Sunday, December 4, 2011

Homework 7, Due December 9, 2011

The Infamous Boss Tweed

Go to the following link:

http://www.hippocampus.org/hippocampus.php/course_locator.php?course=US History II&lesson=46&topic=1&width=800&height=684&topicTitle=The%20Tweed%20Ring%20and%20Machine%20Politics&skinPath=http://www.hippocampus.org/hippocampus.skins/default

Watch the video presentation (there's a text version as well if you are having trouble getting the video to play) and respond to the following questions:

1) What are the similarities and differences between the political practices of the Gilded Age and today? (mention at least two of each)

2) Choose one of the three "explore" topics listed on the left side of the lesson (you have to start the lesson before they are available) and answer the question asked.

3) How did the rise of political "machines" cause the local, state, and federal governments to become involved in social welfare? Can you imagine a better solution?

This assignment will doubtless take you some time and effort but I'm sure you'll find it interesting. Your essay should be at least 200 words long, with responses totalling 150 words. Last week's assignment was supurb (those who did it...)- keep up the good work!

19 comments:

  1. The Tweed Ring and Machine Politics
    One similarity is the Urbanization, which means people moving into the city. People move to the city because they hope to get job. Urbanization started with Industrialization. Big factories would be located in cities to have a central location for workers. Another similarity is the Labor Union. In the 1870s and 1880s for instance the Knights of labor became very quick to a major force. Today the United States has many major Labor Unions. One of the biggest is the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). A difference is in the Gilded Age the Railroad was a very important thing. It brought the nation together and businesses had many opportunities. But today the Industries concentrate on Airplanes and Automobiles. Now everything is faster; businesses can sell all over the world. A second difference is the reforms in labor and working conditions in the Gilded Ages. Long hours and terrible working conditions, led many workers to attempt to form labor unions despite strong opposition from industrialists. Today there are reforms in finances.
    New York city Tenement Houses
    Working-class families lived in Tenement Houses. They wouldn’t have been able to effort to take advantage of cultural institutions.
    Machines were possible because of the large immigrant groups, which were mostly poor. These groups needed help of the sort that the government could provide and could be mobilized pretty easily because they tended held together. This allowed the bosses to set up the "jobs for votes" deal that was at the main thing of the political machine.

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  2. In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. The name refers to the process of gilding an object with a superficial layer of gold and is meant to make fun of the display while playing on the term "golden age".
    The Gilded Age is most famous for the creation of a modern industrial economy. During the 1870s and 1880s, the economy grew at the fastest rate in its history, with real wages, wealth, GDP, and capital formation all increasing rapidly.
    The History of the United States (1865–1918) covers Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the Progressive Era, and includes the rise of industrialization and the resulting upstage of immigration in the United States. This period of rapid economic growth and rising prosperity in North and West (but not the South) saw the U.S. become the world's dominant economic, industrial and agricultural power.
    The Gilded Age. The name, made popular by American author Mark Twain, captures images of gold and jewels, amazing palaces, and wealth beyond imagination. And indeed, during the period we know as the Gilded Age American business leaders made huge fortunes, becoming a suddenly-rich baron class with a likeness for amazing displays of their new-found wealth. Millionaires built awesome and often gaudy homes in New York City. Before long, even refined families like the Astors, who had been wealthy for generations, joined in the uprising of architectural excess.

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  3. 1)For this week our essay is about the Gilded Age. In first place the Gilded Age was a period of history in the late 19th century. It referse to cheap commercialization, shorines and fakery; it is a mix of gold, welth and power. The industrialization was building and there were a lot of people that were uneducated. That is one different.A lot of people lived in the same house In the video that Mr. Akers gave us there is a girl that tell us that she lived with other 9 relatives (and sometimes more) in only two rooms.One similarity is that while the industialization was growing, people were moving in the city to look for job. Infact the industries were located in the cities.There are some of the similarities and the differences between the Gilded Age and today.
    2)New York City Tenement House: The living conditions in theese pictures seem bleack. Which of the statement is not a reason that people chose to live in tenements? Do to their central urban location, tenements provided easy acess to museums, libraries and universities.
    3)Thank of the large amount of people that arrive in America, the machines were possible. There were poor and the

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  4. 1. The Gilded Age was similar to today because they had a large population in the cities and because they had a large influx of immigrants. Though today, those immigrants seem to be coming from areas other than Europe. The Gilded Age is different from today because of the terrible living conditions for immigrants and the rise of political “machines.” Even though conditions aren’t good for those starting off in America with little or no experience, the conditions today are far better than during the Gilded Age. Most people can at least get an apartment near their place of work; whereas, back then you and your entire family lived in a teeny tiny apartment and shared a bathroom with at least four other families.
    2. New York City Tenement Houses:
    The tenement houses in New York were terribly crowded by immigrants and their families who tended to congregate with people of the same ancestry. These “houses” were merely one room apartments with shared access to a bathroom used by four other families. Many of these apartment buildings were very close to the factories where these people worked due to lack of transportation. People chose to live in tenement houses for many reasons, but they certainly didn’t live there to gain easy access to museums, libraries, or universities.
    3. Political “machines” began using federal money to help support widows and other people with financial issues. By the time that these “machines’ were removed, the people had begun to become dependent upon their support and demanded more support than previously offered.

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  5. Katherina, i really liked your essay because you were very explanatory and it was very well written. and i also thought that you did such an awesome job considering you are from another country!

    Marta! i thought you also did an amazing job on your essay! yours seemed as if you really thought it through and it turned out really well! So great job!

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  6. Amanda:
    I like your essay. You explained really good the Gilded Age and I also like that that you explained the word Gilden Age.

    Marta:
    I like your essay because you gave an example from History class (you have a good memory).

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  7. Question 1: During the Gilded age, the government only provided the three main functions of the government, those are providing defense, providing public goods and the last one is to protect the citizens from each other. The United States were also an economy based on Laissez-Faire, which is France for “leave alone”, this means that the government lets the free market regulates itself. Today the government has a lot more to do. It helps the poor and the weak and heavily regulates the market, a good example for this is the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.
    Another difference is how the people get elected. They can not mobilize so big crowds like in the gilded age anymore, because the government gives the poor people money to live nowadays. Also there are more laws in place which try to protect citizens from corruption, they may not always work, but a least there are some.
    Question number 2 Tweed Political Cartoon: I believe, the Author of the cartoon is trying to show the public how Tweed is stealing their money. The public is the only institution which could change something, because all the people who worked for the city were under the influence of corruption and fear. I think he tried to let the public revolt against the Tweed Ring and not trust and elect him anymore.
    Question number 3: The government got involved, because the influence on the poor by the rich people was too great. The rich people could take control over the important positions by mobilizing the masses. When the government is paying, it also helps everybody, not only certain districts and cities. I believe, there is no better solution then the government. Businesses can not provide welfare, because they receive no profit from doing that. And private individuals also can not do it, because they would have a too great influence on the people and also would not do it high enough or to infrequently.

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  8. @ Catelyn:
    I really like your essay, Catelyn you are answering your questions in a long and good form. You also have some interesting information in there. But I think you could improve answer number 3, since you are only describing how it was and the results and not a solution.
    @ Amanda:
    I really like your essay, you provide us with a lot of good side information about the gilded age and the term itself. But I think you forgot to answer the questions a little bit. But the rest of your essay is very well written and has a lot of information I did not know. Keep on going like this! :-)
    @ Marta:
    I like your essay, it answer all the questions correct and has a lot of good information. The only thing I maybe have to mention is, that the answer on the question number 3 got cut off. The rest is really good!

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  9. Part1:
    In my opinion there are many similarities between today in the Gilded Age... But one that seems most current and alike is the vast population in the suburbs and obviously it's mostly due to the huge immigration rates I mean let's face it, they are everywhere and I'm definitely not saying it's a bad thing. Another similarity is the industrial and mechanical aspect... we are progressing closely to the rate they did which in and of itself has it's pros and cons. One of the biggest differences I could see was the difference in quality of life... Because in that time they weren't as governmentally stable it became easy for some people in the vast population to be over looked back then there was a thing such a welfare that helped the less fortunate, so those people were either shoved in with another family that was huge to begin with or they just simply weren't wanted either way nothing good came of it for these people.

    Part 2:
    Gilded Age Styles
    This topic revolves around the difference that existed in the Gilded Age where the upper class had homes and servants and many perks in life as opposed to the tenements life of colorless, perkless lives with very few utilities in a small apartment. The question was asked if I believe that these extreme differences still exist today... And honestly I mean on the basis of an outward appearance yes this is still the situation. Low income homes are visibly less eccentric than that of an upper class family. Give Waitsboro Estates as opposed to a government assisted home... Obviously in appearance on is MUCH better than the other but what really makes the homes are the people that live in them and the loves they have for life so with all that being said, yes in a material sense this problem is still in existence but other wise... no! it's dead (:

    Part 3:
    Political "machines" started out as being extremely beneficial, as do most governmentally run assistance programs. But as an effect of human nature the people began to get very dependent upon the resources at hand and this caused quite a problem and the whole idea of generosity back fired. We can say this mainly because it is happening everyday in the world today! People get tremendously lazy and begin to use the government as a crutch... leaving poor families to pay the consequences of lazy people taking away what they live on. I don't know it's just really hard to judge in a situation like this and I really don't know if anything could have been done differently.

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  10. K.Sellmaier,
    Great job on your essay! It was extremely informative and it was layed out very nicely. You covered topics that were important and straight to the point. I really enjoyed it! Great job.

    Amanda,
    You essay was great as usual, I love it because even when you type something I can still tell it's you because you type just like you talk if that makes any sense. But great job (:

    Catelyn,
    Your essay was wonderful and you were completely straight to the point and answered every question very effectively. It was all easy to read and made perfect sense, it allowed me to learn and understand to my full ability. Really good job!

    Christian,
    Really good essay, I liked the topic you picked for the second part. It was really interesting and entertaining to learn about. But as well as that everything else was quite wonderful too! I love the view you have on things it's always exactly what's on your mind (:

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  11. I think that thanks to the Gilded Age, this country is what it is now in 2011 (almost 2012). Growth of population, bussiness, and railroads were the most important thing. The Gilded Age and this times are similar in the way that everybody is looking for a way to make money, inmigrants from all around the globe and all the influence from other countries.
    Some differents are that all inmigrants in those days were working in fields and heavy work and now too but there is a lot of factories full of inmigrants trying to make some money for the daily bread of their families that weren't as big as the families in the times of the Gilded Age.

    Tenement Houses were big houses that could hold thousands of people (the majority were inmigrants) and a lot of families that worked in the city at factories they were not able to afford cultural institutes like libraries, museums etc...

    For Machine Politics I understood that the government would help the poor inmigrants economically and the poors would help the government or political party with votes.


    Daniel Gonzalez

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  12. 1.) One part of this week’s assignment is comparing and contrasting the differences of the gilded age. Some comparisons between the gilded age and now are the population migration. In America today, most middle class people who live in a metro area live in the suburbs as opposed to those who were immigrants or poorer migrating to the city. Also, lie today, there were many immigrants coming to America for a better life. Some differences were that unlike today the living/working conditions were almost unbearable. Also, in the passage( on page 5 of 11 if you read the text) says that those who received help and eventually made good, were expected to help others in return. I don’t know about you, but you rarely hear of anyone helping-or for that matter-thinking f anyone but themselves.
    2.) NYC tenant houses
    The reason that most people lived in the tenant houses was because it was close to their work so they didn’t have to walk a long way or pay for transportation.
    People also lived in these homes because they would be near people going through the same situations as them. These tenant homes were also affordable and much better than what the people came from.
    3.) The rise of the political machine promoted social welfare by using federal money to help out financial issues. When these machines stopped the people had come to rely on this money.


    Thank you,
    Rebecca

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  13. n the Gilded Age politics were becoming what they are now. Welfare had begun to be thought of in the city, state, and national budgets. Social services were also being provided for. Social services provided by the government started because reformers who had been first against the machine politics began wanting social services. There is always a better solution to problems, but we don’t always have the answers. I chose to “explore” New York tenement housing. Tenements were for city workers. They were close to the factories and other city jobs so that the workers didn’t have to pay for transportation. Four apartments shared one bathroom and the living conditions were not ideal. Some families lived in the attics of these tenements and most of us would not think to stay there, but believe it or not this life was better than the life they had. Many of them were immigrants who wanted the opportunity to change their and their family’s lives. America is the land of opportunity, right? It’s inspiring to hear and read how America started off, what our ancestors did so that we could live in this free and successful country today. The Gilded Age is probably one of the most important eras in our country’s history.

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  14. The similarities between the gilded age and now. That’s difficult. Well first I believe now in this time we have a different way of thinking and different mindset that what they had. Both now and then, do something with our money, we spend it!! Back then, in my opinion, they knew how to spend it much more wisely than what they spend it on now. The Gilded age is a very interesting part in history to me. Gilded means having something that make look really good on the outside but maybe junk on the inside. It was all about the gold and money. They worry about getting jobs and how much money they are making. (Which that is good we need to be aware of that thing) Then they had the immigrants coming to America trying to find jobs and looking and seeking for ways to make money, which who could blame then? But then how would the Americans find the jobs and make a living ? So through the whole guilded age I think America learned some things about gold and money and many other things. I think sometimes we need something to open our eyes to see how the government is and to think if they our spending government money of importance?

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  15. Bethany
    I really enjoyed your essay this week! It was short and precise and full of information. I agree with you when you said that people today and in the gilded age spent money. Anyway, good job!
    Lydia,
    I really enjoyed your essay this week, as well! I agree that It is interesting to read about how our country started off. Also it is good to read about our history do we don’t have to repeat it. Good job!
    Catelyn,
    I really enjoyed your essay this week because it had so much information and it was so easy to comprehend. It is very surreal to think about so many people living in one place like the tenant houses. Good job!
    Thanks,
    Rebecca

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  16. Jessi:
    As usually you did an excellent job! Your essay was full of information and written accurately. Really good job :)

    Amanda:
    You did an awesome job writing your essay! You did precisely what the instructions called for, as usual. Awesome job :)

    Rebecca:
    Your essay was great! As usual, your essay was full of accurate and well researched facts. Great job :)

    Bethany:
    Awesome job! Like everyone else, you put a lot of thought and effort into your essay and it paid off. Woderful job :)

    Marta:
    Well done! Your essay was great.
    You can tell that you tried your best.
    Excellent job :)

    Daniel:
    You did a good job on your easy! It was well researched and accurate.
    Nice job :)

    Christian:
    Your essay was really good. Your information was accurately executed. Good job :)

    Catelyn:
    You did a really good job on your essay! It was written very well. Very good job :)

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  17. Lydia: Great job on your essay! I thought you made a really good comparison from the gilded age to this time in our government Great Job!!
    Daniel: Great Job on your essay!! Just like Lydia (you all kind of did the same thing) I like how you all compared the gilded age to this time!! Good job!!
    Amanda: Great job on the essay!! I thought it was very informational!! It had great information and good points in it!! You put some time and thought!! Great Job!!
    Marta: Great Job on your essay!! I loved how you included that point in class into the essay!! It had a lot of information and great usable knowledge!! Awesome Job!
    Christian: Awesome on the essay that you wrote! I thought it was very good!! And how you put your words kind of made you sound that you could be a politician!! So great Job!

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  18. Jesus Daniel Gonzàlez Guzmàn! Good job bro on your essay! You put a lot of information and you surprise me because I could find it really informative and it help me a lot! Thank you and another time good job!
    Lydia Ramsey: As usual I don't have to tell you that you are really smart and you put all these information in a correct way. You helped me a lot too! Good job girl! :D
    Christian Scheit: As Lydia, I think that I don't have to tell you that you did really good job everytimes! Anyways I can see that you did your best and you are really smart! Good job! :))
    Jessica Horning: good job Jessi! You make a lot of efforts in your essay and that is really good! I know that you are making your best and I'm so happy about it! Really good job! :D

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  19. Katharina Sellmaier: As you usual you did really good job! You make always a lot of effort and I can see it everytimes that you work on it! I have to congratulate with you because you are always the first one that have done every homework, always with really good job!

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