Since the creation of the United States, the meaning of freedom has changed to meet changing attitudes. Throughout our nation’s history, there have been significant periods of racial, economic and civil rights inequalities. There are different meanings for freedoms that have been established throughout the historical period of the United States. During this modern era, the US had certain periods of time that lived up to the ideals of freedom such as the Gilded Age. In opposition, the US has also had periods of time where our ideals of freedom failed to meet the requirements of our nation, a prime example being the late 1940s when the US entered the Cold War and led to the anti-communism period of McCarthyism which ultimately restricted freedoms. Historical moments like these have made monumental changes to our nation’s history and have changed our fundamental ideals of freedom. In the late 1870s, the nation experienced a crucial time period known as the Gilded Age. It was a time that brought many economic freedoms to a variety of industries and was seen as the second industrial revolution which catapulted the US into the global arena of mass productions of goods. During this time period, many business empires and ideals were created. Ranging from Carnegie, Rockefeller, J.P Morgan, and Vanderbilt. These famous entrepreneurs became titans of their industries and controlled vast areas of railroads, oil, banking, and steel. The meaning of freedom during this time period was more of industrial freedom and freedom for these business owners to create and expand. This time period transformed the United States from a rural society to an urban society (Lecture 9/4/2013). The companies created opportunities for poor income workers and thei... ... middle of paper ... ... this nation. During these eras, the ideals of freedom have shaped certain time periods while also oppressing these same freedoms during times when the nation felt it was crucial for national security. As Foner states “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” (Foner, xxv). During this ‘vigilance’ the nation can still prosper but only at the expense of realistic and attainable freedoms. Without the nations long struggle to attain equal freedom for all, our country wouldn’t be as prosperous and successful as it is today. Works Cited Foner, Eric. Give Me liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print. Heller, Darryl “The Gilded Age” History of Modern America. University of Illinois at Chicago. 4 October. 2013. Lecture. Heller, Darryl “The Cold War” History of Modern America. University of Illinois at Chicago. 4 November. 2013. Lecture.
Gaddis, John Lewis. We Now Know: Rethinking the Cold War: Dividing the World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997. Publishing.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities.” (Jefferson, 1801) This idea echoed far beyond it’s time and into the minds and hearts of the Populist’s, and became the center and the driving force of the Progressive era. During the gilded age railroads were being built, Industrialization was rising, the population of United States was increasing dramatically; and corporate businesses were becoming extremely powerful. The gilded age was known for its corruption and business domination, it wasn’t until the Populist movement when people started to fight back and also not until the Progressive movement when people started changing the government system.
During the Gilded Age, several Americans emerged as leaders in many fields such as, railroads, oil drilling, manufacturing and banking. The characterization of these leaders as “robber barons” is, unfortunately, nearly always correct in every instance of business management at this time. Most, if not all, of these leaders had little regard for the public or laborers at all and advocated for the concentration of wealth within tight-knit groups of wealthy business owners.
Gaddis, John Lewis. “We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.” Taking Sides: Clashing Views On Controversial Issues in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle. 14th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 302-308.
Expansive growth was the moniker which expressly defined the Gilded Age. Industry in all sectors, witnessed massive growth leading to the creation of an American economy. Due to the rapidly changing nature of industrialization important men of both the public and private sectors attempted to institute their own controls over it. However this transforming landscape integrated both economic and political changes, but also cultural and social interactions. In turn, those who controlled the flow of business would also steadily impact the American social scene by extension. Alan Trachtenberg, professor of American studies at Yale and author of The Incorporation of America, argues that the system of incorporation unhinged the idea of national identity that all American’s had previously shared. As a result incorporation became the catalyst for the great debate about what it meant to actually be American, and who was capable of labeling themselves as such. Throughout his work Trachtenberg consistently tackles the ideas of cultural identity and how those ideas struggled against one another to be the supreme definition of Americanism. This work not only brings to life the issue of identity but it attempts to synthesize various scholarly works into a cohesive work on the Gilded Age and demonstrates that concepts developed during the incorporation of the time period have formed the basis for the American cultural, economic, and political superstructure. The Incorporation of America sets a high standard for itself one in which it doesn’t necessarily meet; however the work is still expansive and masterful at describing the arguments of the Gilded Age.
Freedom has been discussed and debated for a while now and yet no one can completely agree that it exists. Since the Civil, War America has been conditioned to be divided politically. The conflict over the meaning of freedom continues to exist from the civil war, throughout the sixties and in the present. The Civil War was fought over the question of what freedom means in America. The issue was in the open for all to see: slavery. Human slavery was the shameless face of the idea of freedom. The cultural war in the sixties was once more about the question of what freedom is and what it means to Americans. No slaves. Instead, in the sixties and seventies four main issues dominated the struggle for racial equality: opposition to discriminatory immigration controls; the fight against racist attacks; the struggle for equality in the workplace; and, most explosively, the issue of police brutality. For more than two centuries, Americans demanded successive expansions of freedom; progressive freedom. Americans wanted freedom that grants expansions of voting rights, civil rights, education, public health, scientific knowledge and protections from fear.
There is no doubt that without the entrepreneurs of the Gilded Age America’s industrialization would have taken a much slower path. After the Civil War the country seemed to become a leading industrial power overnight. Wealthy businessmen provided welfare and relieved the country of debt, while also bringing corruption and allowing for themselves to become more rich as the poor got poorer. These man should neither be regarded solely as Robber Barons nor Captains of Industry, but rather a mixture of both. Each had their own methods of achieving and maintaining their wealth, along with what they decided to do to benefit the country rather than just themselves.
In the years after the Civil War, a period of reformation began in the United States known as the Reconstruction Era. In this transformative period, the meaning of freedom – especially freedom for African-Americans – was a major topic of discussion. More specifically, after the Civil War, the dilemma over how to extend true freedom to African-American individuals in the South then came about. However, creating a social system to fairly grant this freedom to African-Americans in the South was no easy feat because there were opposing interpretations of freedom at the time. To explain, there was a debate over the meaning behind freedom, and whether it meant simply not being enslaved, having equal rights, being able to vote, or owning property.
In Eric Foner’s book, The Story of American Freedom, he writes a historical monograph about how liberty came to be. In the book, his argument does not focus on one fixed definition of freedom like others are tempted to do. Unlike others, Foner describes liberty as an ever changing entity; its definition is fluid and does not change in a linear progress. While others portray liberty as a pre-determined concept and gradually getting better, Foner argues the very history of liberty is constantly reshaping the definition of liberty, itself. Essentially, the multiple and conflicting views on liberty has always been a “terrain of conflict” and has changed in time (Foner xv).
Howard, Michael, and William Roger Louis. "Part III. The Cold War." The Oxford history of the twentieth century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. 151-202. Print.
Hammond, Thomas, Editor. Witnesses to the Origins of the Cold War. University of Washington Press. Seattle, 1982.
Throughout history freedom has had many different meanings and definitions; based on race, gender, and ethnicity. According to the dictionary freedom means the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint (“freedom” def. 1). Freedom may seem like something given to everyone however it was something workers had to fight for. Not everyone believed that workers’ rights needed to be changed, which led to a long battle between workers, employers and the government. To the working class people freedom meant making higher wages, having regulated hours, workable conditions and the right to free speech.
The “Gilded Age” is a term used to describe the period in America from 1850 to 1890 as something of a false golden age. During this time period, America was making enormous leaps in the field of industry. Big businesses such as the railroads, oil refining, financing, steel, and meatpacking were driving America’s economy. A major problem with this; however, is that all the money big businesses generated was not dispersed very well. During the “Gilded Age,” income inequality was a large problem for Americans. Everyday people often had less income and less chance for advancement than specialists and professionals; these everyday people would come to be classified as the middle class. The middle class struggled during
In 1940 Ralph Bunche wrote, “Every man in the street, white, black, red or yellow knows that this is the ‘land of the free’…and the ‘the cradle of liberty.” While the Civil war was coming to an end, the nation was forced to have to acknowledge the abolition of slavery and begin to form a definition of the meaning of freedom. President Abraham Lincoln said that the Civil War brought America, “a new birth of freedom.” Freedom is the most fundamental concept to the American individual and country as a whole. The love that Americans have for freedom can be illustrated through statues all the way to the demonstration of the right to vote. The expansions and contractions of freedom in the United States can be seen through passing constitution amendments;
...E. The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.