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AP US History

AP US History. What are some apparent contradictions regarding the views of social Darwinism and the gospel of wealth? Can these ideas coincide?. Capitalism and its Critics. Herbert Spencer (English philosopher)- society benefited from the elimination of the unfit.

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AP US History

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  1. AP US History What are some apparent contradictions regarding the views of social Darwinism and the gospel of wealth? Can these ideas coincide?

  2. Capitalism and its Critics • Herbert Spencer (English philosopher)- society benefited from the elimination of the unfit. • William G. Sumner (Yale)- similar ideas in the book Folkways • Business supported social Darwinism yet used business practices to eliminate “cutthroat competition”

  3. Gospel of Wealth • Andrew Carnegie- trust funds for the good of the community • Russell Conwell (Baptist minister)- Acres of Diamonds… found wealth in their own backyards • Horatio Alger- rags to riches • Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women- spoke for women via nonconventional advancement i.e. not through marriage.

  4. Immigrant Workforce • Changing tide of immigration from mainly Irish and Asian to Eastern Europeans (Italians, Poles, Russians, Greeks, Slavs) • 25 million from 1865 to 1915 (4 times as many as previously arrived 50 years earlier). • Labor Contract Law- allowed for business to recruit immigrants by paying for their passage to the United States. • After repeal continued recruitment through foreign born labor brokers… Greek and Italian Padrones • Clashes between old immigrants and new began as old immigrant work was replaced with cheaper new immigrants

  5. Income and Work • Average income $400-500 a year ($600 dollars would have been a stable income) • Income was particularly susceptible to the business cycle- often wages were cut due to economic hard times.

  6. Industrialization… • Fredrick Winslow Taylor • Time & Motion Studies… Principles of Scientific Management • Piecework- paid by production rather than by the hour • Technological changeover from skilled labor to machine work- lack of pride in the work. • Decrease in need for skilled labor led to the use of women in children in the work place.

  7. Women in the workplace • Generally were not working in heavy manual labor areas or where skilled labor was needed. • Concentrated mainly in the textile industry (aside from domestic service). • Women worked for lower wages.

  8. Children in the Labor force • 1.7 children between 10-15 worked (10% girls, 20% boys) • 60% of child labor was in agriculture (no restrictions applied) • 38 states passed child restrictions… minimum 12 years and 10 hours max- but few employers adhered to this.

  9. Critics… • Lester Frank Ward (sociologist)… in Dynamic Sociology- civilization was not governed by natural selection, people could use intelligence to shape society… and government should intervene in positive planning to help. • Socialist Labor Party- led by Daniel De Leon… precursor to American Socialist Party • Henry George- Progress and Poverty: single tax on land • Edward Bellamy- Looking Backward

  10. Emergence of the Union • Craft Unions prior to the Civil War • Weak and disbanded in heard economic times- workers were largely blamed for economic problems. • Molly Maguires- militant coal miners in the western Pennsylvania: blamed for violence

  11. Knights of Labor • Noble Order of the Knights of Labor- Uriah S. Stephens (all who toiled) • 8 hour work day and end to child labor (really wanted long range change to working conditions- cooperative system) • Terence V. Powderly- opened the union out of secret membership. Grew to 700,000 but lost credit after a series of railroad strikes dropped them to 100,000.

  12. The American Federation of Labor • AFL- rivals to the Knights of Labor • Unlike the Knights- broken into trade/craft unions • Samuel Gompers… wages, hours, conditions • Immediate demand to have an 8 hour day (May 1, 1886 or a general strike).

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