LEA 2 Cours de civilisation américaine J. Kempf The emergence of American industrial capitalism. 1870-1929. Economy, culture and foreign policy 1.The late

LEA 2 Cours de civilisation américaine J. Kempf

The emergence of American industrial capitalism. 1870-1929. Economy, culture and foreign policy

1. The late 19th century : expansion and tensions

2. The turn of the century : reform and … more expansion

3. The aftermath of WW1 and the 1920s : modernity and … tensions


The emergence of American industrial capitalism. 1870-1929. Economy, culture and foreign policy

Or : the roots of the American modern

1. The late 19th century : expansion and tensions. The social forces at play in the « Gilded age »1. Economy2. Immigration3. Urban life

2. Social tensions, social reforms, progressivism1. The price of the « Gilded Age »2. The plight of the farmers3. Progressivism

3. The Return to Normalcy?1. Economic prosperity, but not for all2. The ideology of business3. The ambiguous culture of the decade



The Flatiron Building, ca 1903

LEA 2 Cours de civilisation américaine J. KempfChicago Masonic Temple (1892-1939)

LEA 2 Cours de civilisation américaine J. KempfCa 1906


LEA 2 Cours de civilisation américaine J. Kempfhttp://www.tboake.com/steel/skyscraper_chicago.html

http://www.tboake.com/steel/skyscraper_chicago.html




Nostalgic “local color” literature Bret Harte : “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” (1860s), Hamlin Garland, Main-Traveled Roads (1891) and Mark Twain (Huck Finn, 1884)

Brutality of the changing economy in the Gilded Age and the consequences of the move to the city

William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890) in the Bowery

Horatio Alger wrote a score of juvenile novels between the 1860 to 1890s

NaturalistsFrank Norris (McTeague, 1899; The Octopus, 1901),Stephen Crane (Maggie, 1893; Red Badge of Courage, 1895 on Civil War)Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie, 1900, The Financier, 1912 and The Titan, 1914, An American Tragedy, 1925).

Documents

LEA 2 Cours de civilisation américaine J. Kempf The emergence of American industrial capitalism. 1870-1929. Economy, culture and foreign policy 1.The late