Name: Date: The Gilded Age Overview Ch. 13, 14, 16 Essential Question: How is America today similar to or different from its politics, economy, society and culture of the Gilded Age? Does this similarity/difference reflect positively or negatively for the country now? ^The open-­‐ended response for the first unit exam will be almost identical to our essential question. We will continually circle back to this theme to prepare for written responses on the exam (worth 1/3 of the test). HW Due Dates • Each assignment is worth 5 points. You may hand homework in early, but please clearly label each section/question number. Other helpful hints are listed below. -­‐Wednesday, September 14th: Please read chapter 13, section 1 and answer questions 1 & 6 and chapter 13, section 2 questions 1 & 6. -­‐Friday, 9/16: Ch. 13 section 3 #1 & 5 + Ch. 14 section 1 #1. -­‐Monday, 9/19: 14.2 #4 & 6, 14.3 #1. -­‐Wednesday, 9/21: 16.1 #1 & 4, 16.2 #4. -­‐Thursday, 9/22: Read and respond to Krugman’s Gilded Once More (2 guided reading questions attached). -­‐Friday, 9/23: Review sheet due (also day of unit exam!) ßstart on review sheet prior to night before test Helpful Hints: The exam will cover highlights from ch. 14-­‐16. Please be sure to meaningfully read each section when completing the homework questions. You can also use the online textbook to listen to each section instead. •
Section questions are located on the last page of each section and called “Section # Assessment.” •
You do not need to recopy each question when responding, but please clearly number your answers. •
For all question 1’s of each sections, you do not need complete sentences but must explain how that item relates to this unit of study (Wikipedia-­‐ed responses are not only incorrect but obvious, too). •
Questions 2-­‐6, when assigned, are to be answered in complete sentences. Practice your writing skills! •
Homework assignments may be typed but plagiarism, which includes the copying and sharing of work, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! All assignments are to be completed individually. •
Any assignments submitted digitally must be emailed before the start of the class period. •
You may hand homework in in advance, but please indicate the section and save paper. •
Homework that is done well and completely will receive 5/5. Partial credit can be awarded. •
As always, please feel free to email Ms. Manhart with any questions pertaining to homework assignments. NYT: Gilded Once More April 27, 2007 – PAUL KRUGMAN One of the distinctive features of the modern American right has been nostalgia for the late 19th century, with its minimal taxation, absence of regulation and reliance on faith-­‐based charity rather than government social programs. Conservatives from Milton Friedman to Grover Norquist have portrayed the Gilded Age as a golden age, dismissing talk of the era’s injustice and cruelty as a left-­‐wing myth. Well, in at least one respect, everything old is new again. Income inequality — which began rising at the same time that modern conservatism began gaining political power — is now fully back to Gilded Age levels. Consider a head-­‐to-­‐head comparison. We know what John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in Gilded Age America, made in 1894, because in 1895 he had to pay income taxes. (The next year, the Supreme Court declared the income tax unconstitutional.) His return declared an income of $1.25 million, almost 7,000 times the average per capita income in the United States at the time. But that makes him a mere piker by modern standards. Last year, according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine, James Simons, a hedge fund manager, took home $1.7 billion, more than 38,000 times the average income. 2 other hedge fund managers made more than $1 billion, & the top 25 combined made $14 billion. How much is $14 billion? It’s more than it would cost to provide health care for a year to eight million children — the number of children in America who, unlike children in any other advanced country, don’t have health insurance. The hedge fund billionaires are simply extreme examples of a much bigger phenomenon: every available measure of income concentration shows that we’ve gone back to levels of inequality not seen since the 1920s. The New Gilded Age doesn’t feel quite as harsh and unjust as the old Gilded Age — not yet, anyway. But that’s because the effects of inequality are still moderated by progressive income taxes, which fall more heavily on the rich than on the middle class; by estate taxation, which limits the inheritance of great wealth; & by social insurance programs like Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid which provide a safety net for less fortunate. You might have thought that in the face of growing inequality, there would have been a move to reinforce these moderating institutions — to raise taxes on the rich and use the money to strengthen the safety net. That’s why comparing the incomes of hedge fund managers with the cost of children’s health care isn’t an idle exercise: there’s a real trade-­‐off involved. But for the past three decades, such trade-­‐offs have been consistently settled in favor of the haves and have-­‐mores. Taxation has become much less progressive: according to estimates by the economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, average tax rates on the richest 0.01 percent of Americans have been cut in half since 1970, while taxes on the middle class have risen. In particular, the unearned income of the wealthy — dividends and capital gains — is now taxed at a lower rate than the earned income of most middle-­‐class families. Those hedge fund titans, by the way, have an especially sweet deal: loopholes in the law let them use their own businesses as unlimited 401(k)s, sheltering their earnings and accumulating tax-­‐free capital gains. Meanwhile, the tax-­‐cut bill Congress passed in 2001 set in motion a complete phaseout of the estate tax. If the Bush administration hadn’t been too clever by half, hiding the true cost of its tax cuts by making the whole package expire at the end of 2010, we’d be well on our way toward becoming a dynastic society. And as for the social insurance programs —— well, in 2005 the Bush administration tried to privatize Social Security. If it had succeeded, Medicare would have been next. Of course, the administration’s attempt to undo Social Security was a notable failure. The public, it seems, isn’t eager to return to the days before the New Deal. And the G.O.P.’s defeat in the midterm election has put on hold other plans to restore the good old days. But it’s much too soon to declare the march toward a New Gilded Age over. If history is any guide, one of these days we’ll see the emergence of a New Progressive Era, maybe even a New New Deal. But it may be a long wait. 1. In what ways is the US similar today to the Gilded Age? Different? List & explain. 2. In making this comparison, does Krugman do more to praise or critique the 21st century? Please support your argument using complete sentences and evidence from the text. 2 NAME: Gilded Age Review Sheet Exam – Friday, 9/23 Please define the following terms in preparation for your exam. Be sure to explain the significance and its relation to the first unit of study. Remember, this is just a starting point – it is important to review your notes and all work from class before the exam. Work is due on the day of the exam: Friday, 9/22 (at the beginning of class). You do not need to use complete sentences. à10 points for completing. Effects of the Civil War in creating the Gilded Age Meaning of the “Gilded Age” Thomas Edison Technological innovations and their effects Capitalism and the Free Market/Laissez-­‐Faire Robber Barons vs. Captains of Industry Bessemer Process & related infrastructure Vertical versus horizontal integration Social Darwinism Fear of Communism/Socialism, Eugene Debs Effects of Haymarket Square Riot, Homestead Strike & Pullman Strike Ellis Island vs. Angel Island Chinese Exclusion Act Melting Pot Nativism Urbanization, Mass transit & Tenements Consumerism & Mass culture Pulitzer & Hearst Literature, arts & music Jim Crow South Boss Tweed & Spoils System Populism & Wizard of Oz Allegory 4