Visit an Old Law School of mind he saw weak Democratic Party so he saw some opportunities there. He started the construction of this will house in 1901. He and mary would drive way out of the country on a buggy. They fell in of of the house so they bought acres to build this house. Construction were finished in 1903. It is 11,000 square feet. Mrs. Bryans budget was 10,000. It is a beautiful house. The main level of the home is used for entertaining and political events and receptions. They would host a number of World LeadersWorld Leaders would come here and all kinds of political leaders and the most prominent being Woodrow Wilson coming out here when hes trying to give bryan support in the 1912 convention. There were a lot of People International and National Leaders would come and stop by to see bryan in this home. Right now we are in the lower level is the main activity where the family took place. We are in the office area right now. Thats where bryan and mary had their office and did their work and she was a very active partner in his career. Very accomplished lady, valedictorian of her College Dallas and got a law degree here at the university of nebraska. Studied german so she could read the european newspapers to see what they were staying about bryan. She was a very active in his political career. This desk is a replica of the desk that was in his study. You can see the two chairs, bryan used to sat in one chair and mary sat the other. Reflected the team of his political career. There is as couple of telephones over there that i would point out, at the time there were two independent Telephone Company in lincoln. If you just subscribe to one, you could not talk to somebody that just subscribe to the other. They had to subscribe to both. Here ace political newsletter they published close to 20 years which was similar to the national review. Had a huge circulation of the country and probably greater than any of those magazine that i mentioned. He got a chance to tell his political view in that circulation. Hes famous for being one of the greatest of the country of the time. Hes the most famous by far of the speech he gave in the 1896 democratic convention. Famous across the gold speech which really turned that nomination over to him. [ inaudible ] we cannot have the nation to help us. We. Reporter if they dare to come out in the open field and defend the Gold Standard, well fight them, having behind us the producing master of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests and laborerilabore laboring interest and the parlor everywhere. Well answer demands for the Gold Standard by saying to them, you shall not press down from the crown of labor. You shall not crucify mankind up on a pot of gold. Bryan had this huge voice that you can hear all over the hall. In those days of course, there were not microphones and loud speakers or etcetera, he was in a huge hall and most speakers could not be heard by a lot of people. Bryan had this booming voice so they could hear him and he gave this arousing speech of the final line. Again, it was the main issue in that election was Monetary Policy and whether we stay on the Gold Standard or add silver to the money supply. And, after he made that speech, people got so excited, they carried him out on their shoulder and he was nominated as a nominee at the age of 36. The impact that bryan had is have few people realized the impact he had on policy in general. Because when he came onto the scene, the Democratic Party was the more conservative party. Bryan was very much a liberal in his politics and liberal in his politics and he turned the party on his head and never gone back. He was the predecessor to Franklin Roosevelt and new deal and president Johnsons Great Society and the wall street journal did a feature article comparing obama to bryan but of the redistribution fiphilosophyf government. Our profile continues on thursday night with a look of leaders and social Party Candidates eugene debs. He ran for office in the 28 century. Thats at 8 00 eastern time here on cspan 3. Coming up next, author edward o donnel talks about the economic in equality known as the gilded age. A reformer took up the fight o against the separation of classes on behalf of the Labor Movement. The Gotham Center for new york city history hosted this hour and twenty minute event. Thank you very much and thank you suzanne and thank you to the Gotham Center. I know some of you came out tonight, i know some of you are saying Republican Debate or henry george. Hopefully, you will be glad that you did. It is great to come back to Gotham Center. I have done many talks and people i worked with. I finally get to talk about this henry george book. Let me jump right in by showing you a photo and getting personally here. Thats me when i started this book. And you may can see that i dont look quite that young anymore. A little hairier and all. The funny thing is just after i decided to write this book when i was in graduate school. Hey, the henry george tree in central park and i said no, i did not no that. About five days later, it is 840 acres, it is bigger than monaco. I reached down to tie my shoe and there i tied my shoes next to the henrys george tree. This was a cosmic science of some sort, i am on the right track and i better do it. And we actually happen to have a camera with us, too which was kind of funny. I have been working on this for so long and one of my daughters is now 25, she used to ask me when are you going to finish that or have you finished your book on curious george. I will not tell you the details, life is what happens when you make firm plans. My first book is now out as my fourth book and it is thrilling to have it out and it is also in a strange way is a better time for it to come out. I would not have planned it this way. It is a better time for it to come out because of the real vent relevant and of the problems thats dogging our society right now. History repeats itself. Mark twain had it right. History does not repeat itself but it rhymes. There is an echo and there is a rhyme and a reflection of that earlier period. You can see this in literature. You can look at the titles of this book and of the title or subtit subtitle. Asking this question about are we in the second gilded age and what does it mean . It is a depressing thought to think that we are back in the guiilded age. Another reason and another way i would like to talk about henry george of this figure of the 19 century and making connection in the presence is another of ways that he is the Tomas Piketty of the late 19 century. They sold 500,000 copies. I think they would have been psyched if they sold 50,000. Hes essentially arguing the same point that henry george did which is extreme and enquality wealth can be there is a lot to worry about when it comes to in equality. It is not just some people having a lot of stuff and other people have less stuff. It is very large implications for our society. Lets begin and talk about who this henry george was. He was born in 1839 to a lower middle class family. His father was a manufacture, book sales man. A lot of people think because he wrote his famous book on poverty that he grown up in poverty. He experienced that in his middle years, final extreme. He left school at 7th grade and his parents got fed up with it. His father steered him in the trade where he would learn the craft of typesetting. George flourished as a typesetter but he was ambitious. In the mid 1850s, he headed out to california. Hes an ambitious guy. He had this idea hes destined for something great. Once he got out of california, he tried things and failed and sleeping in barns and really experiencing poverty full on and often off and on and he would succeed something and fail. The good thing is the printing of trade, always guaranteed himself some kind of work. It got him in the door of journalism. He went from the typesetting room to do spot writing and editing and became a successful editor out there in california for a whole bunch of newspaper and started his own paper and so forth. His life was even though he got married and began to have children, he kept constantly doing well and writing on top of the world or he could sell his newspaper in order to do Something Else and then that would fall through. He had a lot of oh, there he is looking at his younger years at age 25 when hes out there on the make in california. Um, the one way i try to and i like to bring across this idea of him experiencing this kind of rise and fall is sort of embl emblemmatic of his boom. He writes his own diaries. He believes that if he works hard enough and tries hard enough and makes good decisions, hes guaranteed to succeed. Hes always ch here he is almost of a new years eve resolution of determination and feeling the bad situation a. Theyre failing because there were Larger Forces that work. He ends this entry, saw his landlady and told her that he was not able to pay for land. Henry george hes shaped by the troubling duality of the gilded age. It is a great metaphor. It suggests that on the one hand, things looking golden and it is a golden age and it is an amazing age of technology and Wealth Creation of innovation and booming cities and so forth. Things looking great. Butten, on the other hand like a piece of guild ilded age, if yo scratch off the gold, whats underneath there is a dark piece of iron. It is not exciting. Thats the image of the gilded age that has this great pazzas. Beneath the surface is seriously bad. George will take that duty a dualty and captured. As he says it is the great problem of the age. We dont want to get ahead of ourselves. Okay, lets begin with looking at this idea of progress. How optimistic and upbeat people were in the late 19th century of what was going on. Here is president grover cleveland. And you can find peaches and president ial address had this kind of talk. The growth and expansion of our country, the wonderful thrift and enterprise of our people and the demonstrated superior of your free government. Free government and Free Enterprise and everything is great. We are booming along. The panic of 1893 kicks in and the economy crashes and it is not so good looking. Clevelands words are really reflective of how people spoke of all Public Events and president ial addresses and so forth of how great things were in that era. They are not making it up. Jest just take a look at some of these numbers from the greatest period of american industrialization of his third of the 19 century of the guild l a gilded age. Just take steel to exampfor exa it is like a boutique industry. Really incredible out put. There is Wealth Creation here. The United States is going in the 1860s from a developing country, kind of like brazil is today to the worlds most dominant economy. Thats just in 40 years. It is a pretty astonishing ride. Thats a big national celebration, really in some ways equivalent to these people mis minds of the landing on the moon. It was a huge break through at the time and so as the trans continental railroad. It is tremendous it essentially broadcast 19 century style by telegraphs across the country. People in the public areas in new york and boston and chicago and everywhere all erupted in tears when the continents expand. The philadelphia centennial was a huge world fair. It drove millions and millions of people around the world. The showcase event is technology. The core less generator right there on the right of the most amazing machine generator on earth. Kind of muscle flexing of Americas Technology and in j like today of the brooklyns bridge. It takes us and a lot of nostalgia associated with the Brooklyn Bridge. When it was opened in 1883, it was the most advance piece of technology and certainly in the United States and in the world. It was a complex machine and it was the great example of what steel could do and so millions of people turned out unveiling of the Brooklyn Bridge. Everybody came. When people gave their speeches talking about this glorious event, they use the word progress over and over again. There is a lot to celebrate this in time period. If you went to the Brooklyn Bridge ceremonies, you would not have to walk far from the Brooklyn Bridge to find poverties. There is no question that there is poverty in this period. People who were optimistic of everything going great and we dont need to change anything had various responses to poverty. One was a fairly traditional one and you see my people on the right, thats an irish couple sitting and not bothered by their poverty. Josephi josephine, her attitude is very traditional. She thinks the problem with poverty is there is so much charity. She creates an organization of society. In truth is the charity o of there is way too many groceries need to be had. We need to cut this down so we can help the poor seeing virtue of hard work. A march whharsh view emerged an it is called social darwinism. This concept of essentially assigning a scientific and dividing plan of poverty. You hear these words coming out of the mouth of Johnny Rockefeller and carnegie. No ambiguity there. It is the way of the world is for the poor and the drunkard. And thankfully when they die they dont have anymore babies. What publication did this come p from . This comes from a religiou religious this is mainstream talk by people trying to make sense of things. If you believe this, you do not have to worry about poverty. It is going to take care of itself and the poor you shall have with you, that kind of thing. On the one hand there is optimism and there is a period of tremendous anxiety. Some people were optimistic and anxious at the same time. They were not sure which direction the country is heading in. What are people worried about. Many people are worried about what appears to be a rise in poverty. Just take a look at this image here. When i show this image in public sometimes, i dont put any of the caption to it. I just say what do you see here and more importantly, what book would you associate withis with . Somebody would say dickens and thats what the artist want you to think. The late 19 century, what is the core of the american identity . Well, there are severe weathal to it. Throughout American History we are worried and in the 20th century, we are worried about communism. It takes its place. In the 19 century, are we becoming european and laslides towards the european style and fixed classes and states supported churches and end less war and social turmoil. This is an image thats really expressing that kind of anxiety. It is not in the socialist of advocate. It is in the nation weekly publication and the best selling one. So it shows wealthy family and a poor family raising questions of haves and have nots. And just to give you a sense of what people are saying. This is a quotation from one of the most important labor city leaders talking to the committee that traveled the country and trying to figure out what was going on. What led this clash of labor and capitol, why all these strikes and so forth. Look at this city of this long road and it goes on. People are living in squaller. He does not say it here. European squaller. The kind of squallers that we would think of when we think of dicke dickens. We are heading in that direction and we better do something about it. Well no longer have a republic that we would recognize. Walt wittman, the great voice of americas democracy and mostly, completely enthusiastic of america and the modern world and so forth. In 1879, he gave a speech in which he says just concentrate on what he says here. There he is. He dont want to be them and of the old world country. The United States growing vast crops and nom notwithstanding its surface successesuccesses. I have a lot of people giving voice to this kind of anxiety of the way this country is going. Wittman gets it in a couple of words. We seem to be losing our republic. Our republic experience, that phrase was with us as a country and as a society in a political culture right up in the end of the 19 century. It was a phrase that everybody used. This idea that it was fragile and unfolding and we need to care pfor the bricpublic and ma adju adjustmen adjustments. It was born in the late 18 wilhelms century and it was good. Of course, it was not really possible when one looks at the historical records. The rise of big business, business bigger than anybody could conceive. They could never conceive a Large Corporation like, you know, carnegie steel or standard oil. There is no way they could imagine a single individual could have this much power unelected and unDemocratic Party in a democracy. And here is one of my favorites, i have many of these great cartoons. This is called the bosses of the senate. Lets all take a moment and think how fortunate we are to live in a society when big business has not any sway at all in congress. The trust and the corporation that you can see them depicted as moneybags and they are fierce looking people. They are coming in through the entrance of monopolists. So who has access is the corporation and who has no access . Us. The people and the size differential is important to. Senators are little kids who are cowarding in front of the power and menace of this corporation. This again is not the nights of labor monthly. This is a mainstream middle class publication called pub magazine thats landing in middle class and upper class americans. This is a wide range anxiety of the nature of the problem in the