History 122 Part 1


Part 1: Reconstruction, The Gilded Age & Progressivism U.S. History 1865-1916
“No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” —Booker Taliaferro Washington, Atlanta Compromise, 1895
Part 1 of this course covers the period immediately following the Civil War through the Progressive Era, 1865-1916, a time of enormous change. While the South was preoccupied with recovering from the civil War, the rest of the nation was busy with industrialization, immigration and urbanization, all powerful vehicles for change, and all inter-related. The last half of the 19th Century also saw the end of the frontier, the devastating Indian wars, and the reckless exploitation of America's vast resources.
“One of the fundamental necessities in a representative government such as ours is to make certain that the men to whom the people delegate their power shall serve the people by whom they are elected, and not the special interests.” —Theodore Roosevelt, Political Speech
Topic Summaries and Resources: Introduction to American History Introduction to Reconstruction Indians and the West Capital and Labor The Progressive Era Document Resources Updated July 31, 2006	“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" —Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus,” 1883 Ellis Island