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 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
imberly 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 190
Julia Guarneri

Part IV Economics, Science, and Technology 203

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

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
loyd E. Ambrosius

Part VI Government, Politics, and Law 321

25 Pivotal Elections 323
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 Associate Professor of History at Ohio State University. He is author of the award-winning book, Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age (2011), co-editor of Prophesies of Godlessness: Predictions of America's Imminent Secularization from the Puritans to the Present Day (2008), and Senior Editor of the two volume Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History (2013).

Nancy C. Unger is Professor of History at Santa Clara University. She is the author of Beyond Nature's Housekeepers: American Women in Environmental History (2012) and the award-winning biographies Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer (2000), and Belle La Follette: Progressive Era Reformer (2016).

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 U.S. emerge from the ashes of Reconstruction to become a world power. Featuring contributions from top scholars writing in their field of expertise, essays explore this critical period of America's past from a variety of innovative approaches and scholarly lenses: social, cultural, economic, political, diplomatic, ethnic, racial, gendered, religious, global, and ecological. Essays provide a multi-faceted and in-depth compendium of the rich scholarship that offers interpretations of the history and historiography of the period, as well as assessments of current leading works 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, essays explore general topics relating to such themes as sexuality, race, science and technology, education, and more. Readings focus on government, politics, and law, and feature essays on the period’s presidents, concluding with Woodrow Wilson. After considering the relationship between the U.S. and the rest of the world, the final essays evaluate major works of and about the era and address 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 U.S. history.