When reading Rebecca Edwards’\u00a0New Spirits: Americans in the “Glided Age” 1865-1905,<\/i> I couldn’t help noticing the awkwardness of how she utilized the term “Glided Age” in the title of her work while rejecting the use of the term in the book’s introduction (page 7). Her first footnote in “Politics, Social Movements, and the Periodization of U.S. History”, however, acknowledges this fact, noting how the Oxford University Press stressed that she include the term in her title. This acknowledgment alone is a glaring example of the divide historians have over the issue. Some historians believe that the term “Glided Age” under-represents the reform efforts from both private and public interests in the late 19th century. Edwards certainly falls into this group, as her “Politics” article claims that the epoch should be re-termed the “Early Progressive Era.” (473)<\/p>\n

As a historiographical analysis, Edwards’ work examines other secondary sources and their responses to the how the \u201cGlided Age\u201d should be memorialized. Emily<\/a> notes how her teacher tended to gloss over the period as an insignificant lull between brighter portions of American history. In this view, it was a low point and learning period before the improvements and reforms of the Roosevelt Administration. Edwards, however, focuses on the positive trends gained from the era. Government made its first forays into business regulation and consumer protection. Journalists and activists established campaigns to prevent excessive poverty and poor living standards. Labor and agricultural organizations rose up to challenge the robber barons. To Edwards, the \u201cEarly Progressive Era\u201d was instrumental in later governmental attempts to actively improve the lives of common individuals.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Edwards\u2019 argument falls flat for many reasons. Primarily, she focuses on reactions<\/i> to the \u201cGlided Age\u201d rather than on results. Her examples of \u201cprogressivism\u201d failed to actually yield progress. For example, she offers \u201cthe Populist Party\u201d as a example of Glided Age progressivism but fails to explain its inability to impact Washington politics (note William Jennings Bryan\u2019s three unsuccessful presidential bids). She contends that the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) was a cornerstone in governmental regulation, despite the awkward fact that it did not successfully challenge a monopoly until 1902 (for twelve years it was used exclusively against unions). Even her use of the Pendleton Act as evidence of \u201cprogressive politics\u201d is ironic, considering that George Pendleton was one of the most vocal critics of the 13^{th<\/sup> Amendment. (466) Progressive federal law simply stood no chance of making significant inroads before the liberalization of the Supreme Court in the 20th<\/sup> century. Therefore, I believe Edwards\u2019 definition of the Glided Age is absolutely correct- on the cover of New Spirits,<\/i> that is. The empty space behind the golden covering remained hollow until the rise of Roosevelt, even if a majority of the populace acknowledged the hollowness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"}

When reading Rebecca Edwards’\u00a0New Spirits: Americans in the “Glided Age” 1865-1905, I couldn’t help noticing the awkwardness of how she utilized the term “Glided Age” in the title of her work while rejecting the use of the term in the book’s introduction (page 7). Her first footnote in “Politics, Social Movements, and the Periodization of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Hollow Men: Defending the Term “Glided Age””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[135,182,207,333],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-edwards","tag-glided-age","tag-hollowness","tag-progressivism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1002,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/1002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}