Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
In the beginning of the Edwards’ reading I found the description of the Gilded Age to be similar with my sentiments about the current era in America. To live in the United States of America right now is to experience an active, emotional, and dynamic time period. As a country we are divided over the issue of war, the organic food movement has made known the shortcuts and shortfalls of factory farming in a Sinclair-like manner, and multiple friends and students have found jobs and apartments in the rapidly expanding Charlotte. However, as I became more aware of the ugly reconstruction in the South after the Civil War and the national connectivity from the development of railroads I realize that now is quite distinct from then. Through the essays and arguments of Edwards and Calhoun, I have also learned that there is more to the “Gilded Age” than robber barons, greed and self-indulgence. Sarah’s blog post points out “there is probably no age that can be neatly classified negative or positive” and “historians will often have to revise their perspectives” both of which are accurate and sharp statements.
Defining and renaming the “Gilded Age” or “Early Progressive Era” sets the context for analyzing the disasters that occurred during this time. In some regards, I agree with Wells: I believe historians should study these disasters as important social events that changed the progressive course of the country, but additionally historians should recognize that the causes of disaster were directly related to poor infrastructure, or weak working codes. Understanding that many of the disasters during this era were preventable, I find I am unable to use the word “accident” to describe disasters that occurred during the “Gilded Age”/ “Early Progressive Era” and instead choose the words “intentional” or “unintentional”. Edwards provides the example of a group of female convicts in Georgia who set fire to the brickyard where they were ordered to work hard labor in protest of “sexual exploitation and abysmal living conditions” (Edwards, 2). The fire in Georgia started because someone had the hope of setting the institution ablaze and therefore the “disaster” was not accidental. This differs from the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which was an unintentional disaster, but still not an “accident”. If the escape doors were unlocked, the fire on the ninth floor might not have killed over one-fifth of the workers.
Questions I would like to ask the class are: How are methods historians use to define the “Gilded Age” similar to methods we use to define disasters? How do these definitions set the stage for disasters we will analyze?