History 346  The Gilded Age
Roger Williams University
GHH 106
M, Th  3:30 - 4:50
Spring Semester, 2010
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office:  GHH 215
Hours:  MWF, 1:00-2:00 T, 9:00 - 10:00
Phone:  254-3230
E-mail:  hist346gildedage@gmail.com
Index
More about Dewey at the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Click to read John Dewey's Educational Creed
This class period we will look at three persons whose activities illustrate aspects of social darwinism, both liberal and conservative. Jane Addams was a seminal figure in the emerging profession of social work. Her work an Hull House in Chicago marked one for m of interaction between affluent old family Americans and new immigrant populations. "Doing Good," as far as work with immigrants was concerned, meant affording them opportunities to Americanize as quickly and painlessly as possible. Charity work was one of the few professional areas open to educated women of the late nineteenth century.  Click on the illustration to the left to visit an exhibition on Jane Addams prepared by Swarthmore College.  Make sure you look carefully at the illustrations (follow the links).
Click for information and photographs of Jane Addams
Plus

We've already been introduced to F. W. Taylor. It will be interesting to compare the attitudes towards immigrants represented by Taylor and Addams. As you read Taylor think about what the use of dialect in this essay tells us about his attitudes, beyond what the ideas in the essay tells us.
John Dewey was perhaps the most important American Philosopher of his generation, and certainly did more to influence the direction of Public education than any other theorist of that time. Schools, like Settlement Houses, were conceived of as safeguards for democratic principles in a period of rapid social change, and as a primary institution for Americanizing immigrants. One might add that this role is still assigned to them in our time. The picture of the older Dewey links to the Wiki version of his book, Democracy and Education (1916).  Everyone read Section one, and then choose one (or more, remember we're still studying striving) and come prepared to chat about what is "progressive" or "democratic" in Dewey's Educational theories.
John Dewey in 1890 (left) and in his later years (right)
For Tuesday, April 27  Striving as a Social activity
ALSO:

Download and read:
The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, (Jane Addams)

This short book represents a collection of magazine articles related to the effect of urban conditions on the young. It is good summary of the thinking of Addams and others of her sensitivity. Download this as soon as possible, and read it throughout the week. You won't be able to finish it in a single night.   Be aware of how important environmentalism is in the thinking of Addams: how the environment shapes character.
And, Finally,
For Friday, April 30     The Stages of Life
Read, in Schlereth,

Chapter 8, Living and Dying. pp. 271 - 293
This concludes our work in Schlereth. (Well, nearly: there is still a short epilogue). It is appropriate that this chapter reviews the life cycle as experienced by Americans at the turn of the century. Note that some of the "stages" of life are as much cultural and psychological as they are biological. Adolescence, for example is an invention of the late nineteenth century. Be aware, too, that changes in medicine, nutrition, and public health are changing American's sense of what the expectations and limitations of any given age were.
The Life States of Man and Woman.  You will note some conventional iconography here.  For example, consider the weeping willow tree at the right in each print
.
Note, too, the woman's costume changes at the top of the arch, and from that point she wears wears various shades of black.  What happened, do you think?
As you read this material, try to apply its observations to your character and his/her experiences. The life cycle would have been something experienced in a much more immediate way in that day than in our own. Birth, illness, and death were far more likely to occur within the confines of the house than in institutions like hospitals.