APUSH FRQ Outline
To what extent was “the Gilded Age” an age of inaction, apathy, and extremism in American politics?
Thesis: The Gilded Age has become classified as an era that demeans American politics. The time period consisted of severe lack of interest and concern with the people, idleness within the government and its decisions, as well as numerous instances of groups’ tending to maintain the disposition to shift toward the extremes.
Background: The time throughout the 1870s and some of the twentieth century acquired the name of the “Gilded Age.” The era was a time of economic growth, especially in the North and West. However, the Gilded Age was also a time of poverty.
Paragraph I: Apathy – lack of interest/concern
Difficult adjustment to modern industrial labor
Not much job security
Skilled artisans not needed – machines impersonal and demeaning
Factory laborers worked 10-hour days
Accidents frequent
Use of women and children
Decrease in need for skill workers
38 states passed child labor laws
Employed in agriculture – government didn’t bother to deal with reversing exemption from laws
Railroad strike (1887)
10% wage cut
Approached class war
Caused President Hayes to suppress disorders in West Virginia
Paragraph II: Inaction - Idleness
Haymarket Bombing – “Anarchist”
Knights of Labor attempt to distance themselves from radicals
Did not try to pacify them
Pullman Strike (1894)
High rents
Slashed wages
Refused to reduce rents to pacify
Government “preserve order”
Corporations depend on federal authorities
Crush labor uprisings on demand
Corporations do not attempt to give their workers what they want
Though did take action in crushing uprisings, no action taken to pacify those dissidents.
Paragraph III: Extremism – Tendency/disposition to go to extremes
Social Darwinism leading to more radical approaches to reform
Social Darwinism – application to human society the laws of evolution
Socialist Labor Party (1870s)
Founded by
Thesis: The Gilded Age has become classified as an era that demeans American politics. The time period consisted of severe lack of interest and concern with the people, idleness within the government and its decisions, as well as numerous instances of groups’ tending to maintain the disposition to shift toward the extremes.
Background: The time throughout the 1870s and some of the twentieth century acquired the name of the “Gilded Age.” The era was a time of economic growth, especially in the North and West. However, the Gilded Age was also a time of poverty.
Paragraph I: Apathy – lack of interest/concern
Difficult adjustment to modern industrial labor
Not much job security
Skilled artisans not needed – machines impersonal and demeaning
Factory laborers worked 10-hour days
Accidents frequent
Use of women and children
Decrease in need for skill workers
38 states passed child labor laws
Employed in agriculture – government didn’t bother to deal with reversing exemption from laws
Railroad strike (1887)
10% wage cut
Approached class war
Caused President Hayes to suppress disorders in West Virginia
Paragraph II: Inaction - Idleness
Haymarket Bombing – “Anarchist”
Knights of Labor attempt to distance themselves from radicals
Did not try to pacify them
Pullman Strike (1894)
High rents
Slashed wages
Refused to reduce rents to pacify
Government “preserve order”
Corporations depend on federal authorities
Crush labor uprisings on demand
Corporations do not attempt to give their workers what they want
Though did take action in crushing uprisings, no action taken to pacify those dissidents.
Paragraph III: Extremism – Tendency/disposition to go to extremes
Social Darwinism leading to more radical approaches to reform
Social Darwinism – application to human society the laws of evolution
Socialist Labor Party (1870s)
Founded by