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The Second Industrial Revolution (The Bessemer Process)

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The Second Industrial Revolution (The Bessemer Process)

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- [Voiceover] So, we were talking about the wealth inequality that characterized the Gilded Age, but you were telling me that that's not the only thing, Kim, that characterizes this period. - [Voiceover] Right, what really makes the Gilded Age happen is what we call the Second Industrial Revolution. Are you familiar with the First Industrial Revolution? - [Voiceover] But, of course. - [Voiceover] So, that was the revolution where they had steamships and canals and kinda this early creation of the market system in the United States, say like 1820s-1830s. The Second Industrial Revolution is more of a revolution of mass production, I would say, and ways of making and shipping and communicating about business transactions and materials that didn't exist before. - [Voiceover] So, what are some of these disruptive technologies (Kim laughs) that are really poised to change the shipment paradigm? So, okay, so off the top of my head, trains probably a huge deal in this period? - [Voiceover] Yes. - [Voiceover] So, we've got all this coal going and that means that there's a lot of smelting happening and that means that there's also a lot of steel happening too. - [Voiceover] Steel. I think if I had to choose one most important technology of the Gilded Age, it would have to be steel. Now, it's not like steel didn't actually exist before this. - [Voiceover] Right, steel had been around for millennia. - [Voiceover] Yeah, I think so. - [Voiceover] Millennium. - [Voiceover] But, what happens in this time period is there's a new process for making steel. It's called the Bessemer process. And the Bessemer process basically makes steel faster and it makes it cheaper. And in this time period, Andrew Carnegie we talked about being this major steel baron, railroads throughout the United States, partly supported, majorly supported by the U.S. government. And during this period, they lay 40,000 miles of new tracks of rail. - [Voiceover] That is so many miles. - [Voiceover] That is so many miles. - [Voiceover] How long is the United States from Los Angeles to New York? (Kim laughs) Like 3,000 miles? 3,100 miles? - [Voiceover] Yes. So, just imagine a nation where most railroad tracks had gone through sort of the eastern coastal cities up until 1865. Now, the entire country is connected by rail. There's more rail in the United States in 1900 than all of Europe combined. - [Voiceover] So, the Bessemer process of making steel is this foundational technology that enables a lot of the Gilded Age to happen. - [Voiceover] Right, so it enables the United States to move out and also to connect markets. So, you can now take raw materials from the West, which is really important, that's where the gold lives and also cattle ranching, you take those things from the West, you take them to the cities to be processed. Then, you take the finished goods and send them back out into the smaller towns. So, rail facilitates all of that. - [Voiceover] So, this is how my hometown became notorious-- - [Voiceover] Yeah. - [Voiceover] of Chicago. So, there would be cattle drives, I guess then, that came from the West and then they would all be slaughtered and processed in Chicago. - [Voiceover] Right, yeah. I'm a native Pennsylvanian, you're a native Chicagoan, and we are born from steel places, as the steel industry really grew up in Pittsburgh. And what I think is really interesting about steel too is that it's like a self-sustaining industry because you need the steel to make the railroads. And then, the railroad industry pays for the creation of steel, which facilitates the creation of more railroads, which necessitates the creation of more steel and it's just like this never-ending boom in steel in the Gilded Age. So, steel facilitates the United States moving outward, but it also facilitates the United States moving upward. - [Voiceover] Oh, I see what you did. That was good. - [Voiceover] Yeah, you like that? - [Voiceover] Yeah. - [Voiceover] So, steel allows for the construction of buildings that are taller than ever before. - [Voiceover] So, what is this building here? - [Voiceover] This building here is the Home Insurance Building in Chicago. I don't believe it is there anymore. And do you know what is special about the Home Insurance Building? - [Voiceover] No, what's special about it? - [Voiceover] The Home Insurance Building is considered to be the world's first skyscraper. - [Voiceover] What?! Awesome! - [Voiceover] Yeah, it looks pretty short for a skyscraper by modern standards. - [Voiceover] I mean, I couldn't build a building that tall. - [Voiceover] That's 10 stories tall. And what you can do with steel is build these steel-frame structures that allow you, without using stone, there's kind of like a steel cage underneath the facade of this. And so, you can build buildings that are taller while having windows. - [Voiceover] It's like a Faraday cage. I bet there was terrible cellphone reception in there. - [Voiceover] I imagine so, yeah. There were no cellphones at this time. All right, so you know what else made these tall buildings possible except for the steel structures? - [Voiceover] Was it elevators? - [Voiceover] It was totally elevators. - [Voiceover] Yes! - [Voiceover] Yes, see, you're better at this than you thought. - [Voiceover] Yeah! - [Voiceover] This is the time of the invention of the Otis elevator, and this is my little elevator entrance, that-- - [Voiceover] Nice! - [Voiceover] You could go to the top of a tall building without having to walk up 37 flights of stairs, which is pretty sweet for our efficiency, if not maybe our waistlines. - [Voiceover] Okay, so, but we've got this steel process which enable the construction of tons and tons of rail and tons and tons of buildings, of new buildings where you can put more industry and more people. And that enable cities to grow and wealth to grow. - [Voiceover] Yeah, exactly. So, there are more and more people flooding into cities. By 1870, there are more people working for other people for wages living in cities than people who work for themselves, which is a new era in the American economic system. There's some other really important business technologies that grow up in this time period as well. So, there's the telephone, which makes it possible to do business transactions on the spot. It revolutionized the speed of business very much the same way that the internet is gonna revolutionize the speed of business in the 1990s. You also have refrigeration, which you would not think would be that big of a deal, but think about how it allows you to move foodstuffs all over the country to new markets. You were just talking about Chicago, right? So, the only way that cattle could be driven into Chicago, slaughtered, and then have meat sent to all the other markets in the United States was through refrigerated train cars. And they have similar things for steamships that allow people to, for example, bring oranges from Florida to New York. So, it's this web of markets that are connecting the United States, and this is my terrible drawing of the United States, but rail and then ships make it possible for all of these markets to connect together over time and over space. - [Voiceover] That's super cool. - [Voiceover] You know, the railroad was even so important in this time period that, in a way, it invented the modern system of time. Because before the railroad, localities would just decide when noon was based on when the sun was highest in the sky, which meant that-- - [Voiceover] It didn't matter whether or not it was the same time in Kansas City as in St. Louis. But once you have a train connecting 'em, the St. Louis train gets in at 12:05, if you're off, you'll miss your train. - [Voiceover] Or that might lead to a collision of trains if they don't know when the other train is going to be coming through. - [Voiceover] Yeah, okay. So, inventions of the Gilded Age: intranational train travel, the telephone, refrigeration for meat, the Bessemer process for steel, and the standardization of time. - [Voiceover] All of those things. And I would say the last thing that might be really important here is also electrification. - [Voiceover] Oooh! - [Voiceover] Yeah, and like steel, electricity was not invented in the Gilded Age, but what happened was the spread of the light bulb in both homes and businesses, which meant that you could work longer hours. You didn't sleep as long. Actually, the amount of sleep that people got per night switched from about nine hours before electrification to about seven hours after. So, Thomas Edison is literally responsible for robbing us of sleep. But it also made it possible for workers to work longer hours and it significantly reduced the risk of fire in businesses, which meant you could invest in them with more confidence. - [Voiceover] Oh, because they didn't have gas lamps that could burst into flame. - [Voiceover] Right. - [Voiceover] Awesome, well that's super cool. So, hooray Gilded Age, right? - [Voiceover] Right. And I think one thing that's important to understand about these technologies is that one of the goals of these technologies was to make it possible to produce things faster, but also to produce them with less-skilled workers, because a skilled worker, someone who knows a craft and can produce a finished item from start to finish, that takes a long time and it costs a lot of money. This is the difference between buying a suit off the rack and having a bespoke suit. If you wanna pay someone for that time and talent, you're gonna pay a lot. But if you can make something on a machine, then you can make a lot of them very quickly and you don't need someone who is an expert tailor. You just need someone who can operate a sewing machine to do a couple of seams. So, what they're trying to do here with this innovation is spread consumer goods, spread a higher standard of living. But they're also doing that at the price of having less-skilled workers making much smaller wages.

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The Second Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age (video) | Khan Academy

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Voiceover] So, we were talking about the wealth inequality that characterized the Gilded Age, but you were telling me that that's not the only thing, Kim, that characterizes this period. - [Voiceover] Right, what really makes the Gilded Age happen is what we call the Second Industrial Revolution.

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Abraham Lincoln: The Emancipation Proclamation | Biography

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https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-gettysburg

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http://www.american-historama.org/1860-1865-civil-war-era/ten-percent-plan.htm

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Office Hours - APUSH Review: The Wade-Davis Bill

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13th Amendment                 14th Amendment                 15th Amendment

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13th Amendment                 14th Amendment                 15th Amendment

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Plessy v. Ferguson and The End of Reconstruction 

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Plessy v. Ferguson and The End of Reconstruction 

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Jim Crow part 4 | The Gilded Age (1865-1898) | US History | Khan Academy

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https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/morrill.html

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Ft. Sumter https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Fort-Sumter
Emancipation Proclamation-
https://www.biography.com/video/abraham-lincoln-the-emancipation-proclamation-34010750
Battle of Gettysburg-
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-gettysburg
http://www.historynet.com/killed-gettysburg.htm
Appomattox Courthouse-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Appomattox_Court_House

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Ten Percent Plan-
http://www.american-historama.org/1860-1865-civil-war-era/ten-percent-plan.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
Wade-Davis Bill-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments-
https://civilwarnarrative.weebly.com/13-14--15-amendments.html
Plessy v. Ferguson and the End of Reconstruction-
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-gilded-age/south-after-civil-war/v/jim-crow-pt-4

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The Gold Rush-
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-california-gold-rush-1773606
Homestead Acts & Morrill Act-
https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/morrill.html
http://chnm.gmu.edu/tah-loudoun/blog/lessons/the-homestead-act/
The Long Walk-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDb5Wc8HgOo
The Massacre at Wounded Knee-
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/sd-woundedknee/

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Inventions: The Lightbulb, Telephone, Automoblie, and Airplane

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Inventions: The Lightbulb, Telephone, Automoblie, and Airplane

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US Industrial Revolution Inventions for Kids ***

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Find a summary, definition and facts about the US Industrial Revolution Inventions for kids. United States history and the American Industrial Revolution Inventions for kids. Information about the US Industrial Revolution Inventions for kids, children, homework and schools.

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Origins of The Labor Movement

The origins of the labor movement lay in the formative years of the American nation, when a free wage-labor market emerged in the artisan trades late in the colonial period. The earliest recorded strike occurred in 1768 when New York journeymen tailors protested a wage reduction. The formation of the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers (shoemakers) in Philadelphia in 1794 marks the beginning of sustained trade union organization among American workers.
WATCH: The Labor Movement
From that time on, local craft unions proliferated in the cities, publishing lists of "prices" for their work, defending their trades against diluted and cheap labor and, increasingly, demanding a shorter workday in the face of the Industrial Revolution. Thus a job-conscious orientation was quick to emerge, and in its wake there followed the key structural elements characterizing American trade unionism. First, with the formation in 1827 of the Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations in Philadelphia, central labor bodies began uniting craft unions within a single city, and then, with the creation of the International Typographical Union in 1852, national unions began bringing together local unions of the same trade from across the United States and Canada (hence the frequent union designation "international"). Although the factory system was springing up during these years, industrial workers played little part in the early trade union development. In the 19th century, trade unionism was mainly a movement of skilled workers.

Did you know? In 2009, 12 percent of American workers belonged to unions.

Early Labor Unions

The early labor movement was, however, inspired by more than the immediate job interest of its craft members. It harbored a conception of the just society, deriving from the Ricardian labor theory of value and from the republican ideals of the American Revolution, which fostered social equality, celebrated honest labor, and relied on an independent, virtuous citizenship. The transforming economic changes of industrial capitalism ran counter to labor's vision. The result, as early labor leaders saw it, was to raise up "two distinct classes, the rich and the poor." Beginning with the workingmen's parties of the 1830s, the advocates of equal rights mounted a series of reform efforts that spanned the nineteenth century. Most notable were the National Labor Union, launched in 1866, and the Knights of Labor, which reached its zenith in the mid-1880s.

On their face, these reform movements might have seemed at odds with trade unionism, aiming as they did at the cooperative commonwealth rather than a higher wage, appealing broadly to all "producers" rather than strictly to wageworkers, and eschewing the trade union reliance on the strike and boycott. But contemporaries saw no contradiction: trade unionism tended to the workers' immediate needs, labor reform to their higher hopes. The two were held to be strands of a single movement, rooted in a common working-class constituency and to some degree sharing a common leadership. But equally important, they were strands that had to be kept operationally separate and functionally distinct.
PHOTOS: These Appalling Images Exposed Child Labor in America
American Federation of Labor

During the 1880s, that division fatally eroded. Despite its labor reform rhetoric, the Knights of Labor attracted large numbers of workers hoping to improve their immediate conditions. As the Knights carried on strikes and organized along industrial lines, the threatened national trade unions demanded that the group confine itself to its professed labor reform purposes. When it refused, they joined in December 1886 to form the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The new federation marked a break with the past, for it denied to labor reform any further role in the struggles of American workers. In part, the assertion of trade union supremacy stemmed from an undeniable reality. As industrialism matured, labor reform lost its meaning-hence the confusion and ultimate failure of the Knights of Labor. Marxism taught Samuel Gompers and his fellow socialists that trade unionism was the indispensable instrument for preparing the working class for revolution. The founders of theAFL translated this notion into the principle of "pure and simple" unionism: only by self-organization along occupational lines and by a concentration on job-conscious goals would the worker be "furnished with the weapons which shall secure his industrial emancipation."

That class formulation necessarily defined trade unionism as the movement of the entire working class. The AFL asserted as a formal policy that it represented all workers, irrespective of skill, race, religion, nationality or gender. But the national unions that had created the AFL in fact comprised only the skilled trades. Almost at once, therefore, the trade union movement encountered a dilemma: How to square ideological aspirations against contrary institutional realities?

Discrimination in The Labor Movement

As sweeping technological change began to undermine the craft system of production, some national unions did move toward an industrial structure, most notably in coal mining and the garment trades. But most craft unions either refused or, as in iron and steel and in meat-packing, failed to organize the less skilled. And since skill lines tended to conform to racial, ethnic and gender divisions, the trade union movement took on a racist and sexist coloration as well. For a short period, the AFL resisted that tendency. But in 1895, unable to launch an interracial machinists' union of its own, the Federation reversed an earlier principled decision and chartered the whites-only International Association of Machinists. Formally or informally, the color bar thereafter spread throughout the trade union movement. In 1902, blacks made up scarcely 3 percent of total membership, most of them segregated in Jim Crow locals. In the case of women and eastern European immigrants, a similar devolution occurred-welcomed as equals in theory, excluded or segregated in practice. (Only the fate of Asian workers was unproblematic; their rights had never been asserted by the AFLin the first place.)

Samuel Gompers

Gompers justified the subordination of principle to organizational reality on the constitutional grounds of "trade autonomy," by which each national union was assured the right to regulate its own internal affairs. But the organizational dynamism of the labor movement was in fact located in the national unions. Only as they experienced inner change might the labor movement expand beyond the narrow limits-roughly 10 percent of the labor force-at which it stabilized before World War I.

In the political realm, the founding doctrine of pure-and-simple unionism meant an arm's-length relationship to the state and the least possible entanglement in partisan politics. A total separation had, of course, never been seriously contemplated; some objectives, such as immigration restriction, could be achieved only through state action, and the predecessor to the AFL, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (1881), had in fact been created to serve as labor's lobbying arm in Washington. Partly because of the lure of progressive labor legislation, even more in response to increasingly damaging court attacks on the trade unions, political activity quickened after 1900. With the enunciation of Labor's Bill of Grievances (1906), the AFL laid down a challenge to the major parties. Henceforth it would campaign for its friends and seek the defeat of its enemies.

This nonpartisan entry into electoral politics, paradoxically, undercut the left-wing advocates of an independent working-class politics. That question had been repeatedly debated within theAFL, first in 1890 over Socialist Labor party representation, then in 1893-1894 over an alliance with the Populist Party and after 1901 over affiliation with the Socialist party of America. Although Gompers prevailed each time, he never found it easy. Now, as labor's leverage with the major parties began to pay off, Gompers had an effective answer to his critics on the left: the labor movement could not afford to waste its political capital on socialist parties or independent politics. When that nonpartisan strategy failed, as it did in the reaction following World War I, an independent political strategy took hold, first through the robust campaigning of the Conference for Progressive Political Action in 1922, and in 1924 through labor's endorsement of Robert La Follette on the Progressive ticket. By then, however, the Republican administration was moderating its hard line, evident especially in Herbert Hoover's efforts to resolve the simmering crises in mining and on the railroads. In response, the trade unions abandoned the Progressive party, retreated to nonpartisanship, and, as their power waned, lapsed into inactivity.

The Labor Movement and The Great Depression
WATCH: Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal
It took the Great Depression to knock the labor movement off dead center. The discontent of industrial workers, combined with New Deal collective bargaining legislation, at last brought the great mass production industries within striking distance. When the craft unions stymied the ALF's organizing efforts, John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers and his followers broke away in 1935 and formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), which crucially aided the emerging unions in auto, rubber, steel and other basic industries. In 1938 the CIO was formally established as the Congress of Industrial Organizations. By the end of World War II, more than 12 million workers belonged to unions and collective bargaining had taken hold throughout the industrial economy.

In politics, its enhanced power led the union movement not to a new departure but to a variant on the policy of nonpartisanship. As far back as the Progressive Era, organized labor had been drifting toward the Democratic party, partly because of the latter's greater programmatic appeal, perhaps even more because of its ethno-cultural basis of support within an increasingly "new" immigrant working class. With the coming of Roosevelt's New Deal, this incipient alliance solidified, and from 1936 onward the Democratic Party could count on-and came to rely on-the campaigning resources of the labor movement.

Collective Bargaining

That this alliance partook of the nonpartisan logic of Gompers's authorship-too much was at stake for organized labor to waste its political capital on third parties-became clear in the unsettled period of the early cold war. Not only did theCIO oppose the Progressive party of 1948, but it expelled the left-wing unions that broke ranks and supported Henry Wallace for the presidency that year.

The formation of the AFL-CIOin 1955 visibly testified to the powerful continuities persisting through the age of industrial unionism. Above all, the central purpose remained what it had always been-to advance the economic and job interests of the union membership. Collective bargaining performed impressively after World War II, more than tripling weekly earnings in manufacturing between 1945 and 1970, gaining for union workers an unprecedented measure of security against old age, illness and unemployment, and, through contractual protections, greatly strengthening their right to fair treatment at the workplace. But if the benefits were greater and if they went to more people, the basic job-conscious thrust remained intact. Organized labor was still a sectional movement, covering at most only a third of America's wage earners and inaccessible to those cut off in the low-wage secondary labor market.

Women and Minorities in the Labor Movement

Nothing better captures the uneasy amalgam of old and new in the postwar labor movement than the treatment of minorities and women who flocked in, initially from the mass production industries, but after 1960 from the public and service sectors as well. Labor's historic commitment to racial and gender equality was thereby much strengthened, but not to the point of challenging the status quo within the labor movement itself. Thus the leadership structure remained largely closed to minorities-as did the skilled jobs that were historically the preserve of white male workers-notoriously so in the construction trades but in the industrial unions as well. Yet the AFL-CIOplayed a crucial role in the battle for civil rights legislation in 1964-1965. That this legislation might be directed against discriminatory trade union practices was anticipated (and quietly welcomed) by the more progressive labor leaders. But more significant was the meaning they found in championing this kind of reform: the chance to act on the broad ideals of the labor movement. And, so motivated, they deployed labor's power with great effect in the achievement of John F. Kennedy's and Lyndon B. Johnson 's domestic programs during the 1960s.

Decline in Unions

This was ultimately economic, not political power, however, and as organized labor's grip on the industrial sector began to weaken, so did its political capability. From the early 1970s onward, new competitive forces swept through the heavily unionized industries, set off by deregulation in communications and transportation, by industrial restructuring and by an unprecedented onslaught of foreign goods. As oligopolistic and regulated market structures broke down, nonunion competition spurted, concession bargaining became widespread and plant closings decimated union memberships. The once-celebrated National Labor Relations Act increasingly hamstrung the labor movement; an all-out reform campaign to get the law amended failed in 1978. And with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, there came to power an anti-union administration the likes of which had not been seen since the Harding era.

Between 1975 and 1985, union membership fell by 5 million. In manufacturing, the unionized portion of the labor force dropped below 25 percent, while mining and construction, once labor's flagship industries, were decimated. Only in the public sector did the unions hold their own. By the end of the 1980s, less than 17 percent of American workers were organized, half the proportion of the early 1950s.

The labor movement has never been swift to change. But if the new high-tech and service sectors seemed beyond its reach in 1989, so did the mass production industries in 1929. There is a silver lining: Compared to the old AFL, organized labor is today much more diverse and broadly based: In 2018, of the 14.7 million wage and salary workers who were part of a union (compared to 17.7 million in 1983), 25 percent are women and 28 percent are Black.

Sources

TED: The Economics Daily. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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The origins of the labor movement lay in the formative years of the American nation, when a free wage-labor market emerged in the artisan trades late in the colonial period. The earliest recorded strike occurred in 1768 when New York journeymen tailors protested a wage reduction.

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American Imerialism (The Spanish-American War)

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American Imerialism (The Spanish-American War)

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American Imperialism: The Spanish-American War | DPLA

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The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

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Growth, Cities, and Immigration: Crash Course US History #25

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Political Corruption and Progressive Government Reform 

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Political Corruption and Progressive Government Reform 

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The American voting public of the early 1900s was accustomed to the tenet that the best government was the least government. Progressive era politics changed that belief when government corruption became commonplace. Reformers like Teddy Roosevelt in Washington and Governor Hiram Johnson in California responded to an epidemic of political and civic corruption by expanding the role of government in regulating the economy and in giving citizens, for the first time, direct access to the legislative process.

Between 1910 and 1914, under Governor Hiram Johnson's political leadership the California legislature expanded state government first by breaking the economic and political power of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). The reform legislature passed the Stetson-Eshelman Act, which increased the state Railroad Commission's authority and power to fix passenger and freight rates; thus ending Southern Pacific Railroad's (SP) crushing monopolistic practices. With the Public Utilities Act and the creation of the Public Utility Commission (PUC), the agency's commissioners had the authority over the railroads as well as all public utilities.

The legislators also halted the political power of SP with the passage of reform mechanisms giving voters direct access to government and the legislative process. The initiative allowed voters to pass legislation; the referendum allowed the public's veto of existing legislation; and the recall permitted the removal of elected officials. The direct primary, the popular election of U.S. senators, and cross-filing for Republican and Democratic candidates changed the control over who got elected from party bosses to the voters. In passing these measures, Governor Johnson and the legislature had achieved the political goal of engaging ordinary citizens in participatory democracy. The systemic power of SP was over, but the government's role in shaping its citizens' quality of life was still growing.

In order to address workers' fears of losing their livelihood through sickness or job-related accidents, the legislature passed the Workmen's Compensation, Insurance, and Safety Act in 1913, which in turn set up an Industrial Accident Commission and State Compensation Insurance Fund. This was ground-breaking work by government, which had only recently been in the business of protecting only business interests. Setting additional precedents, the legislature curtailed child labor, and also set an 8-hour day and minimum wage for female industrial workers.

In the field of education, Hiram Johnson's reform government called for teacher pensions, free textbooks for public school children, the creation of a comprehensive curriculum, and mandatory kindergartens. The kindergarten movement, begun in Germany in the 1830s, found a ready American enthusiasm by women reformers who believed that kindergarten was as important an educational experience as college. By 1878, the first free public kindergarten was established in San Francisco. Enthusiastic financial support led to still more kindergartens, so that by 1894, 235 more of them were set up nationally and globally, based on the California model. Public university education also received the attention of reform initially through the generosity of Phoebe Apperson Hearst, mother of publisher William Randolph Hearst. In the 1890s her financial support of the University of California, Berkeley made possible the construction of the outdoor Greek Theater, a women's gymnasium, a university museum and the Department of Anthropology. The University of California continued its academic growth through the appointment of Benjamin Ide Wheeler, who, over a 19-year period, established twenty new departments.

Neither progressive politicians nor unions helped minority laborers in the nation and in California. Blacks were excluded from union membership. Chinese were excluded from immigrating to the U. S. In 1907 Japan agreed through a Gentlemen's Agreement reached with President Roosevelt not to issue passports to Japanese workers, thus also eliminating Japanese from the American work force. Japanese in California, through the passage of the Alien Land Law, were prohibited from owning land in the state. Women, however, fared better. In addition to legislation improved their working conditions, they also received the right to vote. While Governor Johnson did not openly endorse the Amendment that would grant suffrage, he did help get it on the ballot. It passed by 3,587 votes.

Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson all promoted political, economic, social, and moral reforms on the national front. Passage of several acts expanded the Interstate Commerce Commission. Taft created the Department of Labor. Two economic regulatory agencies were created: the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Trade Commission. Four constitutional amendments were also ratified: the 16th introduced a federal income tax, the 17th allowed for the direct election of U.S. Senators. The 18th established prohibition, and the 19th allowed women the right to vote. Such economic and political reforms under the aegis of an expanded government were necessary, the progressives argued, to restore the values of the American dream for all Americans.

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Progressive Era: 1890-1920s: Progressive Political Reform

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The American voting public of the early 1900s was accustomed to the tenet that the best government was the least government. Progressive era politics changed that belief when government corruption became commonplace.

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Women's Rights (Temperance and Suffrage) 

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Women's Rights (Temperance and Suffrage) 

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The Second Industrial Revolution- https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-gilded-age/gilded-age/v/the-gilded-age-part-2
Inventions- http://www.american-historama.org/industrial-revolution-inventions.htm
The Rise of Big Business- https://www.slideshare.net/eben_cooke/the-rise-of-big-business
The Rise of the Labor Movement- https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/labor

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American Imperialism- https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/american-imperialism-the-spanish-american-war
Immigration and the Growth of Cities- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRhjqqe750A
Political Corruption and Reforms- http://picturethis.museumca.org/timeline/progressive-era-1890-1920s/progressive-political-reform/info
Women'd Rights- http://picturethis.museumca.org/timeline/progressive-era-1890-1920s/progressive-political-reform/info
https://womenssuffrage0.wordpress.com/about/

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The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand 

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The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand 

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by A. Torrey McLean
Reprinted with permission from Tar Heel Junior Historian, Spring 1993.
Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History

See also: WWI: Life on the Western Front

One of the saddest facts about World War I is that millions died needlessly because military and civilian leaders were slow to adapt their old-fashioned strategies and tactics to the new weapons of 1914. New technology made war more horrible and more complex than ever before. The United States and other countries felt the effects of the war for years afterwards.

The popular image of World War I is soldiers in muddy trenches and dugouts, living miserably until the next attack. This is basically correct. Technological developments in engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, and optics had produced weapons deadlier than anything known before. The power of defensive weapons made winning the war on the western front all but impossible for either side.

When attacks were ordered, Allied soldiers went "over the top," climbing out of their trenches and crossing no-man's-land to reach enemy trenches. They had to cut through belts of barbed wire before they could use rifles, bayonets, pistols, and hand grenades to capture enemy positions. A victory usually meant they had seized only a few hundred yards of shell-torn earth at a terrible cost in lives. Wounded men often lay helpless in the open until they died. Those lucky enough to be rescued still faced horrible sanitary conditions before they could be taken to proper medical facilities. Between attacks,the snipers, artillery, and poison gas caused misery and death.

Airplanes, products of the new technology, were primarily made of canvas, wood, and wire. At first they were used only to observe enemy troops. As their effectiveness became apparent, both sides shot planes down with artillery from the ground and with rifles, pistols, and machine guns from other planes. In 1916, the Germans armed planes with machine guns that could fire forward without shooting off the fighters' propellers. The Allies soon armed their airplanes the same way, and war in the air became a deadly business. These light, highly maneuverable fighter planes attacked each other in wild air battles called dogfights. Pilots who were shot down often remained trapped in their falling, burning planes, for they had no parachutes. Airmen at the front did not often live long. Germany also used its fleet of huge dirigibles, or zeppelins, and large bomber planes to drop bombs on British and French cities. Britain retaliated by bombing German cities.

Back on the ground, the tank proved to be the answer to stalemate in the trenches. This British invention used American-designed caterpillar tracks to move the armored vehicle equipped with machine guns and sometimes light cannon. Tanks worked effectively on firm, dry ground, in spite of their slow speed, mechanical problems, and vulnerability to artillery. Able to crush barbed wire and cross trenches, tanks moved forward through machine gun fire and often terrified German soldiers with their unstoppable approach.

Chemical warfare first appeared when the Germans used poison gas during a surprise attack in Flanders, Belgium, in 1915. At first, gas was just released from large cylinders and carried by the wind into nearby enemy lines. Later, phosgene and other gases were loaded into artillery shells and shot into enemy trenches. The Germans used this weapon the most, realizing that enemy soldiers wearing gas masks did not fight as well. All sides used gas frequently by 1918. Its use was a frightening development that caused its victims a great deal of suffering, if not death.

Both sides used a variety of big guns on the western front, ranging from huge naval guns mounted on railroad cars to short-range trench mortars. The result was a war in which soldiers near the front were seldom safe from artillery bombardment. The Germans used super-long-range artillery to shell Paris from almost eighty miles away. Artillery shell blasts created vast, cratered, moonlike landscapes where beautiful fields and woods had once stood.

Perhaps the most significant technological advance during World War I was the improvement of the machine gun, a weapon originally developed by an American, Hiram Maxim. The Germans recognized its military potential and had large numbers ready to use in 1914. They also developed air-cooled machine guns for airplanes and improved those used on the ground, making them lighter and easier to move. The weapon's full potential was demonstrated on the Somme battlefield in July 1916 when German machine guns killed or wounded almost 60,000 British soldiers in only one day.

At sea, submarines attacked ships far from port. In order to locate and sink German U-boats, British scientists developed underwater listening devices and underwater explosives called depth charges. Warships became faster and more powerful than ever before and used newly invented radios to communicate effectively. The British naval blockade of Germany, which was made possible by developments in naval technology, brought a total war to civilians. The blockade caused a famine that finally brought about the collapse of Germany and its allies in late 1918. Starvation and malnutrition continued to take the lives of German adults and children for years after the war.

The firing stopped on November 11, 1918, but modern war technology had changed the course of civilization. Millions had been killed, gassed, maimed, or starved. Famine and disease continued to rage through central Europe, taking countless lives. Because of rapid technological advances in every area, the nature of warfare had changed forever, affecting soldiers, airmen, sailors, and civilians alike.
A. Torrey McLean, a former United States Army officer who served in Vietnam, studied World War I for more than thirty years, personally interviewing a number of World War I veterans.

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by A. Torrey McLean Reprinted with permission from Tar Heel Junior Historian, Spring 1993. Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History See also: WWI: Life on the Western Front One of the saddest facts about World War I is that millions died needlessly because military and civilian leaders were slow to adapt their old-fashioned strategies and tactics to the new weapons of 1914.

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America in World War I: Crash Course US History #30

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How Peace Was Established At The End of WWI

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How Peace Was Established At The End of WWI

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On January 18, 1919, in Paris, France, some of the most powerful people in the world meet to begin the long, complicated negotiations that would officially mark the end of the First World War.

Leaders of the victorious Allied powers-France, Great Britain, the United States and Italy-would make most of the crucial decisions in Paris over the next six months. For most of the conference, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson struggled to support his idea of a "peace without victory" and make sure that Germany, the leader of the Central Powers and the major loser of the war, was not treated too harshly. On the other hand, Prime Ministers Georges Clemenceau of France and David Lloyd George of Britain argued that punishing Germany adequately and ensuring its weakness was the only way to justify the immense costs of the war. In the end, Wilson compromised on the treatment of Germany in order to push through the creation of his pet project, an international peacekeeping organization called the League of Nations.
WATCH: Did WWI Lead to WWII?
Representatives from Germany were excluded from the peace conference until May, when they arrived in Paris and were presented with a draft of the Versailles Treaty. Having put great faith in Wilson's promises, the Germans were deeply frustrated and disillusioned by the treaty, which required them to forfeit a great deal of territory and pay reparations. Even worse, the infamous Article 231 forced Germany to accept sole blame for the war. This was a bitter pill many Germans could not swallow.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, five years to the day after a Serbian nationalist's bullet ended the life of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked the beginning of World War I. In the decades to come, anger and resentment of the treaty and its authors festered in Germany. Extremists like Adolf Hitler's National Socialist (Nazi) Party capitalized on these emotions to gain power, a process that led almost directly to the exact thing Wilson and the other negotiators in Paris in 1919 had wanted to prevent-a second, equally devastating global war.
SEE MORE: World War I-in Color

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Post-World War I peace conference begins in Paris

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On January 18, 1919, in Paris, France, some of the most powerful people in the world meet to begin the long, complicated negotiations that would officially mark the end of the First World War. Leaders of the victorious Allied powers-France, Great Britain, the United States and Italy-would make most of the crucial decisions in Paris over the next six months.

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National Constitution Center - The 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

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Section 1

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Keep Reading

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The 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

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After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. Keep Reading

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Black Tuesday/Stock Market Crash of 1929

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Black Tuesday/Stock Market Crash of 1929

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History Brief: Black Tuesday (The Stock Market Crash)

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Business Cycle/Causes Of The Great Depression 

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Business Cycle/Causes Of The Great Depression 

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Business Encyclopedia ISBN 978-1929500109 © 2019 Solution Matrix Ltd All Rights Reserved

Recessions are the low points of the regular economic cycle. Economists define depression as a recession that is unusually long-lasting and severe.

A depression is an economic downturn that is longer lasting and more severe than the more frequently occurring recessions.

What is the Business Cycle?

The term business cycle has several different meanings in business. This article presents three of the most frequently used definitions for the term. The primary "meaning" is explained in depth, in context with related concepts such as economic cycle, recession, and depression.

First Meaning: Business Cycle for Country Economy

Firstly, the primary meaning of business cycle refers to fluctuations in economic output in a country or countries. These are the well-known phases of the business cycle such as recession, depression, recovery, and expansion. "Economic cycle" is another name for the same sequence.

This business cycle often parallels changes in stock market prices, which are part of the stock market cycle. For more on these cycles and their phases, see the sections below.

Second Meaning: Business Cycle for Company Life Span Stages

Secondly, the term business cycle sometimes refers to stages in the lifespan of a single company. In this sense, " stages" in one company's lifespan may include the following:

1. Birth (or Startup) stage

2. Initial Growth stage

3. Expansion stage

4. Maturity stage

1. Decline stage

2. Demise stage
or
Change into a different company
(e.g., through merger or acquisition)

The economic business cycle (first meaning above) can impact stages of the company business cycle (second meaning). Birth and Growth stages tend to accelerate during economic recovery and expansion, of course. Company Decline and Demise occur faster during economic recession and depression.

Do companies have a finite lifespan? It makes practical sense for accountants to view companies as ongoing entities that will continue in business indefinitely. In reality, however, most business startups move through all six stages and cease business within a few years.

Regarding US S&P 500 Index companies, research by Richard Foster seems to show a recent rapid decline in average company lifespan. Average lifespan fell from 61 years in 1958 to just 18 years in 2015. ¹ Depending on how one defines lifespan, however, that decline may not be as severe as it seems. Foster also finds that many companies now avoid Demise by instead Changing into a different company. These changes usually come through mergers and acquisitions. Arguably, such events do not have to end company life. Mostly the same companies continue living as different legal entities, under different names.

Third Meaning: Business Cycle For An Ongoing Company

The third meaning for business cycle also refers to a repeating series of phases in the life of an ongoing business. Here, however, the sequence does not picture the birth, growth, and demise of a company. Instead, the third meaning describes a repeating series of adjustments a company makes to its business model and strategies. The series may cover a year or several years, and then repeat many times during the company's life.

Note especially that a business cycle in this sense might include stages such as these:

Firstly, the company takes in revenues from ordinary operations for a year or more.

Secondly, leaders and analysts re-evaluate company business performance and growth prospects. For this, they give particular attention to evaluating:

Company business model performance. Here, they will focus mainly on their pricing and margin models.

Competitive strategy effectiveness.

Marketing strategy effectiveness.

Thirdly, leaders adjust or change the business model and strategies.

Successful strategies and models undergo fine-tuning.

The company replaces failing strategies and models.

Finally, company resumes business for another period before re-evaluating.

Explaining Business Cycle in Context

Sections below further define and describe the primary meaning of business cycle, emphasizing three themes:

1. Four Economic Busihess Cycle phases and their relationship to stages in the Stock Market Cycle.

2. Special focus on the nature and differences between Recession and Depression stages of the Business Cycle

3. Known causes and "cures" for the Economic Business Cycle.

Contents
Related Topics

Defining Business Cycle Phases
Recession, Depression, Recovery, Expansion
The primary meaning of business cycle and economic cycle refers to changes in economic activity within a country or countries. Because these two terms are names for the same sequence, they are interchangeable. Economists define the cycle by referring to economic output, which they measure as the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Note that GDP is just the market value of all goods and services produced withinthe country during a year. And, when multi-national companies produce in other countries, that activity is not part of home country GDP.

The image below shows how the rising and falling GDP produces business cycle phases. The model also presents another cycle, the stock market cycle. This cycle typically runs more or less parallel to the business cycle, but ahead of the business cycle. Some analysts, therefore, see the stock market cycle as a leading indicator of future business cycle phases.

Business cycle phases and stock market cycle phases, including recession, depression, trough, recovery, expansion, and peak. Economists sometimes define Recession as two consecutive quarters of decline in the GDP. And, they define Depression as a severe and sustained recession.

The GDP of most countries tends to grow over time, as the long-range growth line in the figure suggests. The long-term growth line serves as a baseline reference. Economic output fluctuates around the baseline with different business cycle phases. Note that stock market prices usually rise or fall ahead of like changes in the economy (GDP).

In reality, these cycles tend to be less predictable, less regular, and less smooth than those in the chart. The length, severity, and sequence of phases may differ from what the figure shows.

Seasonal Cycles Are Different From Economic Cycles

Changes due to seasonality tend to impact some companies and industries more than others. And, they are tied predictably to calendar seasons or short-lived fads. By contrast, the business (economic) cycle has broad impacts across companies, industries, and calendar seasons instead.

Business Cycle Impacts

GDP figures are the primary evidence for the business cycle. It is not surprising, therefore, that people who contribute directly to the GDP feel life-cycle phase changes most keenly. They are most aware of changes in areas such as these:

Employment and unemployment. Also, in hiring rates.

Wholesale sales and retail sales. And, especially, consumer sales.

New building loans and new building starts. Also in mortgage rates.

Building closures and property foreclosures.

Business start-ups and business growth. Also, business failures.

Recession vs. Depression
What's the Difference?
What is a Recession?

In the United States, economists define a recession as two consecutive quarters of decline in the GDP. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NEBR) provides this definition, but it is not, however, the only definition in use. An alternate interpretation even appears within the NEBR, from its Business Cycle Dating Committee. This committee reviews several economic indicators, including employment, real income, retail sales, and other factors. As a result, It defines a recession as the timespan between the peak and a trough in the above chart.

The term recession did not appear until the time of the Great Depression of 1929-33. Before that, the term depression could refer to any decrease in economic output. "Recession" was coined at this time to distinguish between the severe conditions of the early 1930s, on the one hand, and less severe economic downturns, on the other hand, such as those occurring in 1910 and 1913.

What is a Depression?

The term depression usually means an economic downturn that is longer lasting and more severe than the more frequently occurring recessions. Sometimes, to define the term more formally, a depression is said to begin when GDP declines more than 10% from the most recent economic peak. By this criterion, the last two real depressions in the United States occurred in these periods:

From 1929 to 1933-the Great Depression-when the US GDP nearly 33% and unemployment rose to 25%.

In 1937-38, where GDP declined by more than 18%, and unemployment reached 19%.

By contrast, US GDP declined at most 5% in the severe recession of 1973-75.

In general, periods of economic depression are manifest substantially reduced GDP, as well as severely high rates of unemployment, foreclosures, business closures, as well as significantly reduced wholesale and retail sales activity.

The Economic Business Cycle
Are There Known Causes and Cures?
During recessions and depressions governments and private industry alike are keenly motivated to act on measures that might move the economy back into recovery and expansion. Any attempt to remedy economic downturn, however, should start with an understanding of why slowdowns occur in the first place. And, it would be helpful to know which factors trigger recovery.

This subject is central to the field of macroeconomics. Not surprisingly, this field is characterized by competing theories and speculation, but few established "laws."

A few factors are known to correlate with upturns or downturns in the economy. However, the extent to which they are either causes or results is less well known. These factors include the following:

An imbalance or balance between country money supply, inflation, and interest rates. In the United States, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) is responsible for keeping this balance.

Excessive government spending.
Deficit spending is especially detrimental when spent outside the country or on non-productive domestic programs.

Consumer and business optimism or pessimism.
Here, spending depends heavily on consumer expectations for business growth and inflation.

Substantial increases or decreases in the price of oil.

Weak demand for goods and services.

The latter factor, weak demand, is a central focus in so-called Keynesian economics (after John Maynard Keynes). Since the 1930s, governments with capitalist economies have held-to some degree-a Keynesian view. This view holds that during recessions and depressions, the government should increase aggregate demand by doing the following:

Firstly, increasing the money supply.

Secondly, increasing government spending and reducing taxes.

______________________

1. Foster, R.N. Creative Destruction Whips Through Corporate America. Innosight Executive Briefing, Lexington, Massachusetts, 2015.

By Marty Schmidt

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Business Cycle Phases: Defining Recession, Depression, Expansion

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Business cycle (economic cycle) refers to fluctuations in economic output in a country or countries. Well known cycle phases include recession, depression, recovery, and expansion. A Depression is a long-lasting recessing. The business cycle often parallels share price changes in the stock market cycle.

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President Roosevelt’s New Deal/Plan for Ending the Great Depression

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President Roosevelt’s New Deal/Plan for Ending the Great Depression

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New Deal - Programs, Social Security & FDR

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The New Deal was a series of programs and projects instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans. A Second New Deal was put in place shortly thereafter as a way to continue the country’s economic recovery.

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The Rise Of Totalitarianism In Europe In The 1930s

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The Rise Of Totalitarianism In Europe In The 1930s

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WWII In HD: America Enters World War II | History

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The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand- https://www.history.com/news/the-assassination-of-archduke-franz-ferdinand-100-years-ago
Technology of WWI- https://www.ncpedia.org/wwi-technology-and-weapons-war
Americas Role In WWI- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y59wErqg4Xg
How Peace Was Established At The End of WWI- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/post-world-war-i-peace-conference-begins-in-paris
The Rise of the Automobile- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N74dCyHbGUg
The 18th Amendment- https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xviii

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Black Tuesday/Stock Market Crash of 1929- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehy2jEeNuWk
Business Cycle/Causes Of The Great Depression-https://www.business-case-analysis.com/business-cycle.html
President Roosevelt’s New Deal/Plan for Ending the Great Depression- https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/new-deal
The Dust Bowl- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
The Rise Of Totalitarianism In Europe In The 1930s- https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-did-rise-totalitarianism-lead-wwii-315984
America's Involvement In WWII- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yQyCTTPGuQ