History 346  The Gilded Age
Roger Williams University
CAS 228
MWF 10:00 - 10:50
Spring Semester, 2014
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office:  GHH 215
Hours:  M, W, F,  11:00 - 1:00
Phone:  254-3230
E-mail:  mswanson@rwu.edu
Index
Read, or Review, in Chambers,
      Chapter 2,  The sections beginning with The Weakened Springs of Politics, pp.  38 - 53
           Chapter 4: A Changing Society and Culture pp. 80 - 124
We have already become acquainted with a number of the changes which this chapter considers, but here the emphasis will be on the psychological effects of these changes, and perhaps on the sociology of change, as well. We will also begin to note that this new society is losing its Victorian flavor and moral attitudes are changing. We'll consider how these changes arise out of the economic and geographic changes we're noticing.  We will touch on racism, but we'll return to look at the situation of black Americans in much more detail on Thursday. and also Tuesday of next week.
The last part of Chambers’ chapter four returns to the question of the new consumer culture which we looked at the last few sessions. looked.  In fact, there's no subject completely new in this chapter.  What is new is a greater attempt to  put these the changes into an institutional context.  We respond to new environments by either creating new institutions or reforming old ones.  We'll se a little of both--reformist political parties, new "schools" of education, and many other things, some of which are still with us today.  We're also going to spend just a little time looking at war and imperialism...I apologize to the "war buffs"--but we have several other history courses which devote time to the Spanish-American war, so I thought I could safely stint it a bit.
For Monday March 31
Once again, the Library of Congress outdoes itself in providing world-class resources to the world.  The World of 1898 is produced by the Hispanic Division.  I want you all to do some browsing here.
About Lynching, Robert L. Zangrando
Internet Assignment:

Download and Read:
About Lynching, by Robert L. Zangrando.
Lynch Law in Georgia, by Ida Wells Barnett (1899)
Visit, read, and if you have multimedia capabilities, listen to
the interactive web site,

Without Sanctuary
And yet our own record is bloody enough, and surprisingy unknown. There are a number of voices speaking to you today, and it is important that you consider them. Note that popular sentiments divided on this issue, and that for every anti-lynch crusader like Ida Wells there were civic voices raised defending the practice. Note, too, that not all the lynchings were southern, Urbana, Illinois, scene of a late 19th century lynching was home to the University of Illinois. Not all the persons lynched were black. However, in many cases where a white person was lynched the "crime" involved over familiarity with black persons.

Observe, too, the faces in the crowds at those remarkable series of photographs which form the core of Without Sanctuary. Note the dress. Coats, ties, vests--the uniform of emerging middle America. Your character might very well have been a face in those crowds, or if not, a silent encourager of them.
Note the social class implications in this cartoon.  Compare this with the photographs on the Without Sanctuary website.  What does this comparison suggest about white explanations of lynching and the reality of that explanation?
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)
Ida B. Wells was a pioneer crusader for an end to lynching.  She faced threats of lynching herself.  Click on her picture to read her biograpny.
Between 1882 (when reliable statistics were first collected) and 1968 (when the classic forms of lynching had disappeared), 4,743 persons died of lynching, 3,446 of them black men and women. Mississippi (539 black victims, 42 white) led this grim parade of death, followed by Georgia (492, 39), Texas (352, 141), Louisiana (335, 56), and Alabama (299, 48). From 1882 to 1901, the annual number nationally usually exceeded 100; 1892 had a record 230 deaths (161 black, 69 white). Although lynchings declined somewhat in the twentieth century, there were still 97 in 1908 (89 black, 8 white), 83 in the racially troubled postwar year of 1919 (76, 7, plus some 25 race riots), 30 in 1926 (23, 7), and 28 in 1933 (24, 4)
For Wednesday, April 2
From the Richmond Whig
Caption:  One Less Vote
Click Image for a surprise.
For Friday April 4
Internet Assignment:

Download and Read:
Lynching in America,
including the report of the lynching in Urbana, Illinois and the newspaper accounts of it.
I am expecting that some of you will find today's and Friday's readings and discussion profoundly disturbing. In fact, I would be a bit disappointed if this was not the case. All too often we are ready to assume that inter-social conflict is something that happens elsewhere... in Ireland, or Israel, or Afghanistan, certainly not in "civilized" America.