The Gilded Age and Progressive Era

From the anti-Catholicism of the Know Nothings to the present-day Catholic nationalism in American politics, the Church and its leaders have left an indelible mark on society. Dr. William Cossen joins the show to explain how the idea of Catholic nationalism came to be in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.Essential Reading:William S. Cossen, Making Catholic America: Religious Nationalism in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2023).Recommended Reading:Maura Jane Farrelly, Papist Patriots: The Making of an American Catholic Identity (2012).Jenny Franchot, Roads to Rome: The Antebellum Protestant Encounter with Catholicism (1994).Jon Gjerde, Catholicism and the Shaping of Nineteenth-Century America (2012).John T. McGreevy, Catholicism and American Freedom: A History (2003).Kevin M. Schultz, Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Post-war America to Its Protestant Promise (2011).

The peace movement, global citizenship, and global government are wrapped up in this week's episode. Dr. Megan Threlkeld joins to discuss her book Citizens of the World, which takes on these subjects and the role that nine women played in shaping the idea of global citizenship. Given the rise of internationalism in this period, Dr. Threlkeld's book is vital to how we interpret international relations in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.Essential Reading:Megan Threlkeld, Citizens of the World: U.S. Women and Global Government (2022).Recommended Reading:Keisha N. Blain and Tiffany M. Gill (eds.), To Turn the Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism (2019).  Daniel Gorman, International Cooperation in the Early Twentieth Century (2017).Mark Mazower, Governing the World: The History of an Idea (2012).Patricia Owens and Katharina Rietzler (eds.), Women’s International Thought: A New History (2021).

Some families are synonymous with the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: the Vanderbilts, the LaFollettes, the Roosevelts, and the Astors to name a few. Dr. David Patterson joins the show to remind us of another dynasty: the Pinchots, a reform-minded, Presbyterian family that held sway in Washington and Pennsylvania from the Civil War to the Kennedy administration. Essential Reading:David Patterson, The Pinchots: A Family Saga (2023).Recommended Reading:Nina Burleigh, A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer (1998).Bibi Gaston: The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries, and Her Granddaughter’s Search for Home (2008).Char Miller, Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism (2001).Gifford Pinchot, Breaking New Ground (1947).

Joy Callaway writes novels - novels infused with historical research. Her latest is a Gilded Age romance story set in Westchester Co., New York.

Throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, lynching took place across the country, even if we think of it as a phenomenon exclusive to southern states. Acclaimed historian and author of civil rights Philip Dray tells a different story, of a lynching in New York that rocked the small town of Port Jervis. The murder of Robert Lewis by a mob has great significance for how we remember the past and consider the present day. Essential Reading:Philip Dray, A Lynching at Port Jervis: Race and Reckoning in the Gilded Age (2022).Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (2003).Recommended Reading:Richard Brown, Strains of Violence: Historical Studies of Violence and Vigilantism (1975).Dan Carter, Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South (1979).A.J. Williams-Myers, Long Hammering: Essays on the Forging of an African-American Presence in the Hudson River Valley (1994).Jacqueline Goldsby, A Spectacular Secret: Lynching in American Life and Literature (2006).Michael J, Pfeifer, Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society 1847-1947 (2004).Amy Wood, Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940 (2009).Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor and Politics in the Post Civil War North, 1865-1901 (2001).

The Gilded Age had its fare share of political scandals, and the Star Route scandal ranks as one of its most important. It exposed the spoils system at a time when public debate about good government filled the headlines. Why has this scandal remained so obscure when compared to others like Credit Mobilier or the Whiskey Ring. Professor Shawn Peters joins the show to discuss his latest book When Bad Men Combine, the story of the star route scandal.Essential Reading:Shawn Francis Peters, When Bad Men Combine: The Star Route Scandal and the Twilight of Gilded Age Politics (2023).Recommended Reading:Winifred Gallagher, How the Post Office Created America (2016).Lewis L. Gould, The Republicans: A History of the Grand Old Party (2014).Adelbert Bower Sageser, The First Two Decades of the Pendleton Act: A Study of Civil Service Reform (1935).Thomas C. Reeves, Gentleman Boss: the Life of Chester Alan Arthur (1975).

In this episode, Dr. Michelle Krowl joins me to talk about the archives, and specifically one the biggest archives in the world, the Library of Congress. Michelle works there as the historical specialist on the Civil War and Reconstruction. She is also a specialist for the presidential papers from James K. Polk to William Howard Taft, and thereby an expert on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Child labor regulation seems emblematic of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, and yet federal legislation to protect children only became settled law many decades later. Professor John Fliter joins the show to discuss the history of child labor laws and how it has shaped the contemporary political debates. Essential Reading:John A. Fliter, Child Labor in America: The Epic Legal Struggle to Protect Children (2018).Recommended Reading:Betsy Wood, Upon the Altar of Work: Child Labor and the Rise of a New American Sectionalism (2020).Hugh D. Hindman, Child Labor: An American History (2002).Vincent DiGirolamo, Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys (2019).Paul Chrystal, Factory Girls: The Working Lives of Women and Children (2022).James D. Schmit, Industrial Violence and the Legal Origins of Child Labor (2010).