Chapter #16 Summary
“The Triumph of a National Marketplace,
1877-1893"
This chapter deals with the economic and social
uncertainty that characterized the period between 1877, when Reconstruction
ended, and 1893, when a crash on Wall Street precipitated yet another
nationwide economic downturn. This period saw much that was positive, including
as economic progress, continued western settlement, urban development, and
technological and communication advances that revolutionized American life.
Large corporations such as Standard Oil, Carnegie Steel, and the American
Tobacco Company, to name only three, consolidated their operations, enjoyed
tremendous economies of scale that drove their competitors out of business, and
took hold of their respective areas of enterprise, petroleum, steel, and
cigarette manufacturing. If consolidation was good for businesses, though, it
was not always good for consumers, as it allowed for high prices and other
unfair practices. To help consumers, this period saw the first steps toward
government regulation of business in measures like the Interstate Commerce Act,
which established a government agency to monitor railroad rates to ensure that
they were "reasonable and just," and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act,
which outlawed business conglomerates that unfairly restricted competition.
Workers and farmers also faced difficulties as a result of economic
consolidation and industrialization, but they were forced to take matters into
their own hands when government proved largely unresponsive to their demands
for assistance. Labor unions like the Knights of Labor and the American
Federation of Labor worked to improve conditions for laborers, while the
Grange, the Populist party, and the Farmers' Alliance
focused on the problems of agriculture. None of these groups was particularly
successful, and all hope of reform came to a halt when the economy collapsed in
1893. In time, both the Populists and the Farmers' Alliance adopted broad-based
reform platforms designed to appeal to all who suffered at the hands of
industrial society. Progress on their agencies would have to wait for a
national consensus on the need for reform, and that consensus would not develop
until the early years of the twentieth century.
Once again Wadsworth provides the basic
storyline. However, it is your goal to try to begin to think “historically”
about issues linking the different periods together. To paraphrase 20th
century historian E.H. Carr in The Craft of History it is a historian’s
responsibility to get the facts right, however, what separates a good historian
from a bad one is in the interpretation and analysis.
So the question here to consider is the very
fact that some historians have argued that the “fortunes of labour” are
essentially cyclical and that the gains that the labour movement makes rise and
fall in relation to economic and social forces. So beginning with the Great
Uprising of 1877, the Depression of 1893, the postwar labour revolt of
1917-1920 (which you will get to in a subsequent chapter), and any other dates
and periods you believe are important, make the case either for or against a
cyclical analysis of the past.
