1. Civilisation des Etats-Unis 9a: Gilded Age Prof. Sämi LUDWIG

2. “Gilded Age” < novel by Mark Twain and Dudley Warner Industrialization, social changes after the Civil War robber barons or “captains of industry”? - Adam Smith’s laissez-faire economics → “the hidden hand” - Herbert Spencer’s “social darwinism” → “survival of the fittest”

3. vs. Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives (1890) → flash lights in slums, New York immigrants

5. Transportation: - no waterways going east-west 1800-1830 “Turnpike Era” = toll roads 1825-1840 “Canal Era” Erie Canal: Great Lakes to Hudson River → but winter? Steamboat Era on Western rivers: 1829: 200; 1852: thousands! Mississippi via New Orleans L: Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi (1883)

6. Cornelius Vanderbilt - Steamboats - New York Central RR - Pennsylvania RR - Erie RR - university in Nashville TN → robber baron!

7. Railroads 1840: 2808 miles 1860: 30’626 miles to Chicago, St. Louis (gate to the West) Transcontinental Railroad: 1862 Congress charters Union Pacific Railroad Company Central Pacific Railroad Company 50% profit → Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington

8. Venture capitalism : government pays private operators - 130 million acres to railroads - get loans, subsidies - blackmail towns Alternate blocks: 10 square miles along RR to government & to developers

10. 1869 Promontory Point, Utah - golden spike ceremony - no Chinese laborers shown

11. Industrialization: Northeast, water power: Lowell Mills, MA

12. corporate revolution: financial needs for investments Partnership: unlimited liability local, small Corporation as “legal person” national, large, Inc. Ltd. = limited liability of stock owners - “general incorporation laws”

13. Industrial production methods 1798 Eli Whitney’s cotton gin interchangeable parts: Civil War rifles, Colt revolver “the American system”

14. Henry Ford - assembly line 1917 Model T, cut price from $950 to $290

15. ready-made clothing: 1856 sewing machine (Isaac Singer) Civil War uniforms (regular sizes) Advertising: packaging for shipment

16. American inventions: - ice box: Frederic Tudor, Boston: the “Ice King” 1833 ice shipped to Calcutta, ice cubes, “iced tea”! - 1839 Charles Goodyear invents vulcanized rubber - Bessemer process makes steel stronger - Thomas Edison, “The Wizard of Menlo Park” 1879 light bulb, phonograph - Graham Bell: telephone → BELL company

17. Scientific farming vs. wasteful farmers 1830: John Deere’s steel plow 1835-1880: wheat harvest multiplies six times Frederick Winslow Taylor: The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) → uses stop watch, more efficient processes 1899-1909 labor force: plus 40% and production: plus 78%

18. Steam-driven machines: - monotonous work, minimal skills - “factory girls” & children = new labor class Growths of city population disturbs rural majority Ferdinand Tönnies: from “Gemeinschaft” to “Gesellschaft” (community to society) 1898 redefinition of 14th Amendment: “nor shall any state deprive any person of of life, liberty or property, without the due process of the law.” → “person” as corporation (Inc.)!