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A

lthough the Gilded Age was an age of economic and technological

progress, it also produced new forms of poverty and social dislocation.

Throughout the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Americans

wrestled with the political and economic legacies of the Industrial

Revolution.

Politically, Americans argued over whether the government had an obliga-

tion to promote or control corporations for the sake of the common good. Immi-

grants and African Americans continued to bear the blame for economic woes

experienced by urban and rural whites who were adversely affected by constantly

shifting economic fortunes.

Throughout this period, reformers and civic leaders debated whether the

people who were destabilized by the Industrial Revolution, including small busi-

nessmen and the working poor, could be better helped through government

intervention or through private philanthropy.

Seeking the Main Point

As you read the documents that follow, keep these broad questions in mind.

These questions will help you understand the relationship between the doc-

uments in this chapter and the historical changes that they represent. As you

reflect on these questions, determine which themes and which documents best

address them.

•   

In what ways did debates about extending civil rights manifest themselves

during this time period?

•   

How did industrialization shape beliefs about progress and the future of the

United States as seen in the documents in this chapter?

•   

Compare the various challenges to the status quo that are presented in

this chapter.

344 chapTeR 15 | New Ideas aNd Old Ideas | period six 1865 –1898

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