9
Life in a Changing America

Robber barons, powerful industrialists who amassed personal fortunes usually through corrupt and unethical business practices, and powerful politicians led the country through the Gilded Age (approximately 1878–99) and into the Progressive Era (approximately the first two decades of the twentieth century). Other Americans used this time of change to introduce exciting new ideas and concepts in literature, music, and art. American culture was greatly affected by ground-breaking artists, performers, and athletes who took advantage of the changing times to give America what it had never had: a true identity.

The Gilded Age took its name from a book of the same name, written by Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens (1835–1910), and Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) in 1873. The authors wrote about a post–Civil War (1861–65) America that was known for its political corruption and materialistic society. That image fit America well. On the outside, the United States seemed to be gilded (covered with gold)in its endless moneymaking opportunities. People from around the world came to America to begin a new life. But the gold covered up the unsightly parts of society—greed and excess. The country seemed to be divided into the luxuriously wealthy and the very poor.

The Progressive Era was a period of reform (change) that began in America's urban areas (cities). The federal government passed laws regarding labor, women's rights, railroads, the food industry, politics, education, and housing (see Chapter 8). The Progressive Era was a departure from the Gilded Age primarily in attitudes toward social class. In the Gilded Age, the upper class generally believed that their wealth was God given and that those who lived in poverty did so because it was their fate. With the dawn of the Progressive Era came a shift in attitude, and the wealthy (for the most part) began to realize that with good fortune came an obligation to help those in need. Philanthropy (community service, financial donations, and volunteerism to promote human well-being) fostered a general sense of reform that touched nearly every social aspect of America.

The appeal of the fair

Fairs were popular events at the turn of the century. Manufacturers used fairs to introduce new products and demonstrate their uses. States and provinces set up booths and competed for new citizens and investments. For the cost of fifty cents (about ten dollars in current money) for adults, twenty-five cents (about five dollars in current money) for children ages six through twelve, fairgoers could spend a day being simultaneously educated and entertained. It was the equivalent of Disney World, the Olympics, and the Super Bowl all rolled into one event. This is the impact fairs had on American culture in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.

One of the most famous and influential fairs of the Gilded Age was the World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair. The Columbian Exposition was held at Jackson Park in Chicago, Illinois, from May 1, 1893, through October 31 of that same year. It was not mere luck that Chicago was home to the fair. Many cities wanted to host the Columbian Exposition. Fairs attracted large numbers of people, and these people would spend their money outside the fair as well, such as for lodging. New York, St. Louis, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., competed for the privilege of hosting the exposition as well.

WORDS TO KNOW

conspicuous consumption:

The buying of expensive and unnecessary items as a way of displaying one's wealth.

depression:

A long-term economic state characterized by high unemployment, minimal investment or spending, and low prices.

Gilded Age:

The period in history following the Civil War and Reconstruction (roughly the final twenty-three years of the nineteenth century), characterized by a ruthless pursuit of profit, an exterior of showiness and grandeur, and immeasurable political corruption.

muckraking:

A style of journalism that seeks to expose scandal and corruption among public figures and established institutions and businesses. The term was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

philanthropy:

Community service, financial donations, and volunteerism to promote human well-being.

Progressive Era:

A period in American history (approximately the first twenty years of the twentieth century) marked by reform and the development of a national cultural identity.

reform:

Change intended to improve a situation.

Each city submitted petitions to the U.S. House of Representatives. These petitions listed reasons why a particular city should be chosen as host of the fair. After months of consideration, the House selected Chicago, on the condition that the city raise an additional $5 million. This was easily done. Some of the most powerful men in business contributed to the effort, including railroad tycoon George Pullman (1831–1897), financier Charles Schwab (1862–1939), and book publisher Andrew McNally (1836–1904).

Because the selection process was written about frequently in newspapers and was talked about throughout the nation, the fair generated great interest among exhibitors, vendors (sellers of goods), and the public. The fair's theme was the four hundredth year anniversary of Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) discovering America. Fair developers realized at an early stage that the exposition was going to be profitable. They charged 25 cents a day to let people watch the workers construct the buildings and fairways. More than three thousand people did just that every week until completion.

The fair itself was huge (see box), with fourteen main buildings and two hundred additional buildings. The fairgrounds included a system of lagoons and waterways fed by Lake Michigan. Architects designed the layout, and the exposition was nicknamed "The White City" because all the buildings were painted white.

A day at the fair

People came from all over the world to attend this cultural event, including royalty such as Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863–1914) of Austria, Sultan Abu Bakar of Johore (c. 1843–1895), several native rulers of India, and Princess Maria Eulalia (1864–1958) and her husband Antonio of Spain. Other visitors included famous Americans such as reformer Jane Addams (1860–1935) and musician Scott Joplin (1868–1917). Altogether, about 25 percent of America's population attended the exposition. The rest of the country experienced it via newspaper coverage, guidebooks, and family and friends who had attended.

Each main building at the fair was centered around a different sector of life. These included government, mining, machinery, agricultural, and manufacturing/liberal arts. In each building, fair-goers could see the latest trends and inventions. Several popular and enduring products made their debut at the fair: Juicy Fruit gum, Aunt Jemima syrup, Cracker Jack popcorn, Shredded Wheat cereal, Pabst beer, the hamburger, diet carbonated soda, postcards, and the Ferris wheel, among others.

Trivia About the Chicago Fair

• The exposition took up 2 miles of coastline along Lake Michigan and 633 acres.
• The cost to develop and produce the fair was $28 million, equal to about $535 million today.
• Nearly twenty-eight million people attended the fair.
• More than forty thousand skilled laborers and workers were employed to construct the fair.
• The fair boasted more than a quarter million exhibits and seventy thousand exhibitors.
• The fairgrounds included three thousand bathrooms, half of which cost a nickel to use.
• Two thousand security guards and eighteen hundred clean-up men were employed.

Once attendees tired of walking through buildings, they could enjoy entertainment in the midway (amusement park), where countless rides, musicians, and refreshments enhanced the carnival-like atmosphere. In addition, the midway contained a hot air balloon ride, a zoo, re-creations of traditional Japanese and German villages, a swimming pool, and a wax museum. It was not possible to get through the entire fair in one day. To the delight of Chicago's innkeepers and hotel owners, millions of people stayed overnight for at least one day, and usually several more.

A lasting legacy

The Columbian Exposition was a financial success. It earned back more than the $28 million spent on developing it; the concession stands alone brought in $4 million. The fair was in fact so successful that it became the model of most of the fairs to follow. The fair met its goals in other ways as well. The purpose of the exposition was to encourage American unity in the face of cultural change and to celebrate technology and commerce. By showing the American public that ethnic differences and the changes resulting from immigration and increased foreign relations have a positive impact on society, the fair had a major influence on cultural attitudes.

The fair affected consumerism and advertising as well. On the fairgrounds, millions of Americans were introduced to the vast array of choices they had in products ranging from food to soap to home decorating materials and beyond. This realization led directly to "conspicuous consumption," or the buying of expensive products as a way to display a person's wealth. Although the term was not coined until 1899, the fair set in motion the attitude that the higher the price, the better the product. For example, prior to the exposition, a housewife might have bought a generic (not brand named), inexpensive kind of coffee. Upon going to the fair, she discovered that there were many brands of coffee, some more expensive and claiming to be better tasting. From that point on, she bought the more expensive coffee. She believed that she must be buying a higher-quality product, not because it actually tasted better but because its manufacturer said it was better and it cost more. Perhaps, she was led to believe, when her friends visit her, they will notice she buys the more expensive brand and think that she has more class.

Directly related to conspicuous consumerism was advertising. For months following the fair, advertisements for products that had won awards at the event used that fame to sell the products and gain brand recognition (in which consumers recognize a brand name and automatically link it to the idea of high quality or superior craftsmanship). Advertisers also took advantage of the new perception that buying products and items was fun. They subtly reinforced the idea that the more a consumer spent, the happier he or she would be.

The Chicago World's Fair was responsible for a new holiday—Columbus Day. Thanks to the fair, schoolchildren began each day in the classroom with a burst of patriotism by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Some historians claim that author L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) modeled his famous fictional city, Oz, on the glamour and sensory experience of the fair. The event found its way into novels as well as songs, and a new musical genre called ragtime was introduced on the fairgrounds by Scott Joplin.

The midway of the fair had a major impact on America's culture at the turn of the century. With its exotic foreign villages and native tribal performers featured in displays created to imitate their rural (primarily African) villages, the midway inspired the idea of a modern carnival with various forms of live entertainment. The first permanent midway was established at Coney Island, New York, in 1897. The hot dog was introduced into society there, and by

Racism at the Fair

Despite the 1893 publication of a pamphlet titled "The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition," in which the African American authors protested treatment of their race at the fair, a more modern account of the event provides evidence that African Americans were involved in many aspects of the exposition.

One of the most distinguished African Americans of his day, abolitionist (person against slavery) Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) served as a representative from Haiti. Other outspoken African Americans who exhibited at the fair included writers James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) and Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872–1906), activist Ida B. Wells (1862–1931), reformer Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), and Nancy Green (1834–1923), best known for her role as Aunt Jemima. Educational exhibits from highly respected African American colleges were on display throughout the months of the fair. African American educators, associations, and organizations gave powerful public speeches to emphasize the importance of education to African Americans everywhere.

The fair hired thousands of African Americans for positions such as waiters, laborers, and train porters. On the fairgrounds, however, the racist attitudes that prevailed during that era were obvious. African Americans were prohibited from becoming members of the Columbian guard, the police force of two thousand that was in charge of protecting the grounds. The fair hired more than one hundred of those who had been turned away as guards as janitors and chair men (workers who pushed wheeled chairs used by visitors who could not or would not walk around the grounds). The uniforms worn by these men were similar to those worn by the guardsmen, but their duties were completely different.

African American women gave lectures on the importance of women from all races joining forces in the fight for equal rights and suffrage (voting rights). Among them were journalist Fannie Barrier Williams (1855–1954) and feminist author Frances Watkins Harper (1825–1911). In regard to this particular issue, gender was more important than race, and thousands of American women heard these African American activists speak.

In August, the Congress on Africa met for an eight-day assembly at the fair. Leaders and speakers publicly discussed the future of African American public policy. Whites from America, Africa, and Europe attended the conference to collaborate with these African American political leaders in hopes of solving the problem of inequality and racism.

In addition, many African American performers entertained fairgoers on the midway. Some, like the Fisk Jubilee Singers, were musicians. Others were writers who read their works aloud.

In spite of these inclusions, some African Americans boycotted (refused to attend) the fair because of its racist policies, which included having African American exhibits approved by an all-white committee. Many exhibits were banned outright. Douglass disagreed with those African Americans who chose not to go to the fair and encouraged his race to participate to their full capability in an effort to show the world that skin color did not affect intelligence or creativity. Although the fair was attended by African Americans, and although they maintained exhibits and held jobs throughout the six months of the event, the separate-but-equal approach (give African Americans equal rights, but keep them apart from whites) to including them paved the way for what would be federal law by 1896.

1910, thousands of amusement parks dotted the American landscape. All the parks were modeled on the Chicago Fair's midway. The most popular amusement parks of the twenty-first century—Disneyland and Disney World—were also modeled after the fair.

The rapid changes in technology and industry in the late 1870s and early 1880s led to fear among many Americans. The fair invited Americans to learn more about advancing technology, especially electricity, in a leisurely way. The fair, however, helped shift the nation's attitude toward technology in a more hopeful direction: More and more, technology was being viewed as the new symbol of progress. The Columbian Exposition highlighted America's shift from an agrarian (agricultural-based) society to a more technological, consumer-based country.

Advertising changes America

Prior to the Gilded Age, general-store owners decided what products they would sell. They would choose the items that promised the most profit, and shoppers were at the mercy of their grocers' likes and dislikes. All that changed in the 1880s, when manufacturers began investing time and money into advertising their products.

The mission of advertising once was to make a product appealing to the customer. With the Gilded Age came a shift in that goal: The job of any advertising campaign now was to turn customers into consumers. To do this, advertisements had to make shoppers believe they needed a particular brand. For example, everyone used soap. Thanks to an effective (and expensive) advertising campaign by the manufacturer Procter & Gamble, millions of Americans were requesting—demanding—Ivory soap. By 1909, Ivory had become so popular, it was as if no other soap existed.

Creating a need is what advertising was all about. By the early years of the Progressive Era, America had become a materialistic society (one that placed a high value on products, whether needed or not). Whereas consumers once got their information about products from those who made or sold them, they now relied on advertisements to inform them. Advertisements were developed by experts hired to persuade people into believing they needed—and could not live without—particular products and specific brand names.

The downside of consumerism

There were drawbacks to becoming a consumer society. Along with an increase in the number of choices one had at a supermarket came the blurring of the line between want and need. Advertisers were so skilled at their jobs that many Americans failed to understand that buying a particular brand of product would not necessarily bring them happiness. Many were not able to distinguish their true needs from their desires. According to David Blanke of Rosary College and Concordia University, historian William Cronon has made this point by using the example of the midwestern farmer who bought pancake mix from a Chicago mail-order firm. The mix consisted primarily of wheat—exactly what the farmer was growing in his own fields.

Another negative aspect of consumerism was the high level of greed of the corporations and manufacturers behind the products. Local store owners, once responsible for the safety of their locally obtained products, could no longer be held accountable for food shipped in from distant manufacturers. Fraud was common in the 1880s: Milk producers included embalming fluid (the substance that keeps a corpse from decaying) in the milk to keep it from souring. Chalk was added to flour, and animal feed included sawdust, two practices designed to increase the weight and bulk of a product to make consumers believe they were getting more for their money.

While manufacturers' ethics were being questioned, so were those of the advertising companies. Just as consumers could not be sure if the products they were buying were safe or legitimate, neither could they trust that the advertisements for such products were truthful. Before the first decade of the twentieth century was over, magazines and newspapers were telling advertisers that they had the right to refuse to run any advertisement they found objectionable or possibly fraudulent. The advertising agencies themselves were not making efforts to be truthful, but many individual businesses were.

It was not until 1906 that the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed, requiring all edible products to have a label listing ingredients. By 1910, groups such as the Association of Advertising Clubs of America had been established to encourage advertisers to uphold the truth. This was the beginning of what is known as the truth-in-advertising movement. These associations called for states to enact regulations upholding standards of truth. By the end of the 1920s, most states had enacted some form of advertising regulations, though standards varied.

The importance of political cartoons

In addition to advertising and muckraking, another aspect of printed media became important in the late nineteenth century: the political cartoon. These cartoons were a combination of pictorial editorial (opinion) and social commentary, and they influenced public opinion throughout the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.

Politics were central to the American way of life in the Gilded Age. People's political beliefs were as important as their religious beliefs, and newspapers were the main source for political discussions, news, and announcements. Political cartoons were effective because one did not need to be a skilled reader to understand what was being said. Citizens of all backgrounds could find meaning in the pictures. The most famous political cartoonist during this era was Thomas Nast (1840–1902). Nast worked for the popular magazine Harper's Weekly.

Introducing Consumer Magazines

Many factors influenced the development of advertising in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.

The rise of big business gave corporations great power both in terms of money and in determining what products and services they believed Americans would find valuable and necessary.

Technological inventions were also changing the way America lived. Housewives enjoyed innovations such as the washing machine, the sewing machine, and other appliances that eased the drudgery of housework. With more leisure time, entertainment such as fairs, amusement parks, sporting events, and theaters became more popular. Each of these pastimes encouraged consumerism.

Direct mail was another way manufacturers could advertise their products. In 1892, for example, Sears, Roebuck & Co. mailed eight thousand postcards advertising particular products to consumers across the country. The postcards looked as though they had been handwritten. Sears received two thousand orders directly from that advertising campaign. Newspapers were another advertising vehicle. Among the most influential innovations for advertisers (and buyers) were the consumer magazines. In 1883, Ladies Home Journal and Life Magazine began publication. McClure's joined them in 1893, the first year of a severe economic depression (a long-term economic state characterized by high unemployment, minimal investment/spending, and low prices). The magazine lost $5,000 each month throughout its first sixteen months on the newsstands. McClure's managed to survive and within a short time became the most popular consumer magazine of the day. Whereas earlier magazines focused on traditional topics primarily aimed at women and mothers, McClure's appealed to a growing middle-class reader whose interests were of a progressive nature. The magazine became America's voice as it dealt with important and timely political, social, and economic issues. By June 1898, more than four hundred thousand people subscribed to the magazine, and it contained more advertising than any of its competitors.

In addition, McClure's featured articles on art and history, and illustrations were included throughout the 126-page periodical.

In keeping with the progressive times, McClure's began to specialize in what became known as muckraking (a style of journalism that seeks to expose scandal and corruption among public figures and established institutions and businesses). One of the most important figures of the muckraking movement was a writer named Ida M. Tarbell (1857–1954). Tarbell wrote a nineteen-chapter series in which she exposed the corruption and greed of the Standard Oil Company. Her account detailed the question able business ethics of company owner John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) and helped America develop sympathy for independent oil workers. The series, entitled "The History of the Standard Oil Company," was published from November 1902 through October 1904 and is considered a landmark piece of investigative journalism.

Because of conflicts with the owner of the magazine, in 1906 the regular writing staff left McClure's. The quality of the magazine's writing was never the same again, and it was sold to pay off debt in 1911. At that point, it became a women's magazine. Readership steadily declined, and the magazine ceased publication in 1929. Even in the twenty-first century, McClure's is considered one of the most important magazines in the history of journalism.

In the 1870s, a New York politician named William "Boss" Tweed (1823–1878) was involved in the disappearance of $200 million in taxpayers' money. Nast launched a series of cartoons depicting Tweed and his "Ring" of fellow politicians as bumbling, greedy, corrupt men who were in power only because they were feared by everyone (most of this was true). Nast's cartoons attracted a great deal of attention. As a result, people previously unaware of Tweed's corruption began demanding reform. Tweed was annoyed with Nast and offered to pay him a great deal of money to stop satirizing (making fun of) him in cartoons. When Nast declined, Tweed threatened Harper's Weekly if they did not fire Nast. None of his threats did any good. Instead, Nast is credited with paving the way for the successful prosecution and imprisonment of Boss Tweed and his Ring. Nast's involvement as a cartoonist changed the course of political history and cemented the role of the political cartoon forever.

Literature: entertaining and educational

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were exciting decades in terms of literature and writing. Writing prior to the Gilded Age was in the Romantic style or the Genteel Tradition. Romanticism was a literary movement that stressed, in part, individualism, a reverence for nature, and imagination over reason. Romantic authors include John Keats (1795–1821) and William Wordsworth (1770–1850). The Genteel Tradition stressed conventionality, or staying with what was considered normal and acceptable, in social, moral, and religious standards. Writers in the Genteel tradition include R. H. Stoddard (1825–1903) and Bayard Taylor (1825–1878).

History of the Mail-Order Business

With millions of people moving westward into unsettled territories throughout the Gilded Age, the time was perfect for companies to invest in building a mail-order segment of business. The first business owner to do so was Aaron Montgomery Ward (1844–1913), in 1872. His company, Montgomery Ward, was located in Chicago, but he was once a traveling salesman who realized his rural customers would be better served by a new way of shopping. Instead of having a salesman come to their door with a limited supply of products, and since these customers had no way to get to the stores in the East, Ward revolutionized the retail industry with his idea of a mail-order business. Customers would receive a catalog from which they could order, and goods would be shipped directly to them.

Ward's first catalog was just one sheet of paper. With time, the catalogs grew in size, and until 1926, Montgomery Ward was strictly a mail-order business.

If Montgomery Ward was successful, Sears, Roebuck & Co. was unbeatable. Richard Sears (1863–1914) first sold watches by mail order in 1886. He hired A. C. Roebuck (1864–1948) to repair his watches, then sold that business in 1889. Upon completion of the sale, Sears established another mail-order firm to sell various types of jewelry. While Roebuck continued to do repairs, Sears, Roebuck & Co. was incorporated in 1894 and became a general mail-order business that included a variety of goods ranging from food to farm machinery to household goods. By 1900, Sears surpassed Montgomery Ward with mail-order sales exceeding $10 million a year.

Farmers especially liked buying from mail-order businesses because they could choose from a larger selection of goods without ever having to make the long drive into the nearest town. That alone saved them hours of valuable time. Better yet were the prices, which were lower than what could be found at local merchants' stores. Richard Sears prided himself on his advertising slogans, and one of those was "Cheapest Supply Houseon Earth." Free delivery of mail in rural (country) areas began in the 1890s, making mail-order transactions even easier and more cost effective. Rural customers could order whatever they needed and have it delivered within days. In 1925, the year its first retail store opened, Sears sold around $243 million worth of goods, more than 95 percent of it by mail.

In 1908, Sears began what would be a most profitable business: It began selling entire houses by mail. In a separate catalog titled The Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans, the retailer offered twenty-two complete home building kits to anyone who could afford the $452 to $2,906 it would cost to purchase a particular model.

Sears provided not only the lumber and instructions but also the financing. This made owning a home a possibility for thousands of families who had never dared hope for such a thing before. When immigrants flooded the country, urban areas became overcrowded; mass transit helped alleviate that problem somewhat by allowing a growing middle class to leave the city and settle into suburbs (see Chapter 4). But the Sears Modern Homes pro gram gave them the one necessity they lacked: affordable housing. This housing program, coupled with the introduction of mass transportation and the rise of industrialism, resulted in the expansion of the middle class.

Although no official document exists to indicate how many Modern Homes survive in the twenty-first century, it has been reported that more than one hundred thousand homes were sold between 1908 and 1940. When Richard Sears realized how popular the Modern Homes program was becoming, he added two more catalogs, one for farm buildings and another just for barns.

Many writers of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era were part of a movement literary historians call Realism. Their writing was more realistic and reflective of American culture, even when that reflection was ugly. These writers weaved social and political commentary and criticism into their work, and the tone of their work was matter-of-fact and sometimes comic or satirical (a blend of criticism and wit, sometimes combined with exaggeration, to scorn attitudes or problems). The writer most widely recognized as representative of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era is Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.

Mark Twain

Twain was the man responsible for coining the phrase "Gilded Age." One evening at a dinner party, Clemens and his neighbor, novelist and editor Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900), were complaining about the low quality of the novels their wives were reading. Someone challenged the men to write something better, and the collaboration resulted in the 1873 publication of the novel The Gilded Age. The book was about a time when America was run by powerful but corrupt politicians and big businesses. The wealthy got richer through their corruption while the poor got poorer. It would prove to be exactly how the late nineteenth century would be remembered.

Twain's more popular novels among young readers include Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

Twain's critical attitude toward societal norms was not always immediately evident in his novels. The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for example, can be read on many levels. From one perspective, it is nothing more than an adventure novel centering around a young country boy. Another assessment will reveal it as a coming-of-age novel in which the reader sees the main character literally grow from a boy to a man through various experiences. On a deeper level, Twain was commenting unfavorably on the racist attitudes of white Americans toward African Americans. The book has been banned from many schools and public libraries throughout the years because of its racial themes.

Other writers who shaped
the era

Although Mark Twain was undoubtedly the most popular author of his day, other notable writers left their mark on the literature of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.

Drugs: Not a New Problem

Although modern Americans tend to think of drug use and abuse as a recent problem, drugs have been an issue of concern for centuries. By 1900, one in every two hundred Americans was addicted to opiates (pain killers) or cocaine. The use of opiates stemmed in large part from the Civil War. Wounded soldiers were treated with morphine and suffered the results of addiction for the rest of their lives. Even children's cough syrup contained morphine. By the end of the 1800s, opiates could be purchased at any drug store. Sears sold a 3-ounce bottle of laudanum (a form of opium) for 28 cents. Because it was inexpensive, it was considered a drug for the working class, though upper-class women often developed an addiction because their doctors prescribed it for nearly every "women's" ailment.

Cocaine was another drug of choice. By 1885, it was being used to treat every ailment from asthma to depression to hay fever. One medicinal label instructed users to "snuff very little up the nose five times a day until cured." The original Coca-Cola recipe contained cocaine (and influenced the name of the beverage). Advertisements for the soda called it an alternative to liquor (which, along with all alcohol, was outlawed during Prohibition [1920–33]) and boasted about it being "a valuable Brain Tonic."

Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin (1851–1904) was a regionalist writer; her stories almost always took place in the same region—in this case, Louisiana. Chopin's characters brought to life the values and even the dialects (specific language and slang) particular to the South. But the writer's voice broke away from traditional regionalist authors. She was a feminist who believed in the equality of women and men. Her most famous novel, The Awakening (1899), was published amid scandal. In the novel, the female protagonist (main character) rejects traditional Victorian values and enjoys discovering there is more to being a woman than maintaining a clean house. The public and critics called the book vulgar and it immediately went out of print. Interest in the book resurfaced in the 1950s as women were once again trying to break free of the societal restraints that limited them both professionally and personally. As reported on Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening, a PBS Web site, The Awakening is among the top five most-read American novels in colleges in the twenty-first century and is considered a prime example of American realism.

Jack London

Jack London (1876–1916) was an American writer at the forefront of a new type of literature: the wilderness-adventure novel. This type of fiction was closely related to the newly popular western novel (see Chapter 5). Both the wilderness novel and the western novel involved adventure in an untamed land. London's style of writing departed from the western novel; his fiction was more realistic and less romantic. Although he wrote more than twenty novels, nearly as many short-story collections, and numerous works of nonfiction and journalism, the author is best remembered for his novels centering around sled dogs in the Yukon (a territory in northwest Canada). These titles include The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea-Wolf (1904), and White Fang (1906).

In addition to the Yukon, London studied and wrote about two other regions and their cultures: California and the South Pacific. He spent the winter of 1897 in the Yukon, which gave him the material and ideas for his first stories. The stories were published in the Overland Monthly in 1899. America quickly realized that London was much more than an entertaining author. His works embodied his belief in socialism (an economic system based on public ownership of the means of production and distribution of wealth). Although he kept his social and political commentary out of most of his fiction, London did not hesitate to criticize what he considered the ills of society, including the use of liquor and the relationship between poverty and capitalism (a profit-motivated economic system in which capital is mostly owned by private individuals).

London was a highly publicized and influential figure throughout his adult lifetime. His novel The Sea-Wolf was the basis for the first American film. He was among the first celebrities ever used to endorse consumer products in advertising (grape juice and dress suits).

Henry James

Henry James (1843–1916) was a master of the psychological novel (a story that relies more on what goes on inside the characters' minds than it does on action). Although he eventually moved to London (1876) and became a British citizen one year prior to his death, he is considered one of the great American novelists.

James combined his love of travel with his love of writing. He chose to write novels about the people he met in the places to which he traveled. Many of his novels compare sophisticated Europeans with somewhat crude Americans, though in midcareer he changed focus from international travel to revolutionaries and reformers. He would eventually return to international themes.

Some of James's most famous novels include The American (1877), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Bostonians (1886), and The Turn of the Screw (1891).

James was one of the first writers to narrate a novel from the point of view of a particular character, and he refined this technique throughout his career. For this, he is considered by many to be the father of the stream-of-consciousness novel, in which the narrative follows the thoughts and feelings of a character without thought to logic or sequence.

W. E. B. Du Bois

William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois (1868–1963) was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Although he is considered more of a social activist and reformer than author, he is remembered as well for his famous 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk.

In this book of fourteen essays, Du Bois detailed the history of the African American in America and talked about the idea of progress as it related to African Americans. Du Bois asserted that the role of African Americans and their leaders was not to accept with gratitude what little was handed to them in terms of rights and privileges, but to demand equal treatment.

Du Bois talked about the "double consciousness" of African Americans: that of being American, and that of being "Negro." Du Bois challenged his fellow African Americans to stop looking at themselves through the eyes of whites. The Souls of Black Folk was considered a groundbreaking book at the time of its publication and remains so in the twenty-first century.

Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but moved with his family to New York when he was ten years old. By the age of fifteen, he was writing dime novels, and also helping to pay his college tuition by writing for pulp magazines (see box). He also wrote articles for various boys' weekly magazines during this time.

Sinclair's fame rests on one novel, published in 1906. The Jungle exposed the unsafe and filthy conditions of Chicago's meatpacking industry and led directly to the passage that same year of the Pure Food and Drug Act. This law created the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which became responsible for insuring the safety of all food and medical products. Also passed in 1906 was the Meat Inspection Act, which set hygiene standards in all meatpacking plants and demanded that all animals pass inspection prior to slaughter.

For his novel, Sinclair was considered and remains in the twenty-first century one of the first muckrakers. Other muckraking journalism pieces of his include King Coal (1917), an expose of a Colorado coal strike, and Boston (1928), a discussion of the Sacco-Vanzetti case. Nicola Sacco (1891–1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888–1927) were two Italian immigrants accused of murdering two Boston-area men. The immigrants were eventually executed for the murders, though both men had alibis (excuses) for the night of the murder. The case and trial were among the most controversial in American history. Sinclair's treatment of the event caused national outrage because he portrayed the case as an example of American justice being sacrificed in the name of social class and wealth.

Other well-known, though not necessarily American, authors of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era include poets Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) and Walt Whitman (1819–1892); Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) of Jungle Book fame; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), best known for his character Sherlock Holmes; and British playwright Oscar Wilde (1854–1900).

Newspapers and the print revolution

Newspapers were not new to the Gilded Age, but the years from 1886 to 1895 were of major importance to the spread of print journalism beyond the Midwest. At a time when radio and television had yet to be invented, newspapers were the public's main source of information.

New technologies allowed newspapers to cut production costs, set type faster with a machine rather than by hand, and hasten the printing of illustrations. Electricity was the main innovation that helped newspapers increase their production volume. Electrically run machines sped up all production processes, and costs were cut as manufacturers began to make paper out of wood pulp. The Linotype typesetting machine (1886) allowed typesetters to work line by line instead of letter by letter. The new machine also created equal margins on both sides of a column of text.

Newspapers were now more visually appealing, and they could be offered to readers without raising costs. Wise investors saw an opportunity to make profits. Newspaper agencies easily found loans to buy faster machinery.

Dime Novels and Pulp Magazines

Reading was once a pastime available only to the upper-middle and wealthy classes. Lower classes, in general, could not read well, if at all. Books were costly because paper and printing were expensive. Prior to the building of railroads, books were transported by riverboat. When the waters froze, the avail ability of books came to a halt until the spring thaw.

With the Gilded Age came new technologies that allowed for faster printing and cheaper resources. Free public education meant that more people were learning to read and write, regardless of social class. Railroads shipped books year round, which meant more affordable books were finding their way into the hands of a wider reading audience. More readers meant there was a demand for more publishers; this led to an opportunity for instant wealth in the publishing industry.

Dime novels, which got their name from the fact that they cost just ten cents each, first appeared in 1860. Their themes were usually patriotic and often featured conflicts between pioneers and westerners and Native Americans. By the mid-1890s, the covers of dime novels were printed in color, and many featured scenes of bloodshed and violence. At this point, the books appealed mostly to teenage boys.

Other dime novels were written specifically for young women. The covers of these books featured a well-dressed young lady wearing a stylish hat and holding a copy of a dime novel in her hands as she gazed out into the distance. The primary readers of these novels were working-class girls. Reading was a respectable activity, and the dime novels gave these young women a feeling of self-improvement, a way to close the gap between the lower and the middle classes.

It is not possible to say how many dime novels were published. One company, Beadle's Dime Novels, published more than five million dime novels between 1860 and 1865 alone.

Pulp magazines Closely related to dime novels were pulp magazines, which began appearing in the 1880s. Many dime novels became pulp magazines by enlarging the format from a small book to a 7 x 10-inch magazine layout that included all-color illustrations. These magazines shifted their focus to an older reading audience.

Most pulp magazines featured stories involving supernatural, Wild West, and detective plots. Later, around the time of World War I, science-fiction stories were added. Other pulp magazines catered to female readers and included stories of love won and lost.

Some famous authors who got their start writing pulp fiction include western writer Louis L'Amour (1908–1988), detective-fiction writer Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961), and science-fiction writers Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) and Ray Bradbury (1920–).

Pulp fiction reached the height of its popularity in the 1930s, when it served to release America from the worries of war and economic depression.

Perhaps the most remarkable development in the print revolution was the evening newspaper. Prior to the Gilded Age, newspapers were delivered in the morning. By 1890, two-thirds of all daily newspapers were evening editions. Newspapers in the West carried articles about events of the day, even when those events occurred in the East. Reporters could travel to cover a story, then report the news to the main office via telegraph (an early version of the telephone, except the user typed text into it instead of talking). By 1880, there were nearly 111,000 miles of telegraph wire running throughout the nation. Within three years, there were four intercontinental lines. Without technology, none of these advancements in print media could have occurred.

Art

Like literature, art was also part of the Realism movement, at least for a while. Women and children were the most commonly painted subjects, with both American and exotic landscapes coming in a close second.

Regarded by many artists and art historians alike to be the greatest painter of the nineteenth century is Winslow Homer (1836–1910). Although Homer painted and etched women and children as did most mid-nineteenth artists, he eventually expanded his focus to include both sexes. What interested the artist most was communicating the personality of his subjects. For example, in many paintings of hardworking fishermen and their families, Homer primarily focused on the women of the North Sea region of England, painting them as they mended nets, cared for children, and waited for their men to return home safely.

As he aged, Homer longed for solitude, and his paintings reflected this shift in lifestyle. His later paintings, mostly landscapes and seascapes, are the paintings most respected by modern artists and collectors.

Impressionism

Art in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era was a reflection of the values of American society. Those values in the late nineteenth century were changing. Industrialism had given birth to a new social class: the middle class. Where once society was made up mostly of lower and upper classes, it now found itself with a growing middle class. This middle class included managers in the new industries as well as teachers, lawyers, and doctors. Prior to the Gilded Age, art had generally represented the upper class and its experiences. This traditional approach to art was rapidly changing at the turn of the century.

A group of French artists called the Impressionists (for the way reality left its impression on their work) changed the art world in the 1890s. These painters painted people as they saw them in daily activities, rather than formally posed. Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) was an American Impressionist living in France who is best remembered for her paintings of women and children. Like her Impressionist counterparts, Cassatt painted her subjects not in formally posed portraits but in relaxed positions and natural surroundings.

Another artist representative of the era was John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). He, too, was an American living abroad. Although Sargent was famous for the portraits he painted, by the 1880s he had moved to Impressionist landscapes. He was (and still is) criticized for maintaining a sense of superficiality (falseness) even in his Impressionism, but he is generally considered, at least in his later career, to be an Impressionist painter.

Although Impressionism in Europe faded out in the early twentieth century, some American Impressionists continued to paint in that style into the 1920s. But as America welcomed the new century, society was clearly moving toward urbanization and modern life. Cities were overcrowded with overworked adults and children, and the gap widened between the rich and the poor. Life in urban America was not pretty, and one group of artists dedicated themselves to depicting the hardships of life on canvas.

The Ashcan School

Just as Mark Twain took literature to new heights by insisting it reflect reality, so did a group of painters move art into the real, if disturbing, realm of life. In 1891, artist Robert Henri (1865–1929) and seven others began a movement in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Known as "The Eight," these painters shocked America not by the way they painted but by their subject matter. These men created no seascapes or formal portraits. Instead, they chose as their subjects the harsh realities of city life. The Eight used dark, dreary colors to capture the hopeless atmosphere of urban America and made the nation acknowledge that not all of life in the Gilded Age was touched with gold.

The Eight were given the nickname "Ashcan School" by a critic who was repulsed by their work. These rebellious artists did not care what the public thought.

The Eight took their rebellion one step further when they organized and widely publicized an art exhibit in 1913. The exhibit, held in New York's National Guard Armory and known as the Armory Show, was the first ever to be planned by artists. No judges were present and no awards given out. Five hundred thousand Americans attended the Armory Show. If the works by the Ashcan School were shocking, those by the new modern abstract artists such as Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) were nothing short of appalling. These paintings were as far removed from reality as they could be, and critics dismissed these painters as insane. Within a few years, however, the abstract, modernist style would become firmly established in American art.

Photography

Photography emerged as an art form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (see Chapter 10 for the history of the camera). One man in particular is directly associated with photography as an art: Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946). Stieglitz was born in New Jersey and developed an interest in photography at the age of eleven. He studied his craft in Berlin, Germany. By 1892, Stieglitz was known for his photographs of everyday life in Paris and New York.

Like the artists of the Ashcan School, Stieglitz found inspiration in the grittier aspects of urban life. His dedication to his craft was remarkable. For one particular photograph, "Winter, Fifth Avenue," Stieglitz stood in a snow storm for three hours, waiting for just the right moment to snap the shutter.

Stieglitz was a cofounder of the magazine Camera Work, a journal for new photographers. The world-famous publication ran from 1903 to 1917 and published the works of new and exciting photographers as well as photographs of groundbreaking European painters. Readers of the periodical knew who Picasso was well before the presentation of the Ashcan School's Armory Show.

Stieglitz himself was a gifted photographer, but he had a greater impact on the world of photography for the way he promoted it and elevated it to an art form.

Architecture

Henry H. Richardson (1838–1886) was the premiere architect of the Gilded Age. His buildings had a medieval influence mixed with Roman style—massive arches and imposing towers. Richardson designed many churches and cathedrals of the day. His style was so unique that it is sometimes referred to as Richardsonian.

The buildings of the Columbian Exposition of 1893 influenced architecture. Many buildings erected after the fair were in the classical style, with large pillars and flat rooftops. Architect Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) designed the Transportation Building for the exposition, and he remained a popular architect until the beginning of the twentieth century. History would prove that Sullivan's protégé(someone who studies under the direction of someone else) would achieve a fame far greater than his teacher's, as Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) became one of America's leading architects in the twentieth century.

Perhaps the most memorable aspect of Progressive Era architecture was the skyscraper. Until the 1880s, the height of buildings was limited by the construction techniques commonly used. The first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885 and stood ten stories high. Architects in that city considered the skyscraper's appearance a challenge and immediately set to work building even taller structures. As construction techniques improved—especially the advent of the metal frame, which would bear the weight of the walls—buildings got taller. Soon the skylines of all urban areas included towering skyscrapers.

Arts and Crafts movement

Improvements in architecture imposed changes to the outsides of buildings, but the Arts and Crafts movement (1880–1910) brought changes to the inside as well. In direct response to the fancy, lavish décor of the Gilded Age, a group of craftsmen and artists began what was called the Arts and Crafts movement. The idea behind the Arts and Crafts style was to return to a time when furniture and other household decorating items were made by hand. The movement's founder, William Morris (1834–1896), and his followers believed that the industrialization of America forced the country into a culture that was sterile and boring; it did not allow for designers and builders to make items of quality, one at a time. Even homes were being built from packages and kits. (Oddly enough, the bungalow-style home-building kits sold by Sears were considered part of the Arts and Crafts style.)

Furniture of the Arts and Crafts style was made of dark wood and simple construction. The elegance of the style of furnishings was in its simple understatement. To allow natural beauty to come through, wood furniture was sometimes left unfinished, the surfaces a bit rough. Fabric patterns were small and repetitive, in muted earth tones. Overall, the idea behind the movement was a return to a simpler time when people were more important than machines.

Cultural investments

Cultural organizations such as opera houses, museums, and libraries were funded by large donations from men such as Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) and John D. Rockefeller. Carnegie donated hundreds of millions of dollars to build more than twenty-five hundred free public libraries throughout English-speaking lands across the world. Of these, more than sixteen hundred were built in America. His generosity stemmed from a belief that as someone who had made great wealth, he was obligated to give it away before his death. Libraries were especially important to him because he knew from experience what it was like to be a poor immigrant with little access to education. He believed libraries could help immigrants achieve a desirable level of education that would lead to a chance for prosperity.

John D. Rockefeller (owner of the Standard Oil Company) made millions of dollars in donations to various cultural and educational organizations. He donated $35 million to the University of Chicago and made donations to many other colleges, including Yale, Harvard, Vassar, and Spelman. In 1902, he established the General Education Board, which funded educational needs throughout the country in the amount of $325 million during the years of its existence (1902–1965).

Religion and the Social Gospel

Capitalism affected every segment of life, and religion was no exception. As people grew wealthier through aggressive competition and a focus on only themselves, religious leaders denounced capitalism and blamed it for all of society's problems. They argued that capitalism forced men into greed and selfishness and encouraged them to care only about their own well-being.

The message of the Social Gospel movement was that people should be as concerned about their neighbor as they are about themselves. Leading advocates of the Social Gospel were two ministers: Washington Gladden (1836–1918), regarded as the founder of the movement, and Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918). Rauschenbusch ministered to the German immigrant community in a section of New York City known as Hell's Kitchen. He saw first-hand how poverty led to other social problems. Like Gladden, he blamed capitalism as the root cause.

The Social Gospel movement declined in popularity after World War I, largely because of general disillusionment over the war itself. It did however influence many aspects of the reform movement, including women's suffrage, temperance (a movement that campaigned for the public to refrain from drinking alcohol), and settlement housing in the cities.

Sports: baseball is king, but boxing is big

The 1890s saw America begin an enthusiastic appreciation of physical activity. Biking became a popular craze among men and women alike. The discovery of nature as a place to be explored encouraged Americans to hike and camp. Spectator sports took over the nation as one of the most popular ways to spend one's free time.

Other Interesting Cultural Events of the Era

The first Coca-Cola was served at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. The store's bookkeeper came up with the name, and his handwriting is still used in the logo in the twenty-first century. Between 1890 and 1900, sales increased by 4,000 percent.

Originally established as a legislative library in 1800 when President John Adams (1735–1826; served 1797–1801) approved the spending of $5,000 to buy books for Congress to use, the Library of Congress initially included 740 books and 3 maps. In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826; served 1801–9) gave Congress the authority to develop the library as it saw fit. For nearly a century, the library's holdings were kept in the U.S. Capitol. But on November 1, 1897, the library's first official building opened its doors. Originally one room, the library in the twenty-first century consists of three buildings. If all the shelves were laid end to end, they would cover more than 500 miles. It is the largest library in the world.

The first New York subway opened for business to the public at seven o'clock PM on October 27, 1904. Before the night was over, 150,000 passengers had taken a ride underground. Construction took just four years.

Newspaper journalist Nellie Bly (1864–1922) completed a trip around the world in seventy-two days, six hours, and eleven minutes on January 25, 1890. She had read Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne (1828–1905), and announced to her readers that she could make the trip in less time. In order to complete the trip, Bly traveled by train, ship, horse, donkey, sampan (small riverboat), and jinrikisha (a seat on wheels pulled by a man). Never one to shy away from risks, Bly had once posed as a patient in an asylum (an institution for the insane) to get an insider's view of the horrible conditions. Her report on her experience led to reforms in the twentieth century.

Lizzie Borden (1860–1927) was accused in 1892 of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe (eleven blows to his head, nineteen to hers). Although she was later found innocent of the charges, her story remains one of the most popular unsolved mysteries in American culture. More recent scholarship suggests that Borden did in fact probably kill her father and stepmother. The evidence indicates the way in which the crime was carried out is in keeping with the classic profile of a child who has been sexually abused by a parent. A jump-rope rhyme of unknown authorship judges her as guilty:

Lizzie Borden had an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was established within the Justice Department in 1908, although some members of Congress were not in favor of the development. The Bureau almost immediately embarrassed itself when it rounded up thousands of young men at the start of World War I and only a handful turned out to be draft dodgers (men trying to illegally escape going to war).

The sudden increase in the popularity of sports was a direct reaction to the changes wrought by the industrialization of the country. Men and women found themselves on a regimented schedule during the workweek. They were bound by the time clock as well as the rules of the factory, mill, or shop. American society was very clear about its expectations regarding proper behavior, and industrial urban life forced Americans to conform to its restraints. Physical activity, then, was a way of breaking free of those restraints. Watching athletes amaze an audience with their talent and skill was another way to escape the routine of daily life.

Baseball

Baseball became an organized sport in the 1840s and 1850s, but its popularity increased after the Civil War. By 1911, it was known as "America's pastime."

The first professional team, the Cincinnati RedStockings, formedin1869andwithit, major league baseball in America had begun. As more teams formed—eventually becoming the National League—players traveled by train from one city to the next, and team rivalries built loyalty among fans. With the development of the American League in 1901, Americans had two organized leagues of teams with which to fill their leisure time. The two leagues merged in 1903 and played the first World Series.

Baseball was more than just a sport for a nation that was still figuring out who it was at the turn of the century. At a time when economic depression, mass immigration, and industrialization gave Americans plenty to worry about, baseball offered an affordable escape (tickets were twenty-five cents for bleacher seats, fifty cents for the roofed grandstand), an inexpensive outing for a few hours to cheer for a favorite team or player. What became so interesting about this particular sport is that its evolution directly reflected the changes of the society in which it was developing. The story of baseball matches the American story of immigration and assimilation (fitting into a new culture): Many athletes were immigrants searching for a new life. Baseball contains the story of race relations in America: Racism forced African American athletes to form their own leagues, and yet some of the most famous and beloved baseball players in the history of the sport were African American. Not as commonly known, baseball has its own story of women and their struggle for equality: When forbidden to participate in the sport, they, like African Americans, formed their own teams. Baseball reflects the story of the struggle between labor (players) and management, as early managers of the teams were often corrupt in their practices and cared little for their players' welfare. Comparisons between the sport and reality were many. These common factors are one reason baseball is called America's pastime.

Late-nineteenth-century ballparks were usually located on the outskirts of town in middle-class neighborhoods. They were conveniently located next to inexpensive mass transit (street cars or trolleys) and often had to relocate because the wood structures burned down. In the 1890s alone, there were twenty-five fires at various ballparks across the country. Privately built and funded, these ballparks cost about $30,000 to develop and seated ten thousand fans. The first fireproof ballparks were built in 1909 in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. These safer stadiums were built because owners recognized the growing popularity of the sport. They had a responsibility to make the game as safe and enjoyable as possible.

Boxing

Baseball was not the only sport to capture America's attention. Basketball was invented in 1891, and the popularity of college football continued to grow. Golf and tennis had loyal fans, as did horse racing. But the only other sport to rival baseball in terms of popularity and devotion was boxing, or prizefighting, as it was called then.

Boxing began in eighteenth-century England. It was immediately popular because it combined two beloved pastimes: sports and gambling. Most boxers were working-class men sponsored by wealthy gentlemen. Almost from its beginning, the sport was marked by corruption and dishonesty.

The first American heavyweight champion was John Sullivan (1858–1918), who held the title from 1882 to 1892. Sullivan was champion when boxing made the drastic change from bare knuckles to gloves. Unlike most other sports, prizefighting was one sport African Americans were allowed to participate in, though many white boxers refused to fight them.

The first African American (and first Texan) heavyweight champion was Jack Johnson (1878–1946), whose reign lasted from 1908 to 1915. More than an athlete, Johnson was also the first African American cultural icon (symbol or hero). At a time when news of African Americans was not printed in newspapers or magazines, Johnson was photographed more often than any other African American and most whites, and his name appeared in print on a regular basis throughout his career.

Johnson was born in Texas in 1878. Not content to spend his life doing physical labor, he used his size (6 feet, 200 pounds) to his advantage and learned to box. As an African American boxer with a white manager, he was often unfairly treated. Johnson refused to be controlled by anyone, and he was not above firing a manager if he was unhappy with him. Despite the fact that boxers in that era lived among the lower classes of society, which included prostitutes (women who are paid for sexual services), drug addicts and dealers, and criminals, Johnson's intelligence prevented him from giving in to temptation. He was determined to become champion of his craft.

When Johnson beat his opponent, Canadian Tommy Burns (1881–1955), on December 26, 1908, to become the first African American heavyweight champion, whites in the audience immediately began crying for a "great white hope" to take back the title. Johnson was not a favorite among whites because of his preference for socializing with (and eventually marrying) white women. This mixing of the races is called miscegenation, and it was illegal at the time. Even many fellow African Americans disliked Johnson for this reason. As one of the few public representatives of his race, his behavior reflected on his entire race. To involve himself with white women during a time of deep racism was not only dangerous for Johnson himself but for other African Americans as well; his actions made other African American men targets for whites' anger at Johnson.

Morality was the basis for much of the reform laws being passed throughout the Progressive Era. With prostitution at an all-time high during this time, America needed someone to blame. Immorality became linked in the public's mind to miscegenation. At a time when reformers were beginning to label boxing as immoral because it was violent, Johnson became a man with two strikes against him: He was a boxer who preferred white women.

Gibson Girl: An Artistic Cultural Icon

Some cultural icons are real people, such as athletes and celebrities. A different sort of icon, a drawing of a certain kind of girl, was the result of a vision belonging to an artist named Charles Dana Gibson (1867–1944). Gibson was an illustrator for several popular magazines. His pen-and-ink drawings came to represent the spirit of the Progressive Era.

Although Gibson created many illustrations, he was and remains most famous for his Gibson Girl. She was the embodiment of America's perfect woman: cultured, beautiful, innocent but with a twinkle in her eye. Always dressed in a flowing skirt, with her long, carefully arranged hair sometimes pulled up in back, the Gibson Girl was the ideal of early twentieth-century feminism. She became the inspiration for fashion and eventually appeared on non-print items such as wallpaper, dinner plates, and matchboxes.

America loved its Gibson Girl for the self-confidence she portrayed, and she remained a cultural icon until World War I. By then, America's hopefulness had faded to cynicism. The Gibson Girl no longer seemed appropriate for a country faced with war.

In 1912, Johnson's first (white) wife killed herself. Within three months, Johnson married another white woman, prostitute Lucille Cameron. Johnson was found guilty of violating the law and sentenced to serve one year and one day in prison. He refused and fled to Europe, where he lived until 1920. At that time, he returned home to serve his time.

While overseas, Johnson continued to fight because he needed the money. However, he was not bringing in spectators like he once did, and his title meant very little because he was a fugitive from justice. Since he could not fight in the United States, he was not much good to any manager. He finally lost his title in 1915, to Cuban fighter Jess Willard (1881–1968). There would not be another African American heavyweight champion until Joe Louis (1914–1981) won the title twenty-two years later.

How Henry Ford Changed the World

When industrialist Henry Ford (1863–1947) introduced his now-famous Model T automobile in 1908, he changed the lives of millions of Americans.

The Model T was not Ford's first car; Ford did not even invent the automobile. His contribution was designing a car that was simple and affordable enough so that the average American could own one. The Model T was that car. More than ten thousand of them sold for $825 (the equivalent of about $17,300 in 2005 using the Consumer Price Index) each in the first year of production. Because of innovative production techniques that eventually included the moving assembly line, the price dropped to $575 (about $11,500 in 2005) within four years, and sales skyrocketed. By 1914, Ford owned 48 percent of the automobile market. His new car-manufacturing plant was turning out one Model T every ninety-three minutes. By 1927—years after the perfection of the assembly line—Ford was producing one car every twenty-four seconds. The price dropped to $300 (about $5,800 in 2005).

Ford made more than cars. He made it possible for Americans to live in the country and work in the city. For those who did not like city life, he allowed for the development of an entirely different lifestyle: the suburbs. His innovations created jobs and allowed for mobility on a scale never before known. Suddenly, distances between loved ones did not seem so great, and families could take summer vacations. Tourism became a major American industry. Weekend jaunts to the country became a popular pastime, whereas before, the furthest one could hope to travel in one trip was fifteen miles or so. Horses pulling wagons or carriages could not be expected to go farther than that.

Thanks to affordable cars, more people could attend colleges and universities, and hospitals were now more accessible. More cars meant the development and maintenance of new roads and a highway system that connected one region to the next. It was only a matter of time before interstate highways were built, connecting one end of the country to the other.

It can be argued that the introduction of Ford's economical Model T had the greatest effect on the lives of women. Where once their lives centered around the home, if for no other reason than that they had no means of transportation at their disposal, they now could travel conveniently. Rural women could visit their neighbors miles away without having to leave an entire afternoon open for the walk or horse ride. They could shop at their local merchants or venture further where selection and price were more consumer friendly. The car made women more visible in towns and society in general, giving them an independence and power they had never had.

After serving his prison term, Johnson lived off his fame by fighting in exhibitions and telling his life's story. He continued to marry and divorce white women, but now that he was no longer a champion, no one gave it much thought. Johnson died in a car crash in 1946.

Entertainment

Opera houses first began appearing in American towns and cities in the 1880s. By the end of the nineteenth century, even small towns had them. Although the name conjures up images of luxurious curtains and gold-leaf balconies, most opera houses were little more than meeting halls with a stage. The exception to this was the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, which opened in 1883 and actually hosted real operas. New Orleans, Louisiana, also boasted an authentic opera house. But in most places, these opera houses were a town's cultural-events center.

Minstrel shows and vaudeville

Prior to the Gilded Age, much popular music was serious and more classical and religious in style. The advent of fairs and of cultural events like Broadway musicals changed popular music as the middle and lower classes began to enjoy a variety of musical styles. Entertainment included traveling groups of actors, singers, comedians, and other performers who went from town to town. America had been enjoying traveling shows for years. These earlier performances began in the 1830s and were called minstrel shows. White performers would rub burnt cork or charcoal on their faces to indicate they were portraying African Americans. This was called blackface. Their performances would include song and dance styles from African American culture, but often the performers would savagely mimic what they considered behaviors typical of African Americans. For example, their dancing more closely resembled the antics of wild animals. Their movements were clumsy, and they portrayed African Americans as simple, unable to understand even the most basic concepts and ideas. To a white audience, this form of racism was comedy.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the minstrel show gave way to the more popular variety show. Each traveling company was made up of a variety of performers, usually one or two who were well known throughout the country. Booking agents figured these stars would attract an audience who would be forgiving of the other less-talented performers. These variety shows were known as vaudeville.

Vaudeville had something for everyone. Though one show was similar to the next, each had its own unique focus or act. Performances might include short theatrical sketches, song and dance routines, comedy routines, animal acts, sideshow oddities similar to those found at a circus or carnival, magic acts, and physical acts such as acrobatics or strongmen.

The amazing Harry Houdini

One of the most famous acts in vaudeville was escape artistHarry Houdini (1874–1926). Like many vaudeville performers, Houdini was an immigrant. He left Hungary in 1878 and got his start in show business as a magician. In 1899, his agent advised him to leave behind traditional magic and concentrate on escapes. Houdini was an instant hit with his first vaudeville appearance. He left on a tour of Europe in 1900 and became a star.

Houdini returned to America in 1905 and amazed America the following year when he escaped from the locked jail cell of Charles Guiteau (c. 1840–1882), the man who had assassinated President James Garfield (1831–1881; served 1881). This stunt confirmed Houdini's status as a celebrity, and America hailed him as a cultural hero. In 1913, he introduced a new dramatic escape demonstration called the upside-down water torture cell. His fans could not get enough of his straitjacket escapes made while hanging upside-down in a sealed water chamber.

Houdini continued his life of illusion and great escapes until 1926, when he died from an infection caused by a ruptured appendix.

Racism in vaudeville

Immigrants found in vaudeville a place where they could fit in to this new American culture. They knew they were appreciated for their talents by the weekly paycheck and daily applause. African Americans were not so lucky.

Vaudeville was as racist as the rest of America. As in minstrelsy, blackface was a popular routine. African American performers were forced to use the blackface makeup to hide the fact that they actually were dark skinned. It was a humiliating experience for the performers, but nobody except African Americans gave much thought to the degrading experience. The attitude was handed down from the minstrel shows, which did not give a second thought to the racial stereotypes it promoted. Minstrelsy produced songs commonly referred to as "coon" songs, which reflected the hardships of African American culture. ("Coon" was considered an offensive word for African American.) The most popular title was "All Coons Look Alike to Me." In the 1890s alone, more than six hundred coon songs were published.

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878–1949) was one of the most famous African American performers in vaudeville. A tall, thin man, Robinson was a talented tap dancer who made a name for himself with his "stair dance," which involved an intricate tap dance up a long flight of stairs. Even after vaudeville's popularity declined, Robinson remained a favorite with white audiences. He appeared in films with legendary stars such as Shirley Temple (1928–) and Will Rogers (1879–1935).

Movies

Films in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era were silent (sound on film had not yet been mastered). Most of the films were short, lasting just a few minutes. Live piano music would accompany the movie as theater-goers watched performers silently enact a story in black-and-white film. Movies were incorporated into vaudeville shows, but in 1905, a new kind of theater, the nickelodeon, appeared on the American scene.

Nickelodeons were small, storefront theaters that showed movies all day long for the cost of five cents a movie. The owner of several vaudeville shows built the first nickelodeon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By 1908, America boasted eight thousand nickelodeons. These tiny theaters attracted men, women, and children because no matter what time of day or night it was, a movie was playing. Nickelodeons declined in 1907 as bigger movie theaters with larger seating capacities were built.

Silent films were not considered a form of art until the 1910s. At that point, they increased in length, and film studios began marketing their best actors to attract a greater audience. Most of the famous silent-film stars reached the height of their popularity in the 1920s, including Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), Theda Bara (1885–1955), and Mary Pickford (1892–1979).

Considered the first masterpiece of film, Birth of a Nation took the cinematic world by storm upon its release in 1915. Written and directed by D. W. Griffith (1875–1948), this movie elevated cinema to an art form and made Americans understand how it could be used to spark social change. It was Griffith's first major film; nevertheless, it earned him the title "father of film."

The film captured the violence and excitement of the Civil War through its innovative filming and editing techniques. African Americans throughout the nation were outraged at Griffith's deliberate racism and prejudice and accused him of recording a distorted history (many historians agree). The film caused riots in a number of African American communities.

The cinema was one of America's most popular recreational pastimes in a constantly-changing culture, but not everyone was pleased with the film craze. Many reformers viewed theaters as hotbeds of sin and crime. This was due to the content of films, which included romance and vampires (seen by reformers as sexually explicit), but also to the theaters themselves, which reformers believed encouraged viewers to act in ways considered immoral for the time. No one could police the activities taking place in a darkened theater. Reformers were concerned about the ease with which crimes such as theft and prostitution (the selling of sex for money) could occur. In 1907, Chicago established the nation's first censorship board to protect its citizens against immorality.

The era of silent films ended in 1926 when the first talking move (called "talkie") was produced.

Popular music

Vaudeville had a direct impact on the public's music tastes in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. Popular music was beginning to emerge as an industry in the 1890s, and most music centered around the piano. Owning a piano was a symbol of prestige and good taste in the 1890s. Young women and girls were the primary players.

Popular tunes were based on religious and ethnic themes as well as tales of love and sentimentality. Ballads (songs that tell a story) often ended in death or with one lover leaving the other. At the time, music was sold not as a record album but in the form of sheet music for piano. The first million-selling hit was "After the Ball," written in 1892 by Charles Harris (1867–1930). Tin Pan Alley in New York was the center of the sheet-music publishing business. Dozens of publishing houses competed to publish the best songs.

Ragtime

Although the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are remembered as the Ragtime Era, that title is misleading. There was no one dominant style of music. Broadway tunes were popular and often sung in vaudeville acts. Traveling minstrel shows made coon songs popular. Amusement parks that featured marching bands had an impact on the music industry and led to a rise in the composition of patriotic songs. The reason for the emphasis on ragtime is that it was a fresh sound, and one that was wholly American.

Ragtime, or rags as the songs were called, was influenced by African American rhythms. They are lively, upbeat tunes with syncopated (off-the-beat) rhythms. Rags were originally written for piano, but the style was often transcribed for a variety of brass instruments and led directly to the style of music that gave its name to an entire era: jazz.

Rags were played in saloons, parlors, gambling halls, and juke joints (dance halls). The best-known ragtime composer and performer was Scott Joplin. Born in Texas, Joplin mastered the banjo and began playing piano at an early age. He was one of the few African Americans to perform at the Chicago's World Fair in 1893. In 1899, Joplin wrote and played "Maple Leaf Rag," considered the perfect model of a ragtime tune. He followed that a few years later with "The Entertainer," another popular rag that also reemerged in the 1970s as the popular theme song in the hit movie The Sting.

Joplin wrote an opera, Treemonisha, in 1911, but it was largely unsuccessful. He died in 1917. In 1976, his opera won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.

Invention of the Phonograph

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) invented the first phonograph in 1877. It used a tinfoil cylinder that recorded sound by pricking the tinfoil with a needle. Each different sound placed the needle pricks in a different position. During playback, the phonograph used a different needle to "read" the needle pricks. Various sounds were produced by the vibrations of the needle against the tinfoil. The mechanics and limitations of the machine made recording several instruments at once nearly impossible, and some instruments, such as the violin, could not be recorded at all because their sounds were complex and not easily picked up by the recording device. Horns, with their loud blasts, recorded the best.

In 1893, an inventor named Emile Berliner (1851–1929) released the first gramophone, or disc player. After years of research and development, Berliner found a method that performed better than the cylinder phonograph. His machine used a needle to play hard rubber discs that allowed up to three and one-half minutes of recording time. The public was not quick to give up their cylinder phonographs, so sales were slow at first. Berliner continued his research and found a more durable disc, and with that, sales increased.

Eldridge Johnson (1867–1945) was the Henry Ford of the recording industry; he changed the course of events forever when he founded the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1902. Johnson had been hired by Berliner to build components for the gramophone. When Berliner was found to be in violation of some patent laws (laws declaring formal rights of ownership) and could not sell his machine in the United States, Johnson bought some of the patents from Berliner and set to work improving the machine.

The result was the Victrola, available for $200 in 1905 (the equivalent of about $4,400 in 2005). Improvements in the production process and technology allowed Johnson to drop the price to a mere $15 by 1911 (the equivalent of about $300 in 2005). Americans in homes all across the country became the proud owners of a Victrola.

Blues

Blues, a music style with its roots in African American rhythms and slave spirituals, was born in the South shortly before the turn of the century. It developed from the suffering experienced by sharecroppers who were overworked in the fields. African Americans working on prison road crews and chain gangs conceived other blues tunes. As explained on PBS.org, jazz musician Sidney Bechet (1897–1959) remembered that the first time he heard the blues was by a prisoner in a jailhouse. "The way he sang it was more than just a man. He was like every man that's ever been done wrong. … The blues, like spirituals, were prayers."

As a written music, the blues did not appear until around 1911. African American composer W. C. Handy (1873–1958) popularized the style with his tune "Memphis Blues" in 1912. The blues gained in popularity and rivaled jazz as the dominant style of music in the 1920s.

Blues was not a style of music respectable white Americans appreciated. Its themes of lust and heartache were not aligned with white society's moral values. Aside from religious tunes, popular music for whites included themes of suffrage and temperance.

Cultural expression was vast and varied throughout the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. From the fairs to the rise of popular music and consumerism, the Chautauqua to the Gibson Girl, America's optimism (positive outlook) was at the root of every segment of cultural development. Yet it was also a time of poverty; by 1904, one in every three people was close to starving. America's hope survived even as it suffered great economic depressions, political and business corruption, and war. More was better and there was little difference between need and want to a growing middle class. This attitude would lead the nation directly into the 1920s, the Roaring Twenties. If the Progressive Era was one of reform and hope, the Roaring Twenties were times of self-indulgence and moral wickedness.

For More Information

BOOKS

Brooke-Ball, Peter. Champions of the Ring: The Great Fighters: Illustrated Biographies of the Biggest Names in Boxing History. London: Southwater Publishing, 2001.

Brown, Joshua. Beyond the Lines: Pictorial Reporting, Everyday Life, and the Crisis of Gilded-Age America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

Espejo, Roman. The Age of Reform and Industrialization, 1896–1920. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003.

Greenwood, Janette Thomas. The Gilded Age: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Smythe, Ted Curtis. The Gilded Age Press, 1865–1900. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.

Tygiel, Jules. Past Time: Baseball as History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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