The Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Latest Episodes:

Edith Wharton: In Morocco Jan 04, 2023

Show notes

Edith Wharton ranks as one of the Gilded Age's most prolific and popular writers. In this episode, Professor Stacy Holden tells us about her research on Wharton's lesser known travelogue In Morocco, a revealing account of the author's travels to the French and Spanish colony. It tells us a great deal about American and European imperialism, and the Orientalism that pervaded her thinking.

Essential Reading:

Edith Wharton, In Morocco (1920).

Hermione Lee, Edith Wharton (2007).

Recommended Reading:

Julie Olin-Ammentorp, Edith Wharton’s Writings from the Great War (2004).

Alan Price, The End of the Age of Innocence: Edith Wharton and the First World War (1996).

Andrew Patrick, America’s Forgotten Middle East Initiative: The King-Crane Commission of 1919 (2015).

Andrew Priest, Designs on Empire (on the podcast in 2022).

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Special Episode: Five Little Peppers Dec 21, 2022

Show notes

Last year, we had Professor Thomas Ruys Smith with us to talk about his book Christmas Past. Keeping in the festive spirit, Tom has returned, and with co-conspirator Professor Hilary Emmett to do a special holiday reading of a Gilded Age classic Five Little Peppers. This was one of the biggest stories of its day and it launched Margaret Sidney's career into the stratosphere of best known authors. In this episode Hilary reads a chapter from the republished story.

Margaret Sidney, Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (UEA Publishing Project, 2022).

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The Most Dangerous Woman in America: Mother Jones Dec 14, 2022

Show notes

The newspapers called Mother Jones the most dangerous woman in America because her presence at a labor rally would stiffen the resolve of workers. As Professor Simon Cordery relates, she raised "Cain and Consciousness." Prof. Cordery joins me to talk about Jones and her influence on the labor movement in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Essential Reading:

Simon Cordery, Mother Jones: Raising Cain and Consciousness (2010).

Recommended Reading:

Philip S. Foner, ed., Mother Jones Speaks: Collected Speeches and Writings (1983).

Edward M. Steel, ed., The Correspondence of Mother Jones (1985).

Thomas G. Andrews, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War (2010).

Melvyn Dubofsky and Joseph A. McCartin, Labor in America: A History (2017).

Elliott J. Gorn, Mother Jones (2001).

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Union Busting in the Gilded Age Nov 30, 2022

Show notes

Professor Chad Pearson joins me to talk about his latest book Capital's Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century. The book explores the way in which employer organizations helped stope industrial action and bust union activism. The tactics "employed" will shock you, even if you know a great deal about the period. Pearson also makes a strong case for thinking about these groups in a broader manner than past scholars have, including the KKK in the typically class-centric story.

Essential Reading:

Chad Pearson, Capital's Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century (2022).

Recommended Reading:

Vilja Hulden, The Bosses' Union: How Employers Organized to Fight Labor before the New Deal (2023).

Aaron Goings, The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest (2020).

James Gray Pope, "Snubbed Landmark: Why United States v. Cruikshank (1876) Belongs at the Heart of the American Constitutional Canon," Harvard Civil Rights - Civil Liberties Law Review 49 (2014): 385-447.

Brian D. Palmer, "The New New Poor Law: A Chapter in the Current Class War Waged from Above," Labour / Le Travail 84 (Fall 2019), 53–105.

Steven Hahn, "Emancipation, Incarceration, and the Boundaries of Coercion," Journal of Southern History 88, no. 1 (February 2022): 5-38.

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Texas: The Birthplace of Populism Nov 16, 2022

Show notes

Everything is bigger in Texas, including political movements. I have yet to speak with scholars of populism, and this show rectifies that with two outstanding authors of the latest Texas populism histories (professors Gregg Cantrell and Thomas Alter) and a guest host, my colleague at Dickinson State University Dr. Jeff Wells.

Essential Reading:

Gregg Cantrell, The People’s Revolt: Texas Populists and the Roots of American Liberalism (2020)

Thomas Alter II, Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas (2022).

Recommended Reading:

Donna Barnes, Farmers in Rebellion: The Rise and Fall of the Southern Farmers Alliance and People’s Party in Texas (1984).

Lawrence Goodwyn, Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America (1976).

Matthew Hild, Greenbackers, Knights of Labor, and Populists, Farmer-Labor Insurgency in the Late-Nineteenth-Century South (2007).

Roscoe Martin, The People’s Party in Texas: A Case Study in Third-Party Politics (1933).

Robert C. McMath, Jr., Populist Vanguard: A History of the Southern Farmers' Alliance (1975).

Charles Postel, The Populist Revolt (2007).

Marion K. Barthelme, (ed.), Women in the Texas Populist Movement: Letters to the Southern Mercury (1997).

Theresa Case, The Great Southwest Railroad Strike and Free Labor (2010).

Tim Lehman, Up the Trail: How Texas Cowboys Herded Longhorns and Became an American Icon (2018).

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Food in the Gilded Age Nov 02, 2022

Show notes

I've been looking forward to talking about food for a while. Dr. Helen Zoe Veit joins me to answer all my questions about decadent recipes, food security, poverty, picky children, and the connections between Gilded Age foodstuff and our diet today. Dr. Veit is professor at Michigan State University and the director of the "What America Ate" project.

Essential Reading:

Helen Zoe Veit, Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century (2013).

Recommended Reading:

Benjamin R. Cohen, Pure Adulteration: Cheating on Nature in the Age of Manufactured Food (2020)

April Merleaux, Sugar and Civilization: American Empire and the Cultural Politics of Sweetness (2015)

Jonathan Rees, The Chemistry of Fear: Harvey Wiley's Fight for Pure Food (2021)

Megan Elias, Stir It Up: Home Economics in American Culture (2008)

Andrew Haley, Turning the Tables: Restaurants and the Rise of the American Middle Class, 1880-1920 (2011)

Laura Shaprio, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century (1986)

Rebecca Sharpless, Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South,1865-1960 (2010)

Special food issue of The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, ed. Megan Elias, Volume 18, Issue 4 (October 2019)

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Who Killed Jane Stanford Oct 19, 2022

Show notes

Someone poisoned Jane Stanford, the co-founder of Stanford University. Who done it, is up for debate. This murder story includes a cover up and a winding tale of Gilded Age policing, patronage, gender norms, immigration, and higher education. Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard White joins me to explain how he researched the case and what, if any, conclusions can be made about the chief suspects.

Essential Reading:

Richard White, Who Killed Jane Stanford: A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits, and the Birth of a University (2022).

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The Mythic China Market and Foreign Banks Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

Foreign banks saw great opportunity in China. Financing trade and commercial activities such as railroad construction was lucrative. Like all investments there is risk and foreign banks faced substantial risks in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Wars and revolutions threatened growth, and banking in many ways sparked wars and revolutions. Ghassan Moazzin's book Foreign Banks and Global Finance in Modern China: Banking on the Chinese Frontier, 1870–1919 explores these turbulent years of foreign investment.

Essential Reading:

Ghassan Moazzin, Foreign Banks and Global Finance in Modern China: Banking on the Chinese Frontier, 1870–1919 (2022).

Recommended Reading:

Michael Schiltz, Accounting for the Fall of Silver: Hedging Currency Risk in Long-Distance Trade with Asia, 1870–1913 (2020).

Austin Dean, China and the End of Global Silver, 1873–1937 (2020).

Geoffrey Jones, British Multinational Banking 1830–1990 (1993).

Shizuya Nishimura, Ranald Michie and Suzuki Toshio (eds.), The Origins of International Banking in Asia: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (2012).

Linsun Cheng, Banking in Modern China: Entrepreneurs, Professional Managers and the Development of Chinese Banks, 1897–1937 (2003).

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Man of Steel: Grover Cleveland Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

Grover Cleveland has an interesting place in American political history. He won more presidential election popular votes than anyone other than FDR, and he is the only president to serve non-consecutive terms. Is there any more to say about him? Troy Senik, a former speech writer, makes a strong case to remember Cleveland today.

Essential Reading:

Troy Senik, A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland (2022).

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Anniversary Episode Sep 06, 2022

Show notes

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast is 1 year old. I use this opportunity to reflect on the year, the top downloaded shows, the new friends made, and some behind-the-scenes insights. I also want to thank everyone who has joined me on this journey - the guests, the listeners, and the publishers. Many, many thanks!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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