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The Gilded Age (c.1870 to 1900) was sandwiched between the Civil War and the Progressive Era, two periods in which politics “really mattered.” In contrast, the intervening decades seem to offer only lessonsin disillusionment and cynicism. The end of Reconstruction left a sorry mess in the South; the Homestead Act and railroad grants culminated in a Western bust, followed by a massive depression in the 1890s that failed to evoke a New Deal. The Populist movement collapsed, and Republicans’ crowning achievements were a high tariff and maintenance of the gold standard. There are, however, other ways to teach Gilded-Age politics, perhaps even to recapture its excitement, while at the same time teaching social history. Political cartoons flourished in these years, partly because of new technologies of mass circulation but also because of the intensity—even viciousness—of partisan debate. Such cartoons reflected the society that produced them, with references ranging from the Bible to the nationwide bicycle craze. They vividly represent the prejudices of the white, Protestant, middle-class majority, and of regional and partisan factions within that majority. The following analyses of cartoons from an article entitled “The Corrupting of New York City” by Peter Baida and those found in The American Pageant, Chapters 23 & 24 reveal key issues at stake during this era. FYI Significant Political Cartoonists of the Gilded Age • Thomas Nast of Harpers Weekly** • Joseph Keppler of Puck* • Frank Beard of The Ram’s Horn* • Eugene Zimmerman of Judge* • Grant Hamilton, Bernhard Gilliam, James Wales, W.A. Rogers, & Frederick Opper
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