnic identity which lead to the formation of “ethnic
neighborhoods” in many Northern and Midwestern cities. Key term: Chain migration → when
successful immigrants encourage their family and acquaintances in their homeland to immigrate
to the United States.
City politics adapted to the influx of immigrant populations by the formation of “urban political
machines” which operated within the structures of mutual assistance organizations targeted
towards immigrant populations. Key figure: William “Boss” Tweed.
Some people during this era saw urbanization as a leading cause of the “eroding social position
of rural citizens and farmers” (Betz et al., 2016). As urbanization progressed, living conditions
worsened in rural communities and became more varied in the cities. This is one reason that lead
to the development of suburbia and suburban life; people wanted the economic opportunity of
the city along with the freedoms and lower costs of living associated with the country.
Test
review
7 Test day
On the day of the Jigsaw, the students will be split up into different groups and looking at
how the government policies and the construction of the transcontinental railroad played a role in
the culture of the Native American people. The students will come back together and tell the
other students what they learned. The students will have broad question for some background
knowledge and some deep thinking question for them to dig deep. The Socratic Seminar day will
focus on the minority groups and the great migration of African American people. The students
will read one thing we assign and another primary source of their choosing to go along with the
day. The students will ask questions, use cues from one another and have to use prior knowledge
to really think about the questions being asked of them. Some of the other activities we will
asking the students to use a lot of their prior knowledge to start out the day, then go into a critical
thinking mood to get through the bulk of the day to help them see the connections and end the
day by the student’s showing what they learned.
These strategies tie into the standards and learning objectives by having the student
demonstrate that they understand the importance of the industrialization and urbanization of the
United States after the end of the Reconstruction Era. They will also learn and understand the
consequences that these things had on the society at this time.
Theodore Roosevelt’s modification in 1904 of the Monroe Doctrine from 1823 shows how his
views on foreign policy were different from U.S. President James Monroe and why he wanted to
amend the original document. As part of the Monroe Doctrine amendment, his beliefs were
based on a broader idea known as “The Big Stick Policy” which focused on the foreign policies
around the many islands and South American Countries in the Caribbean and also in the
Philippine Islands in the Pacific.
I will have the students read this brief snapshot of Roosevelt’s Corollary of the Monroe Doctrine
before providing them a photograph of the actual document.
Original: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/roosevelt-corollary-to-monroe-
doctrine/.
From this policy issued by Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, the students will compare the
information that they have learned to selected sections of the Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle
from 1906. In The Jungle, Sinclair shows describes how food safety and workplace safety
regulations are being overlooked by the general public in order for the company’s Owners and
Managers can profit from the customers. From Sinclair’s book, new governmental regulations
arose to regulate these business which would eventually lead to worker safety regulations,
worker’s unions, and the USDA. For the student assessment, the students will write a
comparative essay on why these two primary sources played a major role in the rise of the
United States Governmental control in the early 20th century.
Assessments:
The first thing at the beginning of the unit will be a pretest of the information that will be
taught in the unit. This will not be a graded assessment, but one to let us know where each
student stands. This gives us a good base knowledge for each student on the time period for this
unit plan
The way of looking at the day to day progress of the students will be through the
assessments that will be either at the end of the day or the all day activity. Each day we have an
assessment that goes well with that day. The assessments are thought out by what the students
are learning/reading/doing in the classroom that day. The day to day understanding will not be
hard for the students to do because it aligns with the the readings and lesson. There will be
questions that are in the lesson or around the activity that the students are doing to see how well
the students are understanding the information of that day.
The way that the students will demonstrate their knowledge and skill will be through
critical thinking, how does each of the previous day's connect to the present one. Every day in
the unit plans connects to at least one of the previous days. The assessments will have the
students thinking about what they learned in the other days and how it connects to the assessment
that is present in that class. Students show be able to show how the culture of the Native
American’s was effected by the Monopolies that took over many industries. Another way that
the students will be assessed will be through the unit test. This shows what the student learned
from the pretest at the beginning of the unit until the end of the unit. This test will include more
deep thinking questions to show if the students are working from memory or from actual
knowledge.
The skills, content, and thinking we are going to assess are the students critical thinking
skills when it comes to seeing how one topic compares to other when they may seem opposite,
compare and contrast, this is going to happen at multiple points in the unit but the major one will
be when comparing “The Jungle” and the “Big Stick Diplomacy” to the world they live in.
Carroll, M. B. (1903). Ten Years in Paradise, Press of Popp & Hogan, San Jose, CA. Library
of Congress, LOC.gov, 2017, Web. 6/18/2017.
http://cdn.loc.gov//service/gdc/calbk/169.pdf.
Roosevelt, T. (1904). The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, The White House,
Washington D.C. www.ourdocuments.gov, (2017), Web. 6/19/2017.
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=56.
The Populist Party. (1891). The Texas Populist Party Platform, Cincinnati, Ohio and The
Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX. Digitalhistory.uh.edu, (2016), Web. 6/18/2017.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=3687.
Sixty-Sixth Congress of the United States of America. (1920). The Nineteenth Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote, U.S. Captial, Washington D.C.
www.ourdocuments.gov, (2017), Web. 6/19/2017.
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=63.
TAH-LE-QUAH, Cherokee Nation. (1839). The Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation,
Printed by Gales and Seaton, Washington, D.C. 1840. Library of Congress, LOC.gov,
2017, Web. 6/18/2017.
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/american-indian-consts/PDF/06021615.pdf.