The Gilded Age and Progressive Era

There are a few people that embody a period. Isabella Stewart Gardner knew many of the the movers and shakers of the Gilded Age and lived from 1840-1924. Her story, and her compulsion to buy the art of the age, makes her a great lens through which to understand the Gilded Age. Dr. Natalie Dykstra joins the show to discuss her latest biography of Bella.Essential Reading:Natalie Dykstra, Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner (2024).

Thousands of Christian missionaries left the United States in search of souls to save. They often found trouble. And almost always became non-governmental diplomats, whether as translators or unofficial representatives. Dr. Emily Conroy-Krutz joins the show to explain how they influenced international relations in unexpected ways.Essential Reading: Emily Conroy-Krutz, Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations (2024).

Jacob Schiff, Joseph Seligman, Marcus Goldman, and the Lehman Brothers have one thing in common. All were Jewish immigrants who made a fortune as financiers in the United States. Best-selling author and journalist Daniel Schulman tells their story and explains how left an indelible mark on American society. Essential Reading:Daniel Schulman, The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America (2023).Recommended Reading:Susie Pak, Gentlemen Bankers: The World of J. P. Morgan (2013).Roger Lowenstein, America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve (2016).Christopher Shaw, Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic (2019).Niall Ferguson, The House of Rothschild (1998).

In this special episode, The Gilded Age and Progressive Era is taken over by popular podcast 2 Complicated 4 History and hosts Dr Lynn Price Robbins and Isaac Loftus. 2 Complicated 4 History is a show that examines the "deleted scenes" of history. In each episode, a different guest bringing a fresh perspective to the history you thought you knew. This episode leads with the question: Is it the government's job to legislate the social behavior of its citizens? In the Progressive Era, many elites believed that it was, and they created institutions to "fix" non compliance. Lynn and Isaac are joined by Dr. Erin Bush to discuss child delinquency and social control at the turn of the twentieth century.

Economics might study trade, commerce, and financial markets, but the discipline explores human interaction as much as any other subject. The idea of free trade, especially the idea espoused by Richard Cobden, intersected with the millennial pursuit of peace like two halves of the same walnut. Marc William Palen joins the show to explain the legacy of Cobden and others in the global story of free trade and pacifism. Essential Reading:Marc William Palen, Pax Economica: Left Wing Visions of a Free Trade World (2024).Recommended Reading:Johanna Bockman, Markets in the Name of Socialism: The Left-Wing Origins of Neoliberalism (2011).Eric Helleiner, The Neomercantilists: A Global Intellectual History (2021).Douglas Irwin, Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade (1998).Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (2018).Thomas Zeiler, Capitalist Peace: A History of American Free-Trade Internationalism (2022).

When did modern intelligence gathering begin? The Gilded Age, of course. Dr. Mark Stout joins the show to discuss his book World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence. The advent of new technologies and the necessities of modern war show how a major transition occurred between the Civil War and World War II.Essential Reading:Mark Stout, World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence (2024).Further Reading: T. R. Brereton, Educating the U.S. Army: Arthur L. Wagner and Reform, 1875-1905 (2000).Jeffrey M. Dorwart, The Office of Naval Intelligence: The Birth of America's First Intelligence Agency, 1865-1918 (1979).Lori A. Henning, Harnessing the Airplane: American and British Cavalry Responses to a New Technology, 1903-1939 (2019).Brian McAllister Linn, "Intelligence and Low-Intensity Conflict in the Philippine War, 1899-1902," Intelligence and National Security 6, no. 1 (1991): 90-114.Betsy Rohaly Smoot, From the Ground Up: American Cryptology during World War I (2023).

The white dresses of suffragists stand out as one example of women's fashion that made a statement. Einav Rabinovitch-Fox joins the show to discuss her book Dressed for Freedom: American Feminism and the Politics of Women’s Fashion and the many ways that style brought the substance of women's activism into the public discourse.Essential Reading:Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, Dressed for Freedom: American Feminism and the Politics of Women’s Fashion (2021).Recommended Reading:Elizabeth Block, Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion (2021).Nan Enstad, Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure: Working Women, Popular Culture, and Labor Politics at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (1999).Patricia Campbell Warner, When the Girls Came Out to Play: The Birth of American Sportswear (2006).Patricia A. Cunningham, Reforming Women’s Fashion, 1850-1920: Politics, Health, and Art (2003).Deborah Saville, “Dress and Culture in Greenwich Village,” in Twentieth-Century American Fashion, ed. Linda Walters and Patricia A. Cunningham (2005).Allison Lange, Picturing Political Power: Images in the Women's Suffrage Movement (2020).

The rise of the Southern Pacific Railroad in California owes a great deal to the citrus industry and vice versa. Ben Jenkins joins the show to discuss how these two industries came to define the state during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.Essential Reading:Benjamin Jenkins, The Octopus's Garden: How Railroads and Citrus Transformed Southern California (2023).Recommended Reading:Genevieve Carpio, Collisions at the Crossroads: How Place and Mobility Make Race (2019).Jared Farmer, Trees in Paradise: The Botanical Conquest of California (2017). Phoebe Kropp, California Vieja: Culture and Memory in a Modern American Place (2008).Richard J. Orsi, Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1950-1930 (2007).Douglas Sackman, Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of Eden (2007).

How much can a president do to shepherd the economy? The question has bedevilled the inhabitants of the White House since the office came into being, and it has material relevance for elections, democracy, social policy, and international relations. Mark Zachary Taylor joins the show to explain his findings on this topic, and to discuss his latest book Presidential Leadership in Feeble Times. Essential Reading:Mark Zachary Taylor, Presidential Leadership in Feeble Times: Explaining Executive Power in the Gilded Age (2023).Recommended Reading:Edward O. Frantz (ed.), A Companion to the Reconstruction Presidents, 1865 - 1881 (2014).Mark Wahlgren Summers, Party Games: Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics (2005).Jane McAlevey, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age (2020).