Reforms instituted to combat this discontent. He describes the tension between corporations, workers, and the government over issues such as working emissions which oftentimes lead to strikes. Welcome back, everybody. As you know, weve been in the guilded age for some time now. And weve already scene the Technological Innovations that made some of this economic expansion possible. We saw both the economic transformations and the effects of those changes in the economy as far as lifestyles, both of the very rich, these opulent robert barren lifestyles on the one hand on on the other hand, of the very poor. Whether it was the People Living in the shacks of the new england mill towns or whether it was when we explored the guild l age city, the increasing problems of housing and of sanitation that came with the cities going along with immigration. And then last time we saw in particular, there was some frustration with this guilded age regime as we talked about the farmers in this period. That really could have been called discontent in the guilded age part one, but today, we turn our attention mostly back toward industry and in some way, back toward the cities as well. I want to look at frustrations with this new order of america. We started with the song, eight hours, which was a popular labor anthem in the 1880s. You heard the chorus. Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what we will. And in some ways, that song speak to what were going to be talking about today. On the one hand, eight hours for work, eight hours for rest. Were talking about labor relations. More broadly speaking, political economy. About the possibly for state regulation. At least arguments over that. Thats somewhat straightforward. What about eight hours for what we will . We want to feel the sunshine. Were not machines. Were human beings. We want to have a life. A life outside of work. Even those on the top of this new age gilded order, as well see toward the end, growing anxious over this new world that seems to be coming about, but first, we look at economics and as with so much else this semester, a lot of our story starts with the railroads. Weve seen how the Trans Continental Railroad changed the west, the economy. Weve told you that didnt stop in 1869 when they drove the golden spike. Instead, we continue to build by the end of the century, there were four, and there were all sorts of tributary lines to connect different parts of the west to those main corridors. It seemed like a really good investment. Indeed, the lions share of the stocks were not industrial. They were railroad stocks. And a lot of people scrambled to get in on the ground floor and one of those projects was the Northern Pacific railroad and the fellow who won the right to be the chief fundraiser for that project was jay cook. A very well respected financer. He had been a major financer of the union effort during the civil war. The problem was this. Investors were starting to realize in the 1870s, that perhaps in our zeal for railroad build, we had gone too far. Maybe the Railroad Bubble was about to burst and all of a sudden, jay cook has trouble raising money. We had trouble get ago loan. People found out he was overextended. And on september 18th, 1873, jay cook and company declared bankruptcy. When cook went under a drag down other businesses and railroads and businesses ands with him, a panic hit wall street as you see here. Beginning september 20th, which was heavily populated by railroad stocks, closed for ten days and over the next two months, 55 railroads went bruft. And it didnt stop there. By 1874, 25 of the nations Railroad Bonds were in default and it wasnt just railroads that were affected. Over the following two years, there were over 18,000 business failures. Many people, including this cartoonist, clung to the traditional view that ultimately, that was a necessary evil. Right . Failure is part of the system and so we should see the panic as the cartoonist does. As a sanitation officer cleaning all of the trash out of wall street. In the meantime, a lot of people had to suffer. In the meantime, Railroad Construction ground to a halt. Unemployment skyrocketed in many sectors and in some cities, unemployment was as high as 20 and joblessness remained ripe for the next five years. Now, a at this same moment, people were starting to ask questioning about whether or not the railroad should have so much power within this new national economy. You see vanderbilt pictured as the modern colossus of railroads along with his colleague, cyrus field and the notorious jay gould. As we saw last time, farmers considered their rates and their control over the economy to be extortion. And indeed, other groups were starting to feel this way as well. Frustrated farmers and some allied industrialists led to some attempts as intervention. In the early 1870s, some states passed what we call the granger laws. They did things like set maximum freight and Grain Elevator rates. Forbid rate discrimination against short hauls. Many urban consumers felt the railroads were overcharging them. Not just farmers were frustrated. They created state railroad commissions to supervise and enforce this new regulatory you see vanderbilt pictured as the modern colossus of railroads along with his colleague, cyrus field and the notorious jay gould. As we saw last time, farmers considered their rates and their control over the economy to be extortion. And indeed, other groups were starting to feel this way as well. Frustrated farmers and some allied industrialists led to some attempts as intervention. In the early 1870s, some states passed what we call the granger laws. They did things like set maximum freight and Grain Elevator rates. Forbid rate discrimination against short hauls. Many urban consumers felt the railroads were overcharging them. Not just farmers were frustrated. They created state railroad commissions to supervise and enforce this new Regulatory Regime. This happened in minnesota, iowa, wisconsin and illinois. Illinois is particularly important for us because it was there that the law was challenged by the firm of munn and scott, who was accused of having overcharged their customers at their Grain Elevator in chicago. They challenged their 100 fine and it went to the support and in 1877, by 572 majority, the court under chief justice wade declared that when private property is devoted to a public use, it is subject to public regulation. And incidentally, the federal governments not acting, so theres a door open for the states to step in. But dont consider this a longterm win for state level regulation because in 1886, a 63 majority of the Supreme Court declared in another case, this time, the Wabash Railroad against illinois, that under the Commerce Clause of the constitution, states were forbidden from imposing direct burdens on interstate commerce. And illinoiss Regulatory Regime was considered a direct burden on a railroad, considered interstate commerce, therefore, state regulation was severely hampered moving forward. This along with a couple of other cases in the late 1880s, which extended 14th amendment protections to corporations acted to undermine the state level regulations. That doesnt mean the public stopped being frustrated with the abuses of the railroads. In fact, public outrage over the wabash decision led to passage of the interstate congress act of congress in 1887. It created the interstate commerce commission. It made it forbidden to have rebates from powerful shippers. There would be public inspection of rates and if you abused these regulations, you could face up to a 5,000 fine. So take that, vanderbilt. More over, they werent through. Growing frustrations over the trusts, led congress to pass the sherman antitrust act, which is named for senator john sherman of ohio. The brother of William Tecumseh sherman. By 1827, the states had passed antitrust laws and now the congress was joining the parade. The sherman law, and the language is important for us. The sherman law outlawed every contract, combination r or conspiracy and restraint of trade. Again, imposing a 5,000 fine and potentially also a year in prin, but i dont want you to be misled. This hardly represents the foundation of a robust Regulatory Regime. For one thing, the president s of the guilded age were generally uncomfortable with this sort of state intervention. They held to a more traditional la say fair view and so Benjamin Harrison was president and signed this law but he didnt do too much to enforce it. When the government tried to enforce it, they were smacked down by the courts. In the case of u. S. Ec knight, the court declared 81 that the act did not apply to manufacturing monopolies. The u. S. Sugar fining Company Controlled more than 90 of the sector. Certainly, this is consolidation, right . But they say production is not interstate commerce. Something different. Theyve narrowly defined it wasnt be until the 20th century until the sherman act was used successfully against monopolies. Something well talk about in a later lecture. Also for workers growing frustrated labor would be frustrated in its protest. 1870s meant a lot of things for workers. One thing it meant that hard times begat poor wages, less availability of work. Less security, less stability, and at time, harsh measures by management to try to keep their companies afloat. Railroads in particular had tried to respond to the crisis of the 70s by cutting their own rates to try and get their business and outdo their competitors. And how do they make up for the losses of cutting these rates . They cut their workers wages. That led to a decade of mounting frustrations by the workers. There were a series of localized strikes in 1887 and in early 1877 and then resenting the wage cuts. And resenting the Public Program that was often heaped on the workers if they stood up for themselves because it was believed by many, especially in the press and in the government, that railroads are a public good and so if you strike against a railroad, youre doing something especially evil. So the workers began to resent all of this and it exploded in the summer of 1877. The new group called the trainmans union struck against the baltimore, ohio railroad. Baltimore police broke up the first round of pickets, but the next day, workers took control of a key Railroad Junction in martinsburg, west virginia. A battle between police and surly mob required state militia intervention and eventually, federal troops to restore order. Within days, these sorts of scenes were e erupting all around the country. In baltimore, the mob tried to trap the militia in an arm ri. The soldiers fired and killed ten people. In pittsburgh, rioters burned a rail yard and destroyed cars while exchanging fire with troops. Strikers in indianapolis halted all cars and trains except for trains carrying mail for reasons well see in a moment. By july 25th, in fact, all lines outside of new england and the south were being affected in one way or another. So you could feel the tension on streets around the country. In chicago, businessmen controlled the streets with guns fearing a potential revolution. In buffalo, the revolution was underway and crowds swarmed the yards of the new york central and claimed control of the depots of the Lake Shore Railroad around erie railroad. Ultimately, this Great Railroad strike collapsed. First of all, the depression was still going. Unemployment was still high, so it was easy to find desperate people to work as strike breakers, but employment was still around 8 nationally. These are estimates. Some companies were fearful of continued strikes and chaos and were willing to negotiate. But ultimately, we cant call this a win for labor. If anything, the press became indignant over o this outburst of street action and they called on the states to beef up their militias. With an eye to the future, state levels were enhanced and armories were constructed to prepare for the next events. Meanwhile, con full graciouses like those in the late 1870s, caused many workers to ask a fundamental question. Wouldnt this be more accomplished if we had a better organization. They turned to the knights of labor. The knights of labor started as sort of secret society founded by urijah stevens, a garment worker in philadelphia who was obsessed with all sorts of rituals and secrets and so forth, but after 1877, many workers became interested in organization and looked to the nights. The knights were never effective recruiters, but people were looking for an organization and so in 1879, the knight of labor had 9,000 and then had 42,000. Then they were discussing monetary reform. They began discussing an eight ahour day. Organizing for coop rative schemes for the workers. Trying to gain state and local political influence. Many began embracing the ideas of henry george who called for a single tax on land. Whats interesting besides their wide ranging agenda is their broad leverage. They were highly inclusive. They reached across lines of skill. So its skill and unskilled workers. Immigrants and foreign workers. Catholics and protestants. Black members as well as white. Male as well as female. So this was a very large and Inclusive Organization and they were building a lot of momentum in the 1880s. Youll see in a moment they have a decline, however. And at the moment when we see them start to decline, a totally different ideal in labor comes to the floor. That is craft unionism. The American Federation of labor. Founded in 1886. Their leader is samuel gompers. His papers are at the federal libraries if you want to lerner more. They werent inclusive. They were only focused on elite crafts men. This was strategic, you can say, because the skilled craftsman have more leverage when it comes to negotiation. Theyre harder to replace so maybe you have to talk to them and they had much narrower goals. The phrase was pure and simple unionism. Were going after bread and butter issues. Shorter hours, more wages. Not trying to change the world though, so this more conservative, elite union, would be the one to survive the chaos were going to talk about now moving forward. In the meantime, the 1880s would witness rekha pitchlations of many of the troubling themes of the 1870s. Once again, a Major Economic panic. This one in 1884 followed once again by an industrial downturn followed once again by labor troubles. Most noteworthy in this time was a period known as the great uphee value. Its a sporadic series of events in many ways. In may of 1886, there was a successful strike by unorganized Railroad Workers against the Union Pacific railroad. It capitulated within two days and the workers say now that were on a role, lets join the knights of labor. Make this a permanent fixture. In june of 1884, we saw the beginning of a major mine strike in the river valley of ohio where 4,000 workers plus their families and the community went out on strike. They, the strike lasted six months. The miners lost, but whats noteworthy is it taught them the usefulness of organization and coordination. Because if you go on strike, you dont get paid. So the strike doesnt last very long because you have to eat. But they were able to organize and raise funds. They had a 100,000 relief fund that enabled them to keep this fight up for six months and once gerngs it demonstrated to workers the value of organization organization. Then in march of 1885 came a major strike against the missouri pacific railroad, which was trying to have a pay cut. Most of which was owned by our buccaneering friend jay gould. On e behalf of the workers, which probably tells us more about gould than the governors but never the less, gould gave back the pay cut and once again, workers saw value in organization. It all meant dramatic growth for the knights of labor. Then they had 700,000 member, but this would be the knights High Water Mark and one reason for the decline is the first of several famous and telling episodes within American Labor religion. We can call them really explosions in the guilded age. The hey market affair. There was a strike at the mccorm irk reaper works in chicago on may 3rd, 1886. There were anarchists in chicago and they said this violence, to us, is a wonderful example of our broader critique of american capitalism and so we want to take advantage of this moment to use this tragedy in order to demonstrate to people the validity of our so they called for protests beginning may 4th. They were well attended by the working classes. Especially german immigrants. There was a large turn around. It was peaceful by all accounts. At least in the beginning. It was relatively tame. According to the tame mayor of chicago. Mainstream politician, carter harrison, who was there, who witnessed the events and was satisfied that things were going to be fine and went home. In fact, a lot of people were deciding that things were okay and it was time to go home, but it wasnt. Because what happened next is the rally was starting to break up. Someone through a pipe bomb. And a policeman was killed and the policeman began to fire and a shootout ensue and six police and four protestors were killed in the cross fire. We never figured out who threw the pipe bomb, but that doesnt really matter. We knew who to blame. The anarchists. These germans and radicals. Four ended up being executed. Others received long prison citizens. Pardoned the three surviving anarchists, saying this whole thing had been a travesty of justice. We still dont know who threw the pipe bomb. We know it wasnt them. Never the less, the resulting fear of radicalism led to increasing antilabor sentiment nationwide. 1892 was a period, we could have picked any number of incidents to talk about. In new orleans, there was a general strike that went on and on and involved 25,000 workers. Dozens of different organizations. Black workers and white workers many new orleans. There was a Major Incident in the coal mining fields of eastern illinois. Starting in 1892 going into 1892 in which tennessee miners protested against the use of convict labor. Which was being used to undermine their wages. And they protested by arming themselves, burning down the stockades where the quigt ts convicts were being held. The militia came in and ended up being defeated. But the one im going to choose to spend more time on occur nd a place weve gotten to know a little bit in this class. Homestead, pennsylvania. Steel works. The Steel Workers there were trying to organize and trying to join a National Group known as the iron and Steel Workers. At one point in his career Andrew Carnegie favored the principle of collective bargaining, but it was hitting too close to home now, so carnegie changed his mind. But carnegie did not become a Great Innovator and millionaire by being a fool. So he decided this battle wasnt for him and he left it to his number two, henry clay frick. He held the line against union. On july 1s, 1892, he declared he would not negotiate with this union. Instead, he fortified the plant. The workers armed themselves, captured the plant, barricaded themselves inside. Frick had another move to make. E he hired a group, a notorious group, known as the pinkerton guards. The real term is mercenary group. And they came in lumbering up the river on their barges to fight, 300 of them, to fight these strikers. But it didnt quite work out. When they arrived, a brawl ensued, nine workers and one guard were killed as the workers started firing on them. The people of homestead were on the side of the workers. This is our families, our workers, our neighbors. So they chased them out of town. They couldnt flee on their barges because they burned them. So at the hey market fair, if you recall, local Law Enforcement had ultimately been effective in stopping the radicals. This couldnt be the case this time because the mayor, the sheriff, theyre on the side of the workers. In fact, Public Opinion by and large was on the side of the workers. But thats not the end of the story. Because in the meantime, anarchist named alexander burkeman broke into fricks office, shot him twice and repeatedly stabbed him. Burkeman, however, is one of the great failures in assassination history. Not only did he fail to kill frick, he also undermined the strikers for whom he was expressing sympathy because in many ways, Public Opinion saw this as a discredit to the Union Movement and while some Public Opinion remain wd the workers, there was enough shift that there was political cover for us to move up one level of government. If well be local and the state. So the governor of pennsylvania had the state militia go in. The workers were extra kated from the plant. Strike breakers were brought in and there would not be successful, longterm unionization of american steal workers until the late 1930s. Episode three. Two years later. Pullman, illinois. The context for this is the depression we talked about in context of the farmers that started in 1893. That that went for one thing is that in 1894, there was a lot of labor frustration. Almost 1400 strikes. A record breaking 505,000 workers out on strike that year. And the other part of the context is the place. Pullman, illinois. Its one of these company towns. Weve talked about company towns. As they go, compared to the unheeded shacks with little water supply that weve seen in mine country or the textile towns in new england, pullman was a relatively nice company town by all reports. The housing was a decent standard. There were libraries and parks and playgrounds and schools. Mr. Pullman saw himself as sort of pate ar cal figure. He referred to his workers as children, but this ended up being a problem. In the town of pullman, what do they make . Sleeper cars. For trains. So you work in his factory, live in his town. You shop in his stores, pay rent to mr. Pullman. And all right, it seems fine. This is a decent standard of living but then came the depression. And mr. Pullman decided he needed to help the companys bottom line and he called for a major wage cut for his workers. Up to 30 . Hes your boss, but also your landlord. So how are you going to argue this . The rent was already absorbed because compared to similar rental properties in that region, he was charging 15 to 20 more and hes also cutting their wages. He said this was for the good of the company, but consider this. They paid 2. 8 million in dividend. And in in fact, they were higher that year than in the previous year, so while there was a real problem and production was down, its not as though the company was on the verge of collapse. The workers tried to negotiate. He listen today what they had to say and said thats interesting. You guys are fired. This offended the workers as you could imagine and it led to a strike. A walkout beginning may 11th. This would have been the thousand plus strikes of that year except it got bigger because the workers in pullman were aligned with a National Group. The American Railway union. They had the support and sympathy of the president , eugene v. Debs. And debs and the American Railway union called for secondary strikes. Our switchmen, our Railroad Workers around the country will refuse to switch any pullman car into a train. When you have 40,000plus rail workers around the country saying this, it starts to get serious. By late june, Train Networks were being shut down around the country. They tried not to obstruct the mail because they did not want to right now afoul of the federal government. But management was quite, quite smart in how they handled this. They said if the train is not complete, meaning if you wont put in the pullman car, were not running it. They went to the federal government and they explained that it was the unionists who were being obstructionists and so the federal government started to take notice at the action going on. In chicago at hay market who had dealt with this . It had been local authorities. This is obviously too big in scale to be handled by local authorities. At homestead, it had been the state. But in illinois the governor is john peter and hes sympathetic to labor. And so this time it was going to be federal intervention. The Justice Department went to court. They got an injunction against the strikers, but the strikes continued and so debs was arrested on july 10th for contempt of court. Meanwhile the president had to act because the strikes continued and the president is still grover cleveland. We got to know him last time. The mail is being disrupted, management tells us its the fault of the workers. George pullman is a friend of mine, by the way, and dont forget that cleveland is like the other gilded age president s, pro business, pro management. And so they get the injunction based on two matters. Number one, theyre interrupting federal delivery of the mail and number two, this is viewed by the courts and the Justice Department as an illegal conspiracy in and restraint of trade. These fellows are in violation of the sherman antitrust act. And so the injunction is granted. The union does not back down and so we have to send in the army. Thousands of u. S. Soldiers. Fighting took place. Dozens were killed. The Supreme Court, the strike got broken up obviously. The following january, the Supreme Court ruled that the government was right, they were violating the law and so this gives great power to those seeking injunctions from courts against labor in the future. In all of these cases, a lot of americans knew who was to blame. It was the workers, it was the radicals, but also it was groups that weve talked about in great depth a week ago. It was these outsiders, these newcomers, these immigrants. And so its not just that we can blame the immigrants in the city for undermining american democracy. Its not just that we can blame the immigrants for challenging american religions traditions with their catholicism and judaism or challenging american cultural standards with their saloons and beer halls. But when we ask who is to blame for crime and anarchists and socialists, the answer, if you read this cartoon, is quite clear. Its the russian anarchists, the german socialists, the irish pauper and so forth and so on. Class and ethnicity, not for the first time in American History, but certainly to an increasingly powerful extent, were being conflated, were being intertwined, and this was going to be very potent weaponry against both the foreigners and the labor activists for decades to come as we will see. I started out saying this wasnt all about the workplace. It wasnt all about the economy. Some of the discontent in the gilded age was social in nature. You can understand this. When you work in a factory, you have no control, right . No control over what your work schedule looks like. In the mill towns they ring bells to drag you out of bed in the morning so you know its time to go to work. They control your life. You dont set your schedule the way did if you were a peasant back in europe before you immigrated or you dont get to spend much time out of doors, you dont get a lot of time access to nature, you dont make your own schedule, you dont have any sense of craftsmanship in what youre doing. When you combine this in many cases with living in a very large city where entire life, while probably very fascinating, could be confined in a world of a few dozen blocks and remember that that world as weve read and as weve observed could be a very dark, dirty, diseased world, frustrating, stifling world. You start to understand why people would grow discontent with this arrangement. And so there were certain solutions that were proposed. One response to this was a push for recreation. Reformers in the gilded age cities and were going to get to know them very well in future lectures they believed that urban dwellers would benefit immensely from access to playgrounds and parks and beaches, like this beach we see here, being enjoyed by some of the immigrant textile workers that we met in previous lectures. And so one response to the discontent or at least the potential discontent of the cooped up urban dweller was the rise of recreation and urban parks. It had been going on for many decades, of course, they didnt invent parks in the gilded age. The most famous of those parks, central park, in new york, began construction in its modern form beginning in 1858, completed in 1878. But more and more parks would follow as the gilded age approached the 20th century. This push for outdoor breathing spaces for the urban masses would become even more vehement. And while we have green spaces, we also need to make sure were keeping everybody fit and active. If they are physically active, that will keep them out of trouble on the one hand. If they are physically fit, that will help keep them morally fit. It will help them be wholesome, help them avoid the saloon potentially. Reformers in the city sought all sorts of means of keeping the masses from getting bored and a lee largic as well as encouraging them to stay healthy physically and mentally. And this in turn led to the increasing popularity of athletics. Sports were a way to bring order to people, to organize people not only into Community Organizations but also to keep them fit at the same time and to develop a sense of pride in your group, in your churchs team, in your unions team, in your towns team. Or in your schools team, which is very important then and now. This is a transnational phenomenon. I dont want to make you think that this is only american. Historians can tell you the same story about soccer clubs in britain or europe or cricket clubs and so forth arising in this same period. But in your case, its very important as well. This is the time when baseball in its modern form starts to get organized and formalized in the years after the civil war. And basketball is invented by dr. James naismith in 1891 at a ymca in springfield, massachusetts. And we start to have College Football. The First CollegeFootball Game took place in 1869 between princeton and rutgers. Rutgers won for those who play trivia, 64, if that ever comes up. That game, like our game, was very violent, but theres was far worse. No helmets, plenty of unnecessary roughness. No notion of unnecessary roughness. The game came close to getting banned a couple of times, but there was a president ial commission to discuss all of the carnage taking place on the College Football fields. Indeed, carnage is the right word for it. Its been estimated that in the year the president in question held this commission, 1905, there were as many as 45 deaths on College Football fields. That was in the five years leading up to the commission. In the year 1905 itself, its been estimated that College Football games produced 18 deaths and 159 catastrophic injuries. And so we need to do something to organize this and make it less bloody. And so theyve worked on that. It wasnt only the working classes who found modern society and caught outlets for their constrained injuries either. The upper classes and intellectuals in the gilded age became increasing disenchanted with the weightlessness of their society. Many of them suffered from an incredibly vague but increasingly popular disorder called nurse neurasthenia. The diagnosis depended heavily on who you were. If you were of the working classes and you were whining about these things, you were either lazy or insane and the solution was for you to either be strarved or institutionalize. If you were a woman, it was quite likely that you were hysterical and you need to be locked up in a room until they made you more hysterical and you read about this, for example, in the yellow wallpaper. But for a lot of people, male and female, these symptoms might mean you were suffering from nerve weakness. There was a neurologist named George Miller beard and he identified this disorder as a symptom of modern life. It was caused by this faster pace. But especially above all, it was caused by modern technology, technology was not natural. Its degrading us in our biology. Beards solution was a regimen of electrical shocks. Happily other physicians called for bedrest or isolation. To a lot of intellectuals, they said if this burnout is a symptom of moderny than our solution is to embrace antimodernism. They wanted something more than the superficial consumerism, the secularized drive for material gain that seemed to mark their times. And so many of them rejected modern society in favor of any number of more basic alternatives, a vague return to the simple life, a return to craftsmanship, working with your hands, a return in some cases to medieval style religious devotions or a new turn to ancient religious practices in the far east. A romanticization of all things oriental, they would have said at the time. They turned for alternatives to their modern society, oftentimes in a bizarre way. But it gives you nevertheless insight into their frustration with this society. For many of them, including the president that i didnt name but was referring to in the football discussion, for many of them, selfexertion was the tonic of choice. Theodore roosevelt was a young, sickly, elite, oldmoney boy and his solution to all of this was the vigorous life, particularly time spent in the great outdoors. And so in his very famous attempts to invigorate himself and his class, Theodore Roosevelt would hike mountains, hunt big game, engage in cattle ranching in the bad lands, lead military units and encourage his fellow white men to procreate as much as possible. These were some of his solutions, this vigorous life. These concerns from neurotic elites or confused, overwhelmed intellectuals, they may seem trivial and to a large extent they are. But the point here is that elites were just as interested in using central park and other parks for themselves as they were in creating the park as an outlet to prevent discontent among the lower sorts. We see them enjoying central park here. The point, in other words, is that during the gilded age, there was disenchantment coming from all directions. From those who needed a break from the monotony of industrial life, from those who feared the moral or social implications of an increasingly restless working class, from businesses who found themselves abused by monopolies, from states who found themselves powerless to stop monopolies, from workers who are finding themselves being crushed by monopolies and other companies as well, and also from those nearer the top of the gilded age social hierarchy who found their society increasingly vacuous and unsatisfying. Were not done with the gilded age yet. We have been area from the south for some time now. So next time, when we return, were going to turn our gaze back to dixie and observe their peculiar version of the gilded age. Turn your papers in. Have a wonderful weekend. Weeknights this month on American History tv, were featuring the contenders, our series that looks at 14 president ial candidates who lost the election but had a lasting effect on u. S. Politics. Tonight we feature eugene debs who was a fivetime president ial candidate for the socialist party. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern and enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. The president s, available in paperwork, hard cover and ebook from Public Affairs presents biographies of every president , inspired by conversations with noted historians about the leadership skills that make for a successful presidency. As americans go to the polls next month to decide who should lead our country, this collection offers perspectives into the lives and events that forged each president s leadership style. To learn more about all of our president s and the books featured historians go to our website and order your copy today wherever books are sold. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Cspan3 created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Up next, university of North Carolina at chapel hill professor Molly Worthen teaches a class about the history and the intellectual underpinnings of protestant fundamentalism. She begins with the 1925 scopes monkey trial and gained national attention. Later she talks about the origins and growth of pentecostalism which strives for a personal connection with the divine and includes aspects such as faith healing and speaking in tongues. Lets begin. My name is Molly Worthen. Were at the university of North Carolina at chapel hill and todays lecture is on the history of american fundamentalism and pentecostalism. Im going to try to answer three Big Questions today. Number one, what is protestant fundamentalism