Unit Six: the "Gilded Age": Reconstructing America

Jan 3: Preview the semester, the unit, and the research paper; review Reconstruction, process the 14 th and 15th
amendments, and define the "Gilded Age"

Jan 4: Industrialization and urbanization: text discussion and Chicago as a test case; Sandburg’s “Chicago”

Jan 5: Bierce (“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”); Introduction to American Realism

Jan 8: Western encroachment for the wealthy: railroad growth and agribusiness; Western encroachment for the
masses: a farming simulation

Jan 9: Regionalism—Cather (“A Wagner Matinee”), Chopin, and Jewett (“A White Heron”); Assign “Q & E”

Jan 10: Development and “Myth” of the West: Harte (“The Outcasts of Poker Flat”)

Jan 11: Quick & Easy Due; The Native Americans, the tribes, the Indian people: long-term trends and the “closing
of the frontier”

Jan 12: Regionalism—Gilman (“The Yellow Wallpaper”)

Jan 16: SNOW DAY

Jan 17: Regionalism/Local Color—Twain (“Jumping Frog” and “Cannibalism in the Cars”) listen to “Jumping Frog”
and “Cannibalism” for homework (“PBP” in class if needed); Research: ThoughtPage Due

Jan 18: The New South; “Jim Crow,” African-American activism, and Plessy v. Ferguson; Paul Laurence Dunbar;

Jan 19: Naturalism—London (“To Build a Fire”)

Jan 22: Industrial workers and unions; urbanized society in the late nineteenth century

Jan 23: Naturalism—Crane (“The Open Boat”)

Jan 24: expansionist foreign policy; “How the Other Half Live[d]”

Jan 25: Populism; progressive activists gain national prominence; E. A. Robinson

Jan 26: Review; Research: Working Thesis Due

Jan 29: Test