A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era presents a collection of new historiographic essays covering the years between 1877 and 1920, a period which saw the U.S. emerge from the ashes of Reconstruction to become a world power.

• The single, definitive resource for the latest state of knowledge relating to the history and historiography of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
• Features contributions by leading scholars in a wide range of relevant specialties
• Coverage of the period includes geographic, social, cultural, economic, political, diplomatic, ethnic, racial, gendered, religious, global, and ecological themes and approaches
• In today’s era, often referred to as a “second Gilded Age,” this book offers relevant historical analysis of the factors that helped create contemporary society
• Fills an important chronological gap in period-based American history collections

Notes on Contributors vii

Introduction: Gilded Excesses, Multiple Progressivisms 1
Christopher McKnight Nichols and Nancy C. Unger

Part I Overview‐Definitions, Precursors, and Geographies 5

1 Reconstructing the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 7
Heather Cox Richardson

2 Precursors to Gilded Age and Progressive Era Reforms 21
James M. Beeby and Brian M. Ingrassia

3 Urban America 31
Michael B. Kahan

4 The South 44
Amy Louise Wood

5 The Midwest and Far West during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 58
Thomas J. Jablonsky

6 Environment: Nature, Conservation, and the Progressive State 71
Benjamin Johnson

Part II Sex, Race, and Gender 85

7 Gender 87
Kimberly A. Hamlin

8 Inventing Sexuality: Ideologies, Identities, and Practices in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 102
Leigh Ann Wheeler

9 African Americans 116
Omar H. Ali

10 From Dispossessed Wards to Citizen Activists: American Indians Survive the Assimilation Policy Era 124
Alexandra Harmon

11 Race, Immigration, and Ethnicity 137
Julie Greene

Part III Art, Thought, and Culture 149

12 Art and Architecture 151
Alan Lessoff

13 Religion in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 165
Matthew Bowman

14 Journalism 178
Bruce J. Evensen

15 Popular Culture 19
Julia Guarneri

Part IV Economics, Science, and Technology 203

16 American Capitalism: From the Atlantic Economy to Domestic Industrialization 205
Noam Maggor

17 Nonprofit Organizations, Philanthropy, and Civil Society 215
David C. Hammack

18 Labor and Class in the GAPE: Fruitful Opposition and the Specter of the Middle Class 229
David Huyssen

19 Science and Technology 243
Alan I Marcus

20 The Rise of a Modern Concept of “Health” 255
David G. Schuster

Part V Political Leadership 269

21 Gilded Age Presidents 271
Justus D. Doenecke

22 Political Movers and Shakers 284
Karen Pastorello

23 Changing Interpretations of Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era 296
Kathleen Dalton

24 Woodrow Wilson 308
Lloyd E. Ambrosius

Part VI Government, Politics, and Law 321

25 Pivotal Elections 323
Sidney M. Milkis and Anthony Sparacino

26 Congress in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 339
Mark Wahlgren Summers

27 Revising Constitutional History 350
Logan E. Sawyer III

28 Radicalism and Conservatism 362
Cristina V. Groeger

Part VII The United States and the World 379

29 Connections, Networks, and the Beginnings of a Global America in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 381
Ian Tyrrell

30 Empire, Expansion, and Its Consequences 399
Allan E. S. Lumba

31 The United States in the World during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 410
Katherine Unterman

Part VIII Major Works and Contemporary Relevance 421

32 Decades of Upheaval and Reform 423
Maureen A. Flanagan

33 Influential Works about the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 437
Robert D. Johnston

34 Why the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Still Matter 450
Michael Kazin

Bibliography 454

Index 507

"Scholars of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, along with graduate and undergraduate students, will fine A Companion to the Golded Age and Progressive Era, edited by Christopher McKnight Nichols and Nancy C. Unger, an essential resource. The thirty-four essays contained within it, arranged in eight thematic sections are authored by a combination of the field's leading scholars and its rising stars. These pieces range from good to excellent. Overall, this volume combines a profound appreiation for the historians who have long defined this period...with a commitment to moving beyond the belief in American exceptionalism that, consciously or not, guided their writings. Specifically, key essays in this Companion contextualize the GAPE within a global framework."
REVIEWED BY JOHN P. ENYEART, Bucknell University in the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (October 2018)

Christopher McKnight Nichols is professor of history and Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, at the Ohio State University. An Andrew Carnegie Fellow and award-winning scholar and teacher, Nichols is the author or editor of six books, including Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age (2011) and Rethinking American Grand Strategy (2021).

Nancy C. Unger, President of the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2021-2023, is Professor of History at Santa Clara University. She is the author of the award-winning biographies Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer (2000; revised paperback 2008), and Belle La Follette: Progressive Era Reformer (2016). Her book Beyond Nature’s Housekeepers: American Women in Environmental History (2012), was a California Book Award Finalist.

A COMPANION TO THE GILDED AGE AND PROGRESSIVE ERA

Characterized by social upheavals, rapid industrialization, and unprecedented economic growth, the long Gilded Age and Progressive Era represents one of the most fascinating and instructive times in American history. A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era presents a collection of new historiographic and historical essays covering the years between 1877 and 1920, a period which saw the United States emerge from the turmoil of Reconstruction to become a world power. Featuring contributions from top scholars writing in their field of expertise, the book explores this critical period of America’s past through a variety of innovative approaches and scholarly lenses: social, cultural, economic, political, diplomatic, ethnic, racial, gendered, religious, global, and ecological. It provides a multi-faceted, in-depth compendium of rich scholarship that interprets the history and historiography of the period and assesses current work on its key themes, topics, and individuals. After providing an overview of events that paved the way to the Gilded Age in different regions of the country, chapters explore general topics relating to such themes as sexuality, race, science and technology, education, and politics, focusing on government, legislation and the judiciary, and featuring analysis of all the period’s presidents, concluding with Woodrow Wilson. After considering the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world, the final chapters evaluate major works of and about the period and the era’s relevance today. A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is an essential resource that adds immeasurably to the body of knowledge about one of the most important periods of US history.