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
For Monday, April 28                     The "Two Halves" Meet
I'd like to spend today and Wednesday, discussing Jacob Riis' book, How the Other Half Lives.
Riis wasn't the only social reformer concerned about the conditions of the poorest of the poor.  However, his journalistic skill was something which raised his influence above most of the rest.  Perhaps Jane Addams in Chicago with the Settlement House Movement had as much influence when it came to ameliorating conditions  in the major cities, but few others could claim as important a role in creating progressive change.  As we've seen, the 1980s were traumatic in many ways.  It's time now to zero in on some elements of that trauma.  I'd like to begin by exercising your imaginations.  Suppose those living in middle and upper class conditions were to first read, Riis book, and then visit some of the areas about which he wrote.  The pictures below, from his other principal book, The Battle with the Slums (find a link to the whole book on the E-Texts page) can stimulate your imaginations.
Other pictures will apppear below.  Try looking trhoughout the Web Resources to find things for yourself and add them to your resource folder.  You'll be glad you did.
For Wednesday, April 30     The "Two Halves" Meet, Continued.
Download and read, from the Handbook for Friendly Visitors among the Poor.  Chapters 1-5:

The book can be reached by clicking on the bar above.

Of the five chapters, pay particular attention to Chapter III.  How "Friendly" do these quotations seem to you?  Suppose a Friendly Visitor came to visit you under conditions mentioned in Riis' book, or represented by the pictures above or below.  How would you probably react?  How would you probably like to react? 
Things did improve as the 19th century turned into the 20th century.  Some of those improvements can be seen in the images below. 
For Friday, May 1         Meanwhile, Back at the Fair (well, TWO Fairs)
As the semester draws to a close, we're going to end this class pretty much as we began it--by spending a day at a World's Fair.  Actually, we'll visit two of them a mere 11 years apart.  The World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in1893, and the St. Louis World's Fair celebrating the Louisiana Purchase in 1904.  The images below link to websites on each.
Your alter-ego will have aged not quite 30 years by the time of the exposition in 1904.  And how the world has changed.  Powered air flight was the lastest in a series of technological marvels which would change the world forever.  Have your alter-ego prowl both fairs, recording what is most interesting to him or her.  You'll find plenty of links at both websites to tickle your fancy.   Next week' I hope to wind things up with a coujple of videos--providing I can get a projector supplied to the classroom..the one in the console is supposedly not working.
Click for interactive map