Chapter 17 Study Outline

  1. The populist challenge
    1. The farmers' plight
      1. Generally
        1. Falling agricultural prices
        2. Growing economic dependency
      2. Regional variants
        1. In trans-Mississippi West
        2. In South
    2. Farmers Alliance
      1. Origins and spread
      2. Strategies
        1. Initial cooperative approach; "exchanges"
        2. Turn to "subtreasury plan," political engagement
    3. The People's (Populist) Party
      1. Scope of following
      2. Grassroots mobilization
      3. Guiding vision
        1. Commonwealth of small producers as fundamental to freedom
        2. Restoration of democracy and economic opportunity
        3. Expansion of federal power
      4. The populist platform; the Omaha convention
    4. Populist coalition
      1. Interracial alliance
        1. Extent
        2. Limits
      2. Involvement of women
        1. Mary Elizabeth Lease
        2. Support for women's suffrage
      3. Electoral showing for 1892
    5. The government and labor
      1. Context
        1. Economic collapse of 1893
        2. Resurgence of conflict between labor and capital
        3. Sharpening of government repression of labor
      2. Key episodes
        1. Miners strike at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
        2. Coxey's Army
        3. Pullman strike
      3. Populists and labor
        1. Some success among miners
        2. Minimal success among urban workers; preference for Republicans
    6. Election of 1896
      1. Campaign of William Jennings Bryan and "free silver"
        1. Joint support by Democrats and Populists
        2. Electrifying rhetoric
        3. Themes
          1. Free silver
          2. Social Gospel overtones
          3. Vision of activist government
        4. National tour to rally farmers and workers
      2. Campaign of William McKinley
        1. Insistence on gold standard
        2. Massive financial support from big business
        3. National political machine; Mark Hanna
      3. Outcome of the election of 1896
        1. Sharp regional divide
        2. McKinley victory
      4. Significance and legacy
        1. Emergence of modern campaign tactics
        2. Launching of Republican political dominance
        3. Fading of Populism
  2. The segregated South
    1. Redeemers in power
      1. Dismantling of Reconstruction programs
      2. Convict lease system
    2. Failures of the New South
      1. Limits of economic development
      2. Persistence of regional poverty
    3. Black life in the South
      1. Rural
        1. Varied prospects around region
        2. Elusive quest for land
      2. Urban
        1. Network of community institutions
        2. The black middle class
        3. Racially exclusive labor markets
          1. For black men
          2. For black women
      3. Pockets of interracial unionism
      4. Kansas Exodus
    4. Decline of black politics
      1. Narrowing of political opportunity for black men
      2. Shifting of political initiative to black women
        1. National Association of Colored Women
        2. Middle-class orientation
        3. Pursuit of equal rights and racial uplift
        4. Range of activities
    5. Disfranchisement
      1. Persistence of black voting following Reconstruction
      2. Mounting alarm over specter of biracial insurgency
      3. Elimination of black vote, state by state
      4. Justifications and motivations
      5. Effects
        1. Massive purging of blacks from voting rolls
        2. Widespread disfranchisement of poor whites as well
        3. Emergence of southern white demagogues
      6. The North's blessing
        1. Senate
        2. Supreme Court
    6. The law of segregation
      1. Fluidity of race relations following Reconstruction
      2. Green light from Supreme Court for legal segregation
        1. Civil Rights Cases
        2. Plessy v. Ferguson
          1. "Separate but equal" doctrine
          2. Justice Harlan dissent
      3. Spread of segregation laws across South
      4. Unreality of "separate but equal"
      5. Segregation as component of overall white domination
      6. Social etiquette of segregation
      7. Effects on other "non-white" groups
    7. Rise of lynching
      1. Motivations
      2. Shocking brutality
      3. The "rape" myth
      4. Ida B. Wells's antilynching crusade
      5. A distinctively American phenomenon
    8. The politics of memory
      1. Civil War as "family quarrel" among white Americans
      2. Reconstruction as horrible time of "Negro rule"
      3. Erasure of blacks as historical actors
  3. Redrawing the boundaries; contrasting notions of nationhood
    1. The new immigration and new Nativism
      1. Against "new immigrants" from southern and eastern Europe
        1. Depictions of "new immigrants"
          1. As lower "races"
          2. As threat to American democracy
        2. Campaigns to curtail
          1. Immigration Restriction League
          2. Efforts to bar entry into United States
          3. State disfranchisement measures
      2. Chinese exclusion and Chinese rights
        1. Congressional exclusion of Chinese women
        2. Congressional exclusion of all Chinese
          1. Passage in 1882
          2. Renewal in 1892, 1902
        3. Discrimination and violence against Chinese-Americans
        4. Uneven positions of Supreme Court on rights of Chinese
          1. Yick Wo v. Hopkins
          2. United States v. Wong Kim Ark
          3. Fong Yue Ting
        5. Precedent for legal exclusion of other groups
    2. The emergence of Booker T. Washington
      1. Background on Washington
      2. 1895 Atlanta address
      3. Washington approach
        1. Repudiation of claim to full equality
        2. Acceptance of segregation
        3. Emphasis on material self-help, individual advancement, alliance with white employers
    3. American Federation of Labor and the scaling back of labor's outlook
      1. Rise of the AFL, Samuel Gompers
      2. AFL-Gompers approach
        1. Repudiation of broad reform vision, political engagement, direct confrontation with capital
        2. Emphasis on bargaining with employers over wages and conditions; "business unionism"
        3. Narrower ideal of labor solidarity
          1. Concentration on skilled labor sectors
          2. Exclusion of blacks, women, new immigrants
    4. Ambiguities of the "women's era"
      1. Widening prospects for economic independence
      2. Expanding role in public life
        1. Growing network of women's organizations, campaigns
        2. Women's Christian Temperance Union
      3. Growing elitism of women's suffrage movement
        1. Ethnic
        2. Racial
  4. Becoming a world power
    1. The new imperialism
      1. Traditional empires
      2. Consolidation and expansion of imperial powers
      3. Cultural justifications for imperial domination
    2. Abstention of United States from scramble for empire before 1890s
      1. Continuing status as second-rate power
      2. Confinement of national expansion to North American continent
      3. Minimal record of overseas territorial acquisition
      4. Preference for expanded trade over colonial holdings
    3. American expansionism
      1. Leading advocates
        1. Josiah Strong (Our Country)
        2. Alfred T. Mahan (The Influence of Sea Power Upon History)
      2. Themes
        1. Moral
          1. Global application of manifest destiny
          2. Uplift of "inferior races"
        2. Economic
          1. Expanded markets for American goods
          2. Protection of international trade
        3. Strategic
      3. Influence
    4. Intervention in Hawaii
      1. American trade and military agreements
      2. Economic dominance of American sugar planters
      3. Overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani
    5. Rise of assertive nationalism
      1. Contributing factors
        1. Depression-era quest for foreign markets
        2. Concern over economic and ethnic disunity
      2. Manifestations
        1. Rituals
          1. Pledge of Allegiance
          2. "Star-Spangled Banner"
          3. Flag Day
        2. Yellow journalism
    6. Spanish-American War—"The Splendid Little War"
      1. Background
        1. Long Cuban struggle for independence from Spain
        2. Renewal of struggle in 1895
          1. Harsh Spanish response
          2. Growing American sympathy for Cuban cause
      2. Toward intervention
        1. Destruction of battleship Maine
        2. War fever, fanned by yellow press
        3. U.S. declaration of war; Teller Amendment
      3. The war
        1. In Philippines
          1. Admiral George Dewey's victory at Manila Bay
          2. Landing of American troops
        2. In Cuba and Puerto Rico
          1. Landing of American troops
          2. Naval victory off Santiago
          3. Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders; legendary charge up San Juan Hill
        3. Swift defeat of Spain
    7. From liberator to imperial power
      1. Postwar attainment of overseas empire
        1. Varied arrangements
          1. Annexation of Hawaii
          2. Acquisition of Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam
          3. Qualified sovereignty for Cuba; Platt Amendment
        2. Value as outposts for U.S. naval and commercial power
      2. Open Door policy
      3. Initial welcome in former Spanish colonies for U.S. forces
        1. As agent of expanded trade and social order
        2. As agent of social reform and national self-rule
      4. Growing disenchantment in Philippines
        1. Founding of provisional government by Emilio Aguinaldo
        2. U.S. failure to recognize; insistence on retaining possession
      5. Philippine war
        1. Bloodiness and brutality
        2. Controversy in United States
        3. Outcome
      6. Legacy of poverty and inequality in American possessions
    8. Status of territorial peoples
      1. Limits on claims to American freedom
        1. Foraker Act
        2. Insular Cases
      2. Divergent futures for American territories
        1. Hawaii (statehood)
        2. Philippines (independence)
        3. Guam ("unincorporated" territory)
        4. Puerto Rico (commonwealth)
    9. Drawing the global color line
      1. Americans spread racial views to new colonial possessions
      2. Embraced the idea of "white man's burden;" paternalism
      3. Other nations influenced by U.S. attitudes and policies
    10. American debate over imperial expansion
      1. Opponents (Anti-Imperialist League): "republic or empire?"
      2. Proponents: "benevolent" imperialism
  5. America at dawn of twentieth century
Last modified: Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 7:27 AM