US History II

Here are the instructions for our virtual class on Monday, Sept 29. Continue reading →

School is cancelled today because of the snowstorm. If you are done with your paper you may email it to me. If you’d like to keep working on it, I will also accept your printed paper on Monday 3/11 in class. Reminder that the reading for Monday is ACH Ch 23 p. 711-723 “The New Deal’s Impact on Society.”

Note: the online quiz is STILL OPENING today at 9:00 am. It will be open, for up to 3 attempts (20 minutes per attempt) from now until 9:00 am Friday March 15th.

Here are the slides I would have used in class today; you can study from these along with pages 696-711 in your textbook. Click on the fullscreen icon to enlarge the slides. I realize there’s an error on slide 7 – the Bonus Army was in 1932, NOT 1929.

Take care, see you Monday!

Due to ongoing snow removal, there is no class today and campus is closed. Materials are posted below from last Friday’s “online class” including this downloadable study guide for the in-class exam on Friday 2/15.

On Wednesday 2/13 we will have a workshop during class based on Chapter 18. Please read the Henretta ACH chapter 18 ahead of time, and bring the Fernlund reader Documents for America’s History with you to class on Wednesday.

Thanks, stay safe! See you Wednesday.

Recommended viewing this week, related to Chapter 18 –

Watch Women of PROHIBITION: Frances Willard & Mary Hanchett Hunt on PBS. See more from Prohibition.

Since when did we begin naming snowstorms? Anyway. We don’t have class today; this is the “online version” instead. Stay safe and warm today!

Some quick reminders and news:

• Please remember that the online quiz is open until 9:00 am Friday 2/8.
• Your SkillBuilder is due Friday morning on the regular schedule, by the start of your classtime. Send it as an email attachment (.doc, .docx, or .rtf) with your LAST NAME as the start of the filename. Example: Hangen.Skillbuilder3
• Next Friday will be in-class exam #1 – click here to download the study guide. You may bring with you to the exam ONE 3×5 index card with anything you want on it.
• The reading for Monday is ACH Chapter 18 (the entire chapter – read for main ideas, not for the little details)
• Got questions? Leave a comment, or email me. See you Monday!

Today’s reading was ACH Ch 17, p. 528-537 about labor organizing. Begin by thinking about some of the wretched conditions that late 19th century workers experienced (click on any of the pictures for more details).

Child Labor

Dangerous, Dirty Workplaces

No Compensation for Workplace Injury

Unregulated Waste Disposal

Poor Quality Housing

(All of these photographs were taken by Lewis Hine, in his work documenting American workers for the National Child Labor Committee. Click here to see more of Hine’s work)

Between 1870 and 1900, there were a number of movements and organizations that sought to unite the “producing classes” – which included both wage laborers and farmers, since both groups saw themselves “at the mercy of large corporations” (Henretta 529). Such movements include:

• Grange (founded 1867) – cooperative rural aid society that provided meeting halls, banks, insurance, grain storage, and farm equipment. Supported paper currency (Greenbacks) and allied with labor in some parts of the country to form the Greenback-Labor political party.
• Knights of Labor, which started as a fraternal society for garment workers and expanded to be a large and politically active organization that included both men and women, skilled and unskilled, and black and white. Their motto was “An Injury to One Is the Concern of All.” Their leader was Terence Powderly and they were at the height of their influence in 1886 (due in part to the tireless work of Leonora Barry) when the Haymarket Riot decimated their public image and their membership numbers plummeted. We do have the KL to thank for Labor Day, though.
• Farmers’ Alliances, which took up many of the same issues that Grange and Greenbackers had and tried to organize a system of cooperative exchanges for crops and farm products, and helped pass the Hatch Act and the legislation that formed the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).
• The American Federation of Labor, led for many years by Samuel Gompers of the Cigar-Makers Union, which took a very different strategy and focused more narrowly on negotiating wages, benefits and working conditions directly with employers.

Question for reflection: Who–or what kinds of workers–were included within and who might have been left out of these labor organizations. Who benefited, and who didn’t, and why?