Chapter 38: Expansion and Conflict

The Gilded Age in America

The Gilded Age

The late 19th century in America was marked by dramatic contrasts: Prosperity and opportunity existed along with corruption and deceit Incredible wealth and grinding poverty lived almost side-by-side Promise and disillusionment were everpresent.

Jacob A. Riis. Five Cents a Spot, 1889, photograph from

Riis book How the Other Half Lives.

Responses to Economic Woes

The 1870s saw deep economic troubles, joblessness, and poverty. Jobs were lost and wages cut. Workers responded with strikes, walkouts, and by beginning to organize labor unions. These measures were mostly unsuccessful because of the power and wealth of the corporations and their owners.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Walt Whitman revolutionized American literature, linking Romanticism, Transcendentalism, and Realism. Song of Myself in Leaves of Grass represents the dynamic diversity of the American people. His free-verse poetry made use of alliteration, assonance, consonance and other repetitive devices, but seldom used rhyme or conventional meter.

Free-verse is poetry based on irregular rhythmic patterns as opposed to conventional meter Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of several word in a phrase: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound in a series of words, which creates a rhyming pattern: Do you like blue? I do too. Consonance is the repetition of a consonant sound: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Female Poets
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) lived a reclusive life. Her numerous poems are unconventional, intense and powerful. Kate Chopin (1851-1904) wrote commercially successful short stories, but is notable for her 1899 novel The Awakening, which startled society with its frankness regarding female sexuality.

Distinctly American Music

The combination of French, Spanish, Haitian, Creole, African-American, and Caucasian elements brought forth new musical expressions, notably the precursor of jazz, ragtime. Ragtime was also influenced by the famous marches written by composer John Phillip Sousa (pictured upper right). Link to: The Washington Post March by John Phillip Sousa Scott Joplin (pictured lower right) was one of the most famous and influential ragtime composers. He was dubbed King of Ragtime. Link to: "Maple Leaf Rag" composed and performed by Scott Joplin

The Chicago School of Architecture

The Chicago cityscape was unmatched for contemporary architecture. Following the Great Fire in 1871, four factors propelled the development of a distinctive architectural style.

Rebuilding needed to use fireproof material. Chicagos substantial steel-producing capacity made use of this material easy. The hydraulic elevator was invented the same year as the Chicago Fire. Since downtown land was expensive, it made sense to build them higher.

Architectural Innovations

Earlier buildings could be no more than 10 stories at most. By using metal frame construction, with the frame bearing the weight of the structure and a brick or stone curtain wall as the exterior, it became possible to build much taller buildings.

Louis H. Sullivan

Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924) was a leading advocate of this metal-frame type of construction. For Sullivan, the curtain wall could then be ornamented, which would give the structure its distinctive character. The forms that ornament the buildings were intended to evoke nature and the creative force. Skyscrapers would literally elevate the spirits of those who worked in it.

Louis H. Sullivan and Dankmar Adler Auditorium Building located in Chicago, IL 1886-1890

Americans Abroad
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent were American painters who primarily lived and worked in Europe.

John Singer Sargent, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882

Oil on canvas, 7 feet 3/8 by 7 feet 5/8

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, 1874,
oil on oak panel, 23 3/4" x 18 3/8"

James Abbott McNeill Whistler versus John Ruskin

Whistler notoriously sued English Art Critic, John Ruskin for libel, after Ruskin published a scathing review of Whistlers Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. Ironically, it was Ruskin who had been one of J.W. Turners strongest advocates.

Aestheticism
Whistler was an aesthete someone who values art for arts sake, a stance initially put forth by philosopher Immanuel Kant. Whistler believed that a painter had the right to alter objective truth in order to conform to his or her own, personal subjective standards of beauty. A work created in this way was not incompetent; it was the highest form of art. Art should be able to stand alone; its worth should be measured solely on aesthetic appeal - independent of subject matter, emotions, symbolism, patriotism, etc., which only mire its true beauty.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother 1871, 4 feet 8.94 x 5 feet 3.94 inches, Oil on canvas

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Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream, 1899,

oil on canvas

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