Podcasts about gilded age america

Daniel Schulman joins Rabbi Bronstein to discuss "The Money Kings," his epic narrative tracing the rise of German-Jewish financial dynasties, their impact on Wall Street, and the challenges they faced as Jews in Gilded Age America.

Dimitri and Khalid record what is probably the last SJ episode before their assassinations by apoplectic Simpsons reply guys lashing out in the throes of total ego death. Topics include: the dominance of “Gen X irony” in 1990s pop culture, the rise of contextual/information-based toy culture, Pynchon's cameos, reflections on Bartmania, the modern tendency to view the Simpsons as both profound and deeply left-wing, “the purpose of a Simpsons is what it does”, the Trump trial self-immolator's anti-Simpsons manifesto, DSA Lisa teaching us to perpetuate official LIES… The Simpsons as reflection “of the cynicism at the heart of the neoliberal economy”, FOX's deliberate “selling” of Gen X, Douglas Coupland's generation-defining book, the inversion of words like “stupid” and “bad”, the centrality of the hot couch and “ironic consumption”, “the Simpsons is to Fox what Bart Simpson is to Principal Skinner”, similarities with the fourth wall-breaking WWF Attitude Era, the 1993 paper “Homer Simpson's Eyes and the Culture of Late Nostalgia”, Time vs. “Megatrends”, Bill Cosby's “ontological run-in with Bart” and his defeat by the “superior intelligence of the ‘toon”… The secret etymology of the “Bad Boy” and precursors to the Bart Simpson archetype in Gilded Age America - specifically the creepy neotenous “Yellow Kid” comic strip, as well as the wildly successful “Peck's Bad Boy” series by Wisconsin Governor George Wilbur Peck… Bart failing to embody the Nietzschean übermensch while inoculating you to the nihilism of the neoliberal 90s, The Simpsons as information conversion spectacle, Matt Groening's revolting foot massage on the Lolita Express, the inexplicable number of Harvard mathematics Ph.Ds on the Simpsons writing staff, and why all “floating timeline” adult-oriented ‘toons are structurally conservative and inexorably sus.

The Nerds are back for another round of Play or Nay.This time: Steampunk Lincoln for PC. In this soulslike action game, you'll embody the iconic Abe Lincoln – but with a twist. Upgraded with gears, gadgets, and a burning desire for justice, Steampunk Lincoln navigates a post-apocalyptic Gilded Age America. Coal-belching iron monstrosities roam the desolate landscape, and it's your duty to battle them and restore order. Expect crunchy melee combat, gear upgrades, and an immersive steampunk atmosphere. Will you rise to the challenge as Steampunk Lincoln?Stay Nerdy, My Friends!See/Hear more at www.techegy.me

What does privilege look like today? How do the advantaged perform “ease”? And why do some of us feel at home in elite spaces, while others feel awkward? Princeton sociologist Shamus Khan joins Uncommon Sense to reflect on elites, entitlement and more. Reminding us that “poor people are not why there's inequality; rich people are why there's inequality”, he highlights the importance of studying elites for studying inequality, as the gap between the two grows.Being the author of Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St Paul's School (2011), Shamus tells Rosie and Alexis about how the way elites justify and see their position has shifted – and how a disability studies perspective helps us to cast a critical eye on the “ease” with which the few seem to nimbly navigate elite institutions. What seems like some of us “have it” and others “just don't” is, suggests Shamus, socially produced – and what appears to be a “flat” and open world, ripe for the bold to seize, is really far more complex.Plus: why might people who share the same knowledge be valued differently when that knowledge is held in different – racialised, minoritised – bodies? Also: why TV shows and movies about elites don't stop at Saltburn, Succession and The Kardashians?Guest: Shamus KhanHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon SenseEpisode ResourcesFrom The Sociological ReviewSpatial Delight: Space Invaders – N. Puwar, A. LisiakUncommon Sense: Taste – I. Karademir Hazir, R. Hancock, A. H. Truong‘Talent-spotting' or ‘social magic'? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal graduate in elite professions – N. Ingram, K. AllenBy Shamus KhanPrivilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's SchoolSaying Meritocracy and Doing Privilege (co-authored with Colin Jerolmack)How Cultural Capital Emerged in Gilded Age America (co-authored with Fabien Accominotti, Adam Storer)Further reading“Flexible Citizenship” – A. Ong“Space Invaders” – N. Puwar“Learning to Labour” – P. Willis“Understanding audience segmentation” – R. Peterson“Reality Television and Class” – B. Skeggs, H. Wood“‘Oh goodness, I am watching reality TV': How methods make class in audience research” – B. Skeggs, N. Thumim, H. Wood“Capital in the 21st Century” – T. PikettyRead more about  Shey O'Brien, Fabien Acconomoti, Pierre Bourdieu and Frantz Fanon.Support Uncommon SenseUncommon Sense is a project of the Sociological Review Foundation, a charity whose mission is to promote sociological thinking to audiences beyond academia.There is a long and heartening tradition of listener support for independent podcasts. If you enjoy what you've heard and learned from Uncommon Sense, we'd be grateful for your support for the creation of future episodes.Make a one-off or regular donation

The drama and tragedy of Titanic's sinking has spawned all manner of myths about the passengers who left Southampton on the 10th of April 1912, and for four days luxuriated in her modern facilities, sumptuous interiors, and comfortable cabins. Particularly, in part thanks to the tremendous exploits of James Cameron's Rose and Cal, the ship's extravagant millionaires, tycoons and aristocrats. The truth of their lives exceeds even the legends. From J.J. Astor, the richest man on board, with his child bride, to Ben Guggenheim - an icon of Gilded Age America - and his mistress, to Sir Cosimo Duff Gordon and his wife, a lingerie entrepreneur, and Archie Butt, a beloved aide to President Taft, with his lover Francis. Conspicuously absent, however, was John Pierpont Morgan, who cancelled his booking at the last minute, and in one fell swoop found his greatest business competitors eliminated…Just as intriguing though, and often overlooked, were Titanic's second class passengers: middle-aged men with their teenage mistresses, a father who had his kidnapped his children, excited families, and Joseph Laroche, a brilliant engineer and the only black man on board, for whom Titanic provided the chance to sail into a new life. The same was true for many others. Little did they know that their marvellous adventure would come at a terrible cost. Join Tom and Dominic as they explore the dazzling, eccentric and endlessly fascinating First and Second Class passengers of Titanic, whose extraordinary lives shine all the brighter for the terrible danger and tragedy waiting for them on the icy horizon… *The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024* Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!  Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Come with us to peak Gilded Age America! We'll watch a charmingly unconventional love story unfold, cure yellow fever, stare at some incredible wallpaper and explore fascinating reasons why women should NOT vote. Katie takes us on location to Ethel Gibson Allen's Boston mansion, now the Gibson House Museum. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2023), this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation's future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States' unsettled present. Joseph Giacomelli is Assistant Professor of Environmental History at Duke Kunshan University. Brian Hamilton is chair of the History and Social Science Department at Deerfield Academy. Twitter. Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2023), this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation's future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States' unsettled present. Joseph Giacomelli is Assistant Professor of Environmental History at Duke Kunshan University. Brian Hamilton is chair of the History and Social Science Department at Deerfield Academy. Twitter. Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2023), this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation's future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States' unsettled present. Joseph Giacomelli is Assistant Professor of Environmental History at Duke Kunshan University. Brian Hamilton is chair of the History and Social Science Department at Deerfield Academy. Twitter. Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies

Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2023), this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation's future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States' unsettled present. Joseph Giacomelli is Assistant Professor of Environmental History at Duke Kunshan University. Brian Hamilton is chair of the History and Social Science Department at Deerfield Academy. Twitter. Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2023), this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation's future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States' unsettled present. Joseph Giacomelli is Assistant Professor of Environmental History at Duke Kunshan University. Brian Hamilton is chair of the History and Social Science Department at Deerfield Academy. Twitter. Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2023), this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation's future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States' unsettled present. Joseph Giacomelli is Assistant Professor of Environmental History at Duke Kunshan University. Brian Hamilton is chair of the History and Social Science Department at Deerfield Academy. Twitter. Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2023), this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation's future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States' unsettled present. Joseph Giacomelli is Assistant Professor of Environmental History at Duke Kunshan University. Brian Hamilton is chair of the History and Social Science Department at Deerfield Academy. Twitter. Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2023), this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation's future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States' unsettled present. Joseph Giacomelli is Assistant Professor of Environmental History at Duke Kunshan University. Brian Hamilton is chair of the History and Social Science Department at Deerfield Academy. Twitter. Website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day

Where does the two-day weekend come from? In this standalone episode of Conflicted, we trace the historical trajectory of that oasis of leisure and free time we call “the weekend”.  From its mystical beginnings in the religions of antiquity to its hard-fought development in Gilded Age America, we'll untangle the surprising origins of everyone's favorite part of the week.  SOURCES: Hunnicutt, Benjamin. Free Time: The Forgotten American Dream. 2013. Onstad, Katrina. The Weekend Effect. 2017.  Loomis, Erik. A History of America in Ten Strikes. 2018. Murolo, Priscilla. Chitty, A.B. From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend. 2001. Green, James. Death in Haymarket. 2006.  Brecher, Jeremy. STRIKE! 1972.  Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. 1980. Thomas, Gordan. Morgan-Witts, Max. The Day the Bubble Burst. 1979. BBC. (2019, September 5). Who invented the weekend? BBC Bitesize. Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. “Presidential Speeches: Downloadable Data.” Accessed Feb 19, 2023. data.millercenter.org  Captivating History. The Industrial Revolution. 2020.  Grossman, Jonathan. “Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage.” Monthly Labor Review 101, no. 6 (1978): 22–30. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41840777. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimberly A. Hamlin is the James and Beth Lewis Professor of History at Miami University (OH), where she teaches and writes about the history of women, sex, and gender in the U.S. Her most recent book, Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener tells the remarkable story of the "fallen woman" who negotiated Congressional passage of the 19th Amendment. She is also the author of From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women's Rights in Gilded Age America and several academic articles. Hamlin regularly contributes to the Washington Post and other media.According to a 2020 American Association of University Professors report, women in academia continue to have stubborn challenges inside the academy. In the same report, the American Association of University Professors reported that while women comprise 46.7% of full-time tenure and tenure-track faculty members at higher education institutions, the higher the rank, the lower the percentage of women. Available IPEDS data from 2020 shows the salaries for full-time female faculty members are about 81.2% of their male counterparts. Impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic continue to impact women faculty members disproportionately more than their counterparts. A Nature Medicine article from 2022 identifies how women in academia have been impacted by the pandemic, from falling behind in research publications to grant funding.Learn more about CITI Program: https://about.citiprogram.org/ 

Two vagabonds with great luck and big balls perpetrate a hoax that made them extremely rich and hoodwinked some of the finest, most respectable citizens of early Gilded Age America. In our modern era of boring electronic fraud, the romance of walking into a bank with a bag of dirty diamonds you claim you pulled out of a hidden mine is hard to match. These podcasts are ad-free and self-produced; I value your support on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ginandtacos.

Join Haymarket and Spectre Journal for a launch of Kim Moody's new book, Breaking the Impasse. Unlike most countries, the US has no labor party, let alone a mass socialist party. In an effort to overcome this predicament, a new generation of militants hope to transform the Democratic Party or use its ballot to build forces inside it for an eventual “dirty break.” In his new book, Moody argues this electoral orientation is a trap and that socialists should instead build class and social struggle and galvanize a militant minority as the preconditions for the formation of a working class party. Get the book, Breaking the Impasse: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1873-breaking-the-impasse Speakers: Kim Moody was a founder of Labor Notes in the US and the author of several books on labour and politics including Breaking the Impasse: Electoral Politics, Mass Action & the New Socialist Movement in the United States (2022); Tramps & Trade Union Travelers: Internal Migration and Organized Labor in Gilded Age America (2017); and On New Terrain: How Capital Is Reshaping The Battleground Of Class War; all from Haymarket. He has a PhD from the University of Nottingham and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Westminster in London. He is a member of the University and College Union and the National Union of Journalists. Joe Burns is a veteran union negotiator and labor lawyer with over 25 years experience negotiating labor agreements. He is currently the Director of Collective Bargaining for the Association of Flight Attendants, CWA. He graduated from the New York University School of Law. Prior to law school he worked in a public sector hospital and was president of his AFSCME Local. He is the author of Class Struggle Unionism, Strike Back: Rediscovering Militant Tactics to Fight the Attacks on Public Employee Unions and Reviving the Strike: How Working People Can Regain Power and Transform America. Keon Liberato is a railroad track construction worker and president of Track Local 3012 in the Teamsters Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division (BMWED) Teamsters Rail Conference. He is a co-founder and co-chair of the BMWED-IBT Rank & File United reform caucus. Liberato is a member of the Democratic Socialist of America where he served as a member of the National Political Committee from 2020-2021. Lois Weiner, Professor Emerita, New Jersey City University, is a career teacher, education researcher, and teacher union activist. Her new book, as yet untitled, takes up what the Left can learn about defending social justice and workers' rights by examining capitalism's latest project to deprofessionalize teaching, undercut teachers' labor activism, and destroy public education. Chapters One and Two have been published by New Politics and Tempest. --------------------------------------------------------- This event is sponsored by Spectre Journal and Haymarket Books. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/W0xxhv1ZOtQ Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

Paris has a long history as the fashion capital of the world. In the late 19th Century, American women, like European women, wanted the latest in French fashion. The wealthiest women traveled to Paris regularly to visit their favorite couturiers, like the House of Worth and Maison Félix, to update their wardrobes. For those women who couldn't afford to travel, Paris came to them, via international expositions, magazines, and department stores.  I'm joined in this episode by art historian Dr. Elizabeth L. Block, author of Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion, who helps us understand how the American women who were purchasing gowns and dresses helped transform the fashion industry. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. Image Credit: “Mrs. William Astor (Caroline Webster Schermerhorn, 1831–1908),” painted by Carolus-Duran, 1890. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image is in the Public Domain. Audio Credit: “Nuit d'Etoiles (Starry Night),” written by Théodore de Banville and Claude Debussy; performed by Julia Culp and Coenraad V. Bos, 1917. Courtesy of the Internet Archive. Audio is in the Public Domain. Additional Sources: “Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895) and the House of Worth,” Metropolitan Museum of Art. “‘The Gilded Age' Costumes are Like a Late-19th Century High-Fashion Street Style Editorial,” by Fawnia Soo Hoo, Fashionista, February 7, 2022. “How America's Gilded Age Paved The Way For Fashion Today,” by Eilidh Hargreaves, Vogue, January 30, 2022. “Downtown, Uptown: From The Dry Goods Store To The Palace Of Consumption,” by Keren Ben-Horin, Fashion History Timeline, Fashion Institute of New York, Mary 16, 2018. “The history of haute couture,” Harper's Bazaar, January 19, 2017. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for new employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow “birthers” reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship. In The Birth Certificate: An American History (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), award-winning historian Susan J. Pearson traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States. Deftly weaving together social, political, and legal history, The Birth Certificate is a fascinating biography of a piece of paper that grounds our understanding of how those who live in the United States are considered Americans. Susan J. Pearson is associate professor of history at Northwestern University and the author of The Rights of the Defenseless: Protecting Animals and Children in Gilded Age America. Catriona Gold is a PhD candidate in Geography at University College London, researching security, subjectivity and mobility in the 20-21st century United States. Her current work concerns the US Passport Office's role in the Cold War. She can be reached by email or on Twitter.

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for new employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow “birthers” reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship. In The Birth Certificate: An American History (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), award-winning historian Susan J. Pearson traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States. Deftly weaving together social, political, and legal history, The Birth Certificate is a fascinating biography of a piece of paper that grounds our understanding of how those who live in the United States are considered Americans. Susan J. Pearson is associate professor of history at Northwestern University and the author of The Rights of the Defenseless: Protecting Animals and Children in Gilded Age America. Catriona Gold is a PhD candidate in Geography at University College London, researching security, subjectivity and mobility in the 20-21st century United States. Her current work concerns the US Passport Office's role in the Cold War. She can be reached by email or on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/public-policy

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for new employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow “birthers” reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship. In The Birth Certificate: An American History (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), award-winning historian Susan J. Pearson traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States. Deftly weaving together social, political, and legal history, The Birth Certificate is a fascinating biography of a piece of paper that grounds our understanding of how those who live in the United States are considered Americans. Susan J. Pearson is associate professor of history at Northwestern University and the author of The Rights of the Defenseless: Protecting Animals and Children in Gilded Age America. Catriona Gold is a PhD candidate in Geography at University College London, researching security, subjectivity and mobility in the 20-21st century United States. Her current work concerns the US Passport Office's role in the Cold War. She can be reached by email or on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for new employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow “birthers” reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship. In The Birth Certificate: An American History (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), award-winning historian Susan J. Pearson traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States. Deftly weaving together social, political, and legal history, The Birth Certificate is a fascinating biography of a piece of paper that grounds our understanding of how those who live in the United States are considered Americans. Susan J. Pearson is associate professor of history at Northwestern University and the author of The Rights of the Defenseless: Protecting Animals and Children in Gilded Age America. Catriona Gold is a PhD candidate in Geography at University College London, researching security, subjectivity and mobility in the 20-21st century United States. Her current work concerns the US Passport Office's role in the Cold War. She can be reached by email or on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for new employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow “birthers” reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship. In The Birth Certificate: An American History (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), award-winning historian Susan J. Pearson traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States. Deftly weaving together social, political, and legal history, The Birth Certificate is a fascinating biography of a piece of paper that grounds our understanding of how those who live in the United States are considered Americans. Susan J. Pearson is associate professor of history at Northwestern University and the author of The Rights of the Defenseless: Protecting Animals and Children in Gilded Age America. Catriona Gold is a PhD candidate in Geography at University College London, researching security, subjectivity and mobility in the 20-21st century United States. Her current work concerns the US Passport Office's role in the Cold War. She can be reached by email or on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for new employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow “birthers” reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship. In The Birth Certificate: An American History (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), award-winning historian Susan J. Pearson traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States. Deftly weaving together social, political, and legal history, The Birth Certificate is a fascinating biography of a piece of paper that grounds our understanding of how those who live in the United States are considered Americans. Susan J. Pearson is associate professor of history at Northwestern University and the author of The Rights of the Defenseless: Protecting Animals and Children in Gilded Age America. Catriona Gold is a PhD candidate in Geography at University College London, researching security, subjectivity and mobility in the 20-21st century United States. Her current work concerns the US Passport Office's role in the Cold War. She can be reached by email or on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

At this week's Round Table, Inica, Jack, Kenisha, and Madeline spoke with Shaylyn Romney Garrett-- writer, speaker, and thinker-- who is trying to change America and the world for the better through connection and community in order to heal and renew our societies. Shaylyn is the coauthor with Robert Putnam of The Upswing: How America Came Together A Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again, which provides critical insights for weaving a stronger, more united future for our country. Today, it seems the only thing we can all agree on is that America is in a bad place and on the wrong track. So Shaylyn and Professor Putnam engaged in vast, data driven work to examine the last 125 years of history through four lenses-- economic, cultural, political, and social-- to better understand ‘how we got here'. They made a breathtaking finding: all four lenses map the same trajectory, a trajectory that looks like an inverted bell curve. At the turn of the 20th century, we were extremely polarized and narcissistic across economic, cultural, political, and social matters, after which things started moving in a better direction for the ensuing 70 years until about the mid 60s, when everything started sliding back to the way it looked at the beginning of the 20th century. You could characterize that 100 year period as an I-We-I-century: polarized and narcissistic at the beginning and end, but unified and communal in the middle. Today, our country looks very similar to the America from the turn of the century- Gilded Age America. The lesson, however, is surprisingly optimistic. Instead of disparaging, The Upswing teaches us to learn from and act upon what actually happened after the Gilded Age: an age of unprecedented peace and shared prosperity. We've been here before and we can get out of our current toxic culture if we learn from and build on historical precedents. One thing we learned during the last upswing is that progress didn't come overnight. It took 60+ years, and even with all that was accomplished, not everything changed and progress around things like race and gender were insufficient. We have to do better in creating OUR upswing, and Shaylyn was the perfect guest to guide us in doing so. Thank you for listening! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/nextgenpolitics/message

A unique exploration of the life and work of Rudyard Kipling in Gilded Age America, from a celebrated scholar of American literature At the turn of the twentieth century, Rudyard Kipling towered over not just English literature, but the entire literary world. At the height of his fame in 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming its youngest winner. His influence on figures—including the likes of Freud and William James—was vast and profound. But in recent decades Kipling's reputation has suffered a strange eclipse. Though his body of work still looms large, and his monumental poem “If—” is quoted and referenced by politicians, athletes, and professors, he himself is treated with profound unease as a man on the wrong side of history. In If, scholar Christopher Benfey brings this fascinating writer to life and, for the first time, gives full attention to his intense engagement with the United States—a rarely discussed but critical piece of evidence in our understanding of this man and his enduring legacy. Benfey traces the writer's deep involvement with America over one crucial decade, from 1889 to 1899, when he lived for four years in Brattleboro, Vermont, and sought deliberately to turn himself into a specifically American writer. It was his most prodigious and creative period, as well as his happiest, during which he wrote The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous. Had a family dispute not forced his departure, Kipling almost certainly would have stayed. Leaving was the hardest thing he ever had to do, Kipling said. “There are only two places in the world where I want to live,” he lamented, “Bombay and Brattleboro. And I can't live in either.” In this fresh examination of Kipling, Benfey hangs a provocative “what if” over Kipling's American years and maps the imprint Kipling left on his adopted country as well as the imprint the country left on him. If proves there is relevance and magnificence to be found in Kipling's work --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/support

In dieser Folge besuchen Katharina und Nina das idyllische Dörfchen Cardiff im US Bundesstaat New York am 16. Oktober des Jahres 1869, wo der Fund eines versteinerten Riesen aus biblischer Vorzeit für gewaltiges Aufsehen sorgt. Wie eine Kneipendiskussion und ein findiger Tabakhändler einige Menschen reich machten und dabei „The Greatest Showman“ P. T. Barnum auf den Plan riefen und warum die Geschichte des „Cardiff Giant“ auch heute noch relevant ist, hört ihr in dieser Folge von „Früher war mehr Verbrechen – Der historische True Crime Podcast“ // Kapitel // - 02:56 – Eine sensationelle Entdeckung wird gemacht - 10:25 – Die Nachricht verbreitet sich wie ein Lauffeuer - 18:09 – Meinungen, Meinungen, Meinungen - 21:29 – Der Riese wird verkauft - 23:03 – George Hull's größter Coup - 28:06 – Der Riese geht auf Tour und P. T. Barnum tritt auf den Plan - 34:25 – Der Triumph des George Hull - 35:42 – Die Auswirkungen und Besprechung des Falles // Quellen & Shownotes // - Live Science, Cardiff Giant: ‘America's Biggest Hoax', Artikel vom 17. August 2016 https://www.livescience.com/55787-cardiff-giant.html - Onondaga Historical Association, Today in History: The Cardiff Giant and CNY's Biggest Hoax, - https://www.cnyhistory.org/2014/10/cardiff-giant/ - Smithsonian Magazine, The Cardiff Giant Was Just a Big Hoax, Artikel vom 16. Oktober 2017 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cardiff-giant-was-just-big-hoax-180965274/ - Pettit, M.: „The Joy in Believing“: The Cardiff Giant, Commercial Deceptions, and Styles of Ovservation in Gilded Age America, In: Isis, Vol 97, No. 4, 2006 - White, A. D.: Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, New York 1917, https://www.lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/cardiff.htm - History.com, The Cardiff Giant Fools the Nation 145 Years Ago, Artikel vom 16. Oktober 2014 - https://www.history.com/news/the-cardiff-giant-fools-the-nation-145-years-ago - Today in True Crime Podcast, “The Cardiff Giant” Hoax, Folge vom 16. Oktober 2019, - https://www.parcast.com/today-in-true-crime - Dark Histories Podcast, The Cardiff Giant & The Great American Humbug, Folge vom 20. April 2020, https://www.darkhistories.com/ - Hoaxilla Podcast, https://hoaxilla.com/ // Folgt uns auf Instagram // https://www.instagram.com/frueher.war.mehr.verbrechen/?hl=de // Karte mit allen „Früher war mehr Verbrechen“-Tatorten // https://bit.ly/2FFyWF6 GEMAfreie Musik von https://audiohub.de

On today’s episode we discuss the master of delusion himself, Charles Julius Guiteau. A man who failed at more things than most people ever even try. He also killed the president. (Kind of) Sources include: Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard , Assassination and Insanity in Gilded Age America by Winston Bowman , GhostsofDC.org

In 1869, two well diggers in Cardiff, N.Y., unearthed an enormous figure made of stone. More than 600,000 people flocked to see the mysterious giant, but even as its fame grew, its real origins were coming to light. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Cardiff giant, one of the greatest hoaxes of the 19th century. We'll also ponder the effects of pink and puzzle over a potentially painful treatment. Intro: Edgar Rice Burroughs invented a variant of chess for a book set on Mars. Due to an unfortunate edict, a ladder in Jerusalem has remained unmoved for 200 years. Sources for our feature on the Cardiff giant: Scott Tribble, A Colossal Hoax, 2008. Nate Hendley, The Big Con, 2016. Magnus Magnusson, Fakers, Forgers and Phoneys, 2007. Brian Innes, Fakes & Forgeries, 2005. Mark Rose, "When Giants Roamed the Earth," Archaeology 58:6 (2005), 30-35. Barbara Franco, "The Cardiff Giant: A Hundred Year Old Hoax," New York History 50:4 (October 1969), 420-440. James Taylor Dunn, "The Cardiff Giant Hoax," New York History 29:3 (July 1948), 367-377. Michael Pettit, "'The Joy in Believing': The Cardiff Giant, Commercial Deceptions, and Styles of Observation in Gilded Age America," Isis 97:4 (December 2006), 659-677. Julian D. Corrington, "Nature Fakes," Bios 27:3 (October 1956), 159-169. Kat Eschner, "The Cardiff Giant Was Just a Big Hoax," Smithsonian.com, Oct. 16, 2017. Jessie Szalay, "Cardiff Giant: 'America's Biggest Hoax,'" Live Science, Aug. 16, 2016. Ruth Mosalski, "Cardiff Giant Turned Out to Be Really Big US Hoax," South Wales Echo, Jan. 21, 2017, 24. Gerald Smith and George Basler, "Hull Earned a Spot in 'Con Man's Hall of Fame,'" [Binghamton, N.Y.] Press & Sun-Bulletin, Oct. 6, 2014, 4. Ed Kemmick, "'Petrified' Man Was Big Attraction in Turn-of-the-Last-Century Montana," Billings Gazette, March 13, 2009. Bill White, "Cardiff Giant, Piltdown Man -- And Now Heydt Man," [Allentown, Pa.] Morning Call, March 10, 2001, B3. "It Was a Giant Joke, Now Largely Forgotten," Associated Press, Nov. 14, 1999, L3. Roger Munns, "19th Century Hoax Now Just an Interesting Relic," Los Angeles Times, March 16, 1997, 11. Harvey Berman, "Prehistoric Giant Was a Hoax," [Montreal] Gazette, May 18, 1991, J8. Bob Hughes, "The Cardiff Giant: How a Great Hoax Came to Life in a North Side Barn," Chicago Tribune, June 2, 1985, 10. "Cardiff Giant in Suit," New York Times, April 18, 1949. Louis C. Jones and James Taylor Dunn, "Cardiff Giant Again," New York Times, May 23, 1948. "'Cardiff Giant' Sale Barred by Fort Dodge," Associated Press, Aug. 4, 1934. "Syracuse Plea Fails to Get Cardiff Giant," Associated Press, Dec. 6, 1930. Ruth A. Gallaher, "The Cardiff Giant," The Palimpsest 2:9 (1921), 269-281. "Gigantic Hoax Fools Scientists," El Paso [Texas] Herald, June 8, 1912, 10. "The Cardiff Giant: A Hoax That Took," Coeur d'Alene [Idaho] Evening Press, April 15, 1910, 4. Frank Lewis Ford, "The Last of a Famous Hoax," The Scrap Book 3:2 (April 1907), 221-223. "Cardiff Giant Fake Recalled by Death of the One of the Sculptors," Butte [Mont.] Inter Mountain, Nov. 8, 1902, 14. "Cardiff Giant Fake," [Marshalltown, Iowa] Evening Times-Republican, Nov. 6, 1902, 2. Andrew D. White, "The Cardiff Giant," The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, 64:6 (October 1902), 948-955. "The History of the Cardiff Giant," Scranton [Pa.] Tribune, June 24, 1899, 11. "Cardiff Giant Fraud," Salt Lake [Utah] Herald, April 23, 1899. "He Made the Giant," Reading [Pa.] Eagle, Feb. 10, 1889, 2. "The Cardiff Giant," in The History of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Western Historical Company, 1880, 547-552. "More About the Colorado Cardiff Giant," New York Times, Sept. 30, 1877. "The Cardiff Giant's Carpet-Bag," New York Times, Dec. 10, 1876. W.A. McKinney, "The Cardiff Giant," English Mechanics and the World of Science, 22:562 (Dec. 31, 1875), 393-394. "The Cardiff Giant Again," New York Times, May 11, 1874. "Can a Married Woman Hold Property in a Cardiff Giant?" St. Louis Democrat, Dec. 12, 1872. "The Cardiff Giant," College Courant 5:22 (Dec. 11, 1869), 347. "The Cardiff Giant," Harper's Weekly 13:675 (Dec. 4, 1869), 776. "The Cardiff Giant a Humbug," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, December 1869 meeting, 161-163. Today the giant resides at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. Listener mail: "About Us," Town of Chicken (accessed March 15, 2019). "ptarmigan," Oxford Living Dictionaries (accessed March 15, 2019). "ptarmigan," Dictionary.com (accessed March 15, 2019). "Chicken of Chicken, Alaska" (accessed March 15, 2019). Wikipedia, "Chicken, Alaska" (accessed March 15, 2019). Danny Payne, "Paint the Town Pink: Iowa's Unusual Tactic of Messing With Its Opponents," Sports Illustrated, Sept. 24, 2015. Rick Brown, "Hayden Fry Jokes About Health, Pink Locker Room," Des Moines Register, Aug. 30, 2014. Mark Snyder, "Michigan Football Covers Iowa's Pink Visitors Locker Room," Detroit Free Press, Nov. 12, 2016. Mark Wogenrich, "Penn State Readies for Iowa and Its Soothing Pink Locker Room," [Allentown, Pa.] Morning Call, Sept. 19, 2017. Alexander G. Schauss, "The Physiological Effect of Color on the Suppression of Human Aggression: Research on Baker-Miller Pink," International Journal of Biosocial Research 2:7 (1985), 55-64. Wikipedia, "Baker-Miller Pink" (accessed March 16, 2019). Oliver Genschow, et al., "Does Baker-Miller Pink Reduce Aggression in Prison Detention Cells? A Critical Empirical Examination," Psychology, Crime & Law 21:5 (2015), 482-489. Morwenna Ferrier, "This Colour Might Change Your Life: Kendall Jenner and Baker-Miller Pink," Guardian, Jan. 10, 2017. Natalie Way, "In the Pink: The Secret Wall Color for Dropping Pounds and Calming Down," realtor.com, Jan. 12, 2017. Jake New, "The Meaning of Pink," Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 29, 2014. Kabir Chibber, "Sports Teams Think the Color Pink Can Help Them Win," Quartz, Aug. 22, 2018. "Norwich City Paint Carrow Road Away Dressing Room Pink," BBC, Aug. 20, 2018. "Norwich City Stats," FootyStats (accessed March 19, 2019). This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Neil de Carteret, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

In 1873 a Methodist missionary in New York City heard rumors of a little girl who was kept locked in a tenement and regularly whipped. She uncovered a shocking case of neglect and abuse that made headlines around the world. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell how one girl's ordeal led to a new era in child welfare. We'll also outsource Harry Potter and puzzle over Wayne Gretzky's accomplishments. Intro: By a 1976 resolution, George Washington forever outranks every other officer in the U.S. Army. Humorist Robert Benchley invented some creative excuses for missing deadlines. Sources for our feature on Mary Ellen Wilson: Eric A. Shelman and Stephen Lazoritz, The Mary Ellen Wilson Child Abuse Case and the Beginning of Children's Rights in 19th Century America, 2005. Susan J. Pearson, The Rights of the Defenseless: Protecting Animals and Children in Gilded Age America, 2011. Frank R. Ascione, Children and Animals: Exploring the Roots of Kindness and Cruelty, 2005. John E.B. Myers, Child Protection in America: Past, Present, and Future, 2006. Karel Kurst-Swanger and Jacqueline L. Petcosky, Violence in the Home: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 2003. Mary Renck Jalongo, "The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson: Tracing the Origins of Child Protection in America," Early Childhood Education Journal 34:1 (August 2006), 1-4. Lela B. Costin, "Unraveling the Mary Ellen Legend: Origins of the 'Cruelty' Movement," Social Service Review 65:2 (June 1991), 203-223. Sallie A. Watkins, "The Mary Ellen Myth: Correcting Child Welfare History," Social Work 35:6 (November 1990), 500-503. Jini L. Roby, "Child Welfare Workers in the Legal Arena: What Works, What Doesn't," Child & Youth Care Forum 30:5 (October 2001), 305-319. John E.B. Myers, "A Short History of Child Protection in America," Family Law Quarterly 42:3 (Fall 2008), 449-463. Susan Vivian Mangold, "Protection, Privatization, and Profit in the Foster Care System," Ohio State Law Journal 60 (1999), 1295. Natan Sznaider, "Compassion and Control: Children in Civil Society," Childhood 4:2 (1997). Marian Eide, "The First Chapter of Children's Rights," American Heritage 41:5 (July/August 1990). Wanda Mohr, Richard J. Gelles, Ira M. Schwartz, "Shackled in the Land of Liberty: No Rights for Children," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 564:1 (July 1999), 37-55. Gerald P. Mallon, "From the Editor: The Legend of Mary Ellen Wilson and Etta Wheeler: Child Maltreatment and Protection Today," Child Welfare 92:2 (March/April 2013), 9-11. Amy D. Ronner, "Dostoevsky as Juvenile Justice Advocate and Progenitor of Therapeutic Jurisprudence," St. Thomas Law Review 30:1 (Fall 2017), 5-41. "Mary Ellen Wilson: Fact and Fiction," [Wooster, Ohio] Daily Record, April 29, 2017, 7. Howard Markel, "Case Shined First Light on Abuse of Children," New York Times, Dec. 14, 2009. Daniel Bergner, "The Case of Marie and Her Sons," New York Times Magazine, July 23, 2006. Al Baker, "Plan to Hasten Abuse Inquiries Came Up Short," New York Times, Jan. 21, 2006. "Mary Ellen Wilson," New York Times, June 14, 1874. "Mary Ellen Wilson," New York Times, June 2, 1874. "The Custody of Mary Ellen Wilson," New York Times, May 1, 1874. "Mary Ellen Wilson," New York Times, April 22, 1874. "Mary Ellen Wilson; Further Testimony in the Case Two Indictments Found Against Mrs. Connolly by the Grand Jury," New York Times, April 14, 1874. "Mary Ellen Wilson; Further Testimony as to the Child's Ill Treatment by Her Guardians," New York Times, April 12, 1874. "The Mission of Humanity; Continuation of the Proceedings Instituted by Mr. Bergh on Behalf of the Child, Mary Ellen Wilson," New York Times, April 11, 1874. "Mr. Bergh Enlarging His Sphere of Usefulness," New York Times, April 10, 1874. Listener mail: Mary Ilyushina and Lianne Kolirin, "Russia Reopens Investigation Into 60-Year-Old Dyatlov Pass Mystery," CNN, Feb. 4, 2019. "Russia's Reopening the Investigation of the Spooky Dyatlov Pass Incident," The Chive, Feb. 8, 2019 (warning: contains some potentially disturbing photos and one strong expletive). Emma Friedlander, "Russian Investigators Are Reopening the Dyatlov Pass Case. But What Is It?" Moscow Times, Feb. 14, 2019. Wikipedia, "Tiddles" (accessed Feb. 12, 2019). Rob Baker, "Tiddles, a rather fat cat that lived in the public lavatories at Paddington Station - 1978 - photo by Chris Moorhouse," Twitter, Jan. 22, 2019. Anna Menta, "Absurd New 'Harry Potter' Book Written By Predictive Text Already Has Fan Art," Newsweek, Dec. 14, 2017. Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, "Harry Potter Chapter Written by Bots Is Magically Terrible," CNET, Dec. 12, 2017. Charles Pulliam-Moore, "This New Harry Potter Chapter, Written With Predictive Keyboards, Is Magically Unhinged," io9, Dec. 12, 2017. Shannon Liao, "This Harry Potter AI-Generated Fanfiction Is Remarkably Good," The Verge, Dec 12, 2017. Evan Narcisse, "That Freaky Bot-Written Harry Potter Chapter Got Turned into a Freaky Cartoon," io9, Feb. 13, 2018. Botnik. Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Mandie Bauer. Here's a corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, I take a deep dive into the origins of Labor Day.  It's a holiday that most Americans these days take for granted. But it was born out of the crisis of the Gilded Age, that tumultuous last third of the 19th century that saw both the US economy boom as never before and social upheaval take place on an unprecedented level.  This unique holiday was first celebrated on September 5, 1882. On that day  thousands of workers in New York City risked getting fired for taking an unauthorized day off to participate in festivities honoring honest toil and the rights of labor.  This first commemoration of Labor Day testified to labor’s rising power and unity in the Gilded Age as well as its sense that both were necessary to withstand the growing power of business and industry. The Labor Day holiday originated with the Central Labor Union (CLU), a local labor federation – essentially a union of unions - formed in NYC in January 1882 to promote the interests of workers.  The CLU immediately became a formidable force in New York, staging protest rallies, lobbying state legislators, and organizing strikes and boycotts.  By August 1882 membership in the organization boomed to fifty-six unions representing 80,000 workers.  But CLU activists wanted to do more than simply increase membership and win strikes. They wanted to build worker solidarity in the face of jarring changes being wrought by the industrial revolution in the Gilded Age – the period in American history covering roughly the last 3rd of the 19th century. During this period the United States was transformed from what today we’d call a “developing nation” in 1865 to the world’s leading economic power by 1900. The favorite word of politicians and business leaders in this era was “progress.” But along with this tremendous increase in national wealth came a problem: widespread poverty. Evidence of this troubling duality could be found everywhere, but especially in New York City where mansions of big business tycoons like Vanderbilt, Morgan, and Carnegie arose along Fifth Avenue, while in the rest of the city two-thirds of the population lived in cramped and squalid tenements.  In short, the establishment of Labor Day signaled that Gilded Age America faced a crisis over growing inequality. The motivation to establish Labor Day also came from a growing sense of alarm among American workers over the growing power of employers over their employees and frustration over the unwillingness of political leaders to do anything about it.  Employers were free to increase hours, slash wages, and fire workers at will – practices that rendered workers powerless and pushed more and more of them into poverty.   These developments, noted labor leaders, called into question the future of the American republic.  As the CLU put it in its constitution: “Economical servitude degrades political liberties to a farce. Men who are bound to follow the dictates of factory lords, that they may earn a livelihood, are not free.  … [A]s the power of combined and centralized capital increases, the political liberties of the toiling masses become more and more illusory.” In other words, workers in the Gilded Age began to argue that in this new world of industry – one that was so very different from the agrarian world of the Founders - mere political equality (one man, one vote) was no longer adequate to maintain a healthy republican society. Modern industrial life, with huge corporations, global markets, and increasing numbers of people working for wages, required a recognition that republican citizenship included an economic dimension – not just a political one. As the reformer and labor activist Henry George wrote in 1879, “In our time…creep on the insidious forces that, producing inequality, destroy Liberty.”  The fact that all male citizens possessed the vote and equality before the law, George continued, no longer guaranteed them the blessings of republican citizenship. If one was forced to work 60 or 80 hours a weeks and yet did not earn a living wage, his right to vote was meaningless. He had sunken into what workers in that er called, “industrial slavery.”  Extreme inequality, in other words, would destroy American democracy. So these were the concerns that in 1882 prompted labor activists affiliated with New York’s CLU to establish Labor Day as a day that would celebrate workers and inspire them to reclaim their dissipating rights.  As John Swinton, editor of the city’s only labor paper wrote, “Whatever enlarges labor’s sense of its power hastens the day of its emancipation.” Now, we should pause here to note that the precise identity of the CLU leader who in May 1882 first proposed the idea of establishing Labor Day remains a mystery.  Some accounts say it was Peter “P. J.” McGuire, General Secretary of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners (and future co-founder of the AFL), who proposed the idea.  Others argue that it was another man with a similar last name, machinist Matthew Maguire.  Well, we’ll probably never know the answer to which Maguire deserves the title of the “Father of Labor Day,” but it is clear that both men played key roles in promoting and organizing the original holiday. And so it was that after months of preparation the chosen day – Tuesday September 5, 1882 – finally arrived.   Optimism among the organizers ran high, but no one knew how many workers would turn out.  Few could expect their employers to grant them a day off and many feared getting fired and blacklisted for labor union activity.  When William G. McCabe, the parade’s first Grand Marshall and popular member of the International Typographers Union, arrived an hour before the parade’s start, the situation looked grim.  Only a few dozen workers stood milling about City Hall Park in lower Manhattan. But to the relief of McCabe and other organizers, by the time the parade touched off at 10:00 a.m., about 400 men and a brass band had assembled. In the early going, the small group of marchers faced ridicule from bystanders and interruptions in the line of march because policemen refused to stop traffic at intersections.  But as the parade continued north up Broadway, it swelled in size as union after union fell into line from side streets.  Soon the jeers turned into cheers as the spectacle of labor solidarity grew more impressive. Marchers held aloft signs that spoke both to their pride as workers and the fear that they were losing political power and economic standing in the republic: To the Workers Should Belong All Wealth Labor Built this Republic. Labor Shall Rule It Less Work and More Pay Eight Hours for a Legal Day’s Work  All Men Are Created Equal  Many workers wore their traditional work uniforms and aprons and walked behind wagons displaying their handiwork.  Others dressed in their holiday best for the occasion. Midway through the parade, the throng of workers – now numbering 5,000 -- passed a reviewing stand at Union Square.  Among the many dignitaries was Terence Powderly, Grand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor, the most powerful labor organization in the nation. It then continued up Fifth Avenue, past the opulent mansions of the new super rich of the era – the Vanderbilts, Morgans, Goulds and so on, before ending at 42nd Street and Sixth Ave.  From there participants headed to a large park on Manhattan’s Upper west Side for a massive picnic.  By late afternoon some 25,000 workers and their families jammed the park to participate in the festivities which consisted of live music, stirring speeches on workers’ rights, and consumption of copious amounts of food and beer.  Thrilled with the success of this first effort, CLU leaders staged a second Labor Day the following year in 1883 and the event drew an even larger number of participants.  The next year, in 1884, the CLU officially designated the first Monday in September as the annual Labor Day, calling upon workers to, “Leave your benches, leave your shops, join in the parade and attend the picnic.  A day spent with us is not lost.”  Upwards of 20,000 marched that year, including a contingent of African American workers (the first women marchers appeared in 1885). With such an impressive start, the tradition of an annual Labor Day holiday quickly gained popularity across the country.  By 1886 Labor Day had become a national event.  Some 20,000 workers marched in Manhattan, and another 10,000 in Brooklyn, while 25,000 turned out in Chicago, 15,000 in Boston, 5,000 in Buffalo, and 4,000 in Washington, D.C.   Politicians took notice and in 1887 five states, including New York, passed laws making Labor Day a state holiday.  Seven years later – just a dozen years after the first celebration in New York — President Grover Cleveland signed into law a measure establishing Labor Day as a holiday for all federal workers. Labor Day caught on so quickly among Gilded Age workers because unlike the traditional forms of labor activism like  striking and picketing, or civic holidays commemorating victories in war, Labor Day drew together workers for the purposes of celebration. As P. J. McGuire later wrote of the parade, “No festival of martial glory of warrior’s renown is this; no pageant pomp of warlike conquest … attend this day.  … It is dedicated to Peace, Civilization and the triumphs of Industry.  It is a demonstration of fraternity and the harbinger of a better age – a more chivalrous time, when labor shall be best honored and well rewarded.” In the twentieth century, Labor Day parades grew into massive spectacles of pride and power. These annual events reflected the growing power and influence of organized labor in American society. The labor movement and social reformers pushed for policies aimed at limiting the power of big corporations and the wealthy, while protecting and enhancing the opportunity for the average citizen to live a decent life. These policies included the 8-hour day, increased workplace safety, collective bargaining rights, expanded public education, unemployment insurance, and Social Security.  Their success reflected a growing acceptance of the idea that for republican citizenship to be real, it had to include a baseline of material wellbeing.  By the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enshrined “Freedom from Want” as one of the nation’s essential Four Freedoms. “True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence,” he said. “People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” Roosevelt’s New Deal and subsequent moments of reform like President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” boosted the wellbeing of the average American.  So, too, did the influence of a strong labor movement. Labor’s power was on full display on Labor Day in 1961 when 200,000 workers processed up Fifth Avenue behind Grand Marshall Mayor Robert Wagner, passing on the reviewing stand dignitaries that included Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Senator Jacob K. Javitts, and former President Harry S. Truman. The result of reforms and strong unions was the steady decline of extreme wealth inequality. Whereas in 1890 the top 1 percent of Americans owned 51 percent of all wealth, by 1979 the 1 percent owned 20.5% of all wealth. But since 1980 the trend has shifted dramatically back toward increased wealth and income inequality. This trend has many sources, including deindustrialization, cuts to social programs, and the deregulation of Wall Street.  But a key one has been the decline of the power of organized labor.  In 1955 union membership reached its historic highpoint with 39% of the American workforce belonging to a union. Today, union membership hovers around 10 percent. And wealth inequality?  In 1979, as we just noted, the share of wealth possessed by the 1 percent had fallen to about 21%. Today, it’s closing in on 40% -- and rising. This trend explains why so many Americans have taken to calling this era, the Second Gilded Age. So this weekend, as millions celebrate Labor Day by not laboring, Americans would do well to reflect on the core claims of the early labor movement that invented Labor Day: Gilded Age workers and those who followed them argued that the nation’s democratic values and republican institutions were threatened by economic policies that left a small number of people extremely wealthy and powerful, while the great majority of citizens struggled to obtain or hold onto a piece of the American Dream. Today, this concern animates calls for a $15 minimum wage, single payer health care, tougher regulations on corporations, banks, and Wall Street, and greater investment in infrastructure and public education. So, Labor Day should remind us that while, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, all are created equal, they also grow up to live in a society shaped by policies and laws that determine whether opportunities for success are focused on the great majority of citizens, or merely on the 1 percent. Happy Labor Day, people.   Recommended reading:  Edward T. O’Donnell, Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality: Progress and Poverty in the Gilded Age (Columbia Univ. Press, 2015) Jonathan Grossman, “Who Is the Father of Labor Day?,” Labor History, 14, no. 4, (1973) Michael Kazin and Steven J. Ross, “America’s Labor Day: The Dilemma of a Workers’ Celebration,” Journal of American History (Mar 1992) P.J. McGuire, "Labor Day — Its Birth and Significance", The Union Agent [Kentucky], vol. 3, no. 9 (Sept. 1898). Follow In The Past Lane on Twitter  @InThePastLane Instagram  @InThePastLane Facebook https://www.facebook.com/InThePastLanePodcast/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeZMGFqoAASwvSJ1cpZOEAA Related ITPL podcast episodes: Related ITPL podcast episodes:   Episodes 052, 053, 054 – a three-part series on the Gilded Age   Music for This Episode Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com) Kevin McCleod, “Impact Moderato” (Free Music Archive) Andy Cohen, “Trophy Endorphins” (Free Music Archive) Jon Luc Hefferman, “Discovery” (Free Music Archive) Blue Dot Sessions, “Sage the Hunter,” (Free Music Archive) Jon Luc Hefferman, “Winter Trek” (Free Music Archive) The Bell, “I Am History” (Free Music Archive) Production Credits Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson Podcasting Consultant: Dave Jackson of the School of Podcasting Photographer: John Buckingham Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci Website by: ERI Design Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too Social Media management: The Pony Express Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight © In The Past Lane, 2018 Recommended History Podcasts Ben Franklin’s World with Liz Covart @LizCovart The Age of Jackson Podcast @AgeofJacksonPod Backstory podcast – the history behind today’s headlines @BackstoryRadio Past Present podcast with Nicole Hemmer, Neil J. Young, and Natalia Petrzela @PastPresentPod 99 Percent Invisible with Roman Mars @99piorg Slow Burn podcast about Watergate with @leoncrawl The Memory Palace – with Nate DiMeo, story teller extraordinaire @thememorypalace The Conspirators – creepy true crime stories from the American past @Conspiratorcast The History Chicks podcast @Thehistorychix My History Can Beat Up Your Politics @myhist Professor Buzzkill podcast – Prof B takes on myths about the past @buzzkillprof Footnoting History podcast @HistoryFootnote The History Author Show podcast @HistoryDean More Perfect podcast - the history of key US Supreme Court cases @Radiolab Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell @Gladwell Radio Diaries with Joe Richman @RadioDiaries DIG history podcast @dig_history  The Story Behind – the hidden histories of everyday things @StoryBehindPod Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen – specifically its American Icons series @Studio360show  Uncivil podcast – fascinating takes on the legacy of the Civil War in contemporary US @uncivilshow Stuff You Missed in History Class @MissedinHistory The Whiskey Rebellion – two historians discuss topics from today’s news @WhiskeyRebelPod American History Tellers ‏@ahtellers The Way of Improvement Leads Home with historian John Fea @JohnFea1 The Bowery Boys podcast – all things NYC history @BoweryBoys  Ridiculous History @RidiculousHSW The Rogue Historian podcast with historian @MKeithHarris The Road To Now podcast @Road_To_Now Retropod with @mikerosenwald

To be outside the "home" was a dangerous place to be in Gilded Age America. Richard White tells the story of how the modern nation reluctantly came into being alongside the environmental crisis of the late nineteenth century. The post Making the Nation in the Gilded Age: A Conversation with Richard White appeared first on Edge Effects.

In the summer of 1885, the Lakota Sioux holy man Sitting Bull toured North America as a member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s famous “Wild West” show. His participation, as Deanne Stillman explains in her book Blood Brothers: The Story of the Strange Friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill (Simon & Schuster, 2017) linked two celebrities of Gilded Age America into an association that would endure for long afterward. Both men were legends of the American West–Cody for his service as a scout and prowess in killing bison, Sitting Bull for his role as a leader and his association with the Battle of Little Bighorn. Taking advantage of Sitting Bull’s relationship with Annie Oakley, another star performer in his show, Cody succeeded in enlisting his involvement, where he proved a popular draw. Though Sitting Bull’s time with the show was brief, he formed a bond with Cody deep enough to lead Cody to cross the country five years later in an unsuccessful effort to intervene in the events that led to Sitting Bull’s death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 1885, the Lakota Sioux holy man Sitting Bull toured North America as a member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s famous “Wild West” show. His participation, as Deanne Stillman explains in her book Blood Brothers: The Story of the Strange Friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill (Simon & Schuster, 2017) linked two celebrities of Gilded Age America into an association that would endure for long afterward. Both men were legends of the American West–Cody for his service as a scout and prowess in killing bison, Sitting Bull for his role as a leader and his association with the Battle of Little Bighorn. Taking advantage of Sitting Bull’s relationship with Annie Oakley, another star performer in his show, Cody succeeded in enlisting his involvement, where he proved a popular draw. Though Sitting Bull’s time with the show was brief, he formed a bond with Cody deep enough to lead Cody to cross the country five years later in an unsuccessful effort to intervene in the events that led to Sitting Bull’s death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 1885, the Lakota Sioux holy man Sitting Bull toured North America as a member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s famous “Wild West” show. His participation, as Deanne Stillman explains in her book Blood Brothers: The Story of the Strange Friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill (Simon & Schuster, 2017) linked two celebrities of Gilded Age America into an association that would endure for long afterward. Both men were legends of the American West–Cody for his service as a scout and prowess in killing bison, Sitting Bull for his role as a leader and his association with the Battle of Little Bighorn. Taking advantage of Sitting Bull’s relationship with Annie Oakley, another star performer in his show, Cody succeeded in enlisting his involvement, where he proved a popular draw. Though Sitting Bull’s time with the show was brief, he formed a bond with Cody deep enough to lead Cody to cross the country five years later in an unsuccessful effort to intervene in the events that led to Sitting Bull’s death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 1885, the Lakota Sioux holy man Sitting Bull toured North America as a member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s famous “Wild West” show. His participation, as Deanne Stillman explains in her book Blood Brothers: The Story of the Strange Friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill (Simon & Schuster, 2017) linked two celebrities of Gilded Age America into an association that would endure for long afterward. Both men were legends of the American West–Cody for his service as a scout and prowess in killing bison, Sitting Bull for his role as a leader and his association with the Battle of Little Bighorn. Taking advantage of Sitting Bull’s relationship with Annie Oakley, another star performer in his show, Cody succeeded in enlisting his involvement, where he proved a popular draw. Though Sitting Bull’s time with the show was brief, he formed a bond with Cody deep enough to lead Cody to cross the country five years later in an unsuccessful effort to intervene in the events that led to Sitting Bull’s death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 1885, the Lakota Sioux holy man Sitting Bull toured North America as a member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s famous “Wild West” show. His participation, as Deanne Stillman explains in her book Blood Brothers: The Story of the Strange Friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill (Simon & Schuster, 2017) linked two celebrities of Gilded Age America into an association that would endure for long afterward. Both men were legends of the American West–Cody for his service as a scout and prowess in killing bison, Sitting Bull for his role as a leader and his association with the Battle of Little Bighorn. Taking advantage of Sitting Bull’s relationship with Annie Oakley, another star performer in his show, Cody succeeded in enlisting his involvement, where he proved a popular draw. Though Sitting Bull’s time with the show was brief, he formed a bond with Cody deep enough to lead Cody to cross the country five years later in an unsuccessful effort to intervene in the events that led to Sitting Bull’s death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 1885, the Lakota Sioux holy man Sitting Bull toured North America as a member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s famous “Wild West” show. His participation, as Deanne Stillman explains in her book Blood Brothers: The Story of the Strange Friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill (Simon & Schuster, 2017) linked two celebrities of Gilded Age America into an association that would endure for long afterward. Both men were legends of the American West–Cody for his service as a scout and prowess in killing bison, Sitting Bull for his role as a leader and his association with the Battle of Little Bighorn. Taking advantage of Sitting Bull’s relationship with Annie Oakley, another star performer in his show, Cody succeeded in enlisting his involvement, where he proved a popular draw. Though Sitting Bull’s time with the show was brief, he formed a bond with Cody deep enough to lead Cody to cross the country five years later in an unsuccessful effort to intervene in the events that led to Sitting Bull’s death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leland and Jane Stanford founded their university amidst the kinetic tumult of Gilded Age America. It was a time of swashbuckling capitalist ambition, let-‘er-rip financial finagling, and epic corruption. It was also a time of accelerating immigration, the rapid peopling and development of the great American West – and the golden age of American philanthropy, when so-called Robber Barons like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and the Stanfords' lavished their millions on building lasting institutions to serve the common weal (well before the tax code conferred any advantage for doing so). James Campbell and David Kennedy revisited that founding moment, exploring the ways in which the circumstances of Stanford's birth might give guidance to the university in its second century and beyond.

In early 1943 – while the Battle of Stalingrad raged thousands of miles away – US government officials explored the hotel room of a recently deceased scientist. They were looking for the plans to a weapon that could change the war. They were looking for a death ray. The death ray did not exist, but there was enough doubt that Federal officials thought it wise to assess the thousands of notes and sketches that had been made during the scientist’s lifetime. After their assessment, the notes were locked away, leading to a persistent conspiracy theory that there had been a death ray, and that the US government was covering it all up. The notes had belonged to a man who in many ways embodied the American dream, the golden age of science, and the modern image of eccentric inventor. He had been one of the most famous men not only in America, but in the world. He laid the groundwork for many of the technologies that we take for granted today and contributed to many more. In the decades that followed his death in a room of the Hotel New Yorker on January 7, 1943, the scientist has gone from virtual obscurity to international celebrity, the namesake of high powered electric sportscars and a major international airport. Today on American History Too!, we explore the life, times, and legacy of the man who supposedly invented the electrical age: Nikola Tesla. Reading W. Bernard Carlson, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013) Robert Lomas, The man who invented the twentieth century: Nikola Tesla, forgotten genius of electricity (London: Headline, 2000) Paul Lucier, ‘The Origins of Pure and Applied Science in Gilded Age America’, Isis, 103:3 (September 2012), 527-536 Marc J. Seifer, Wizard : The life and times of Nikola Tesla ; biography of a genius (Secaucus: Carol Pub., 1996) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Interview with Sven Beckert for NPR affiliate KUAR on Clinton School Presents, a weekly dialogue of distinguished guests that visit the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nikolai DiPippa, Clinton School Director of Public Programs, sat down with Sven Beckert, who is Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University. Beckert’s research and teaching center on the history of the United States in the nineteenth century, with a particular emphasis on the history of capitalism, including its economic, social, political and transnational dimensions. His publications have focused on the history of economic elites, on labor, on democracy and, in recent years, on the global history of capitalism. Beckert teaches courses on the history of American capitalism, Gilded Age America, the political economy of modern capitalism, labor history and global capitalism. He is co-chair of the Program on the Study of Capitalism at Harvard University, and the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History, also at Harvard. Beyond Harvard, he co-chairs an international study group on global history, is co-editor of a series of books at Princeton University Press on “America in the World,”and has co-organized a series of conferences on the history of capitalism. He has received many fellowships and awards, including the Newcomen Fellowship at Harvard Business School, and fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Beckert is a Guggenheim Fellow. He has lectured all over the world.

Kimberly A. Hamlin is an associate professor in American Studies and history at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Her book from Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science and Women's Rights in Gilded Age in America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), provides a history of how a group of women's rights advocates turned to Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory to answer the eternal “woman question.” Hamlin's fascinating intellectual history uncovers how the new evolutionary science provided multiple arguments by which to advance the cause of women's rights in the home and society. Many scholars are familiar with the Enlightenment, religious, and socialist origins of feminist thought. Hamlin suggests another significant strand of thought offered by the science of human origins. She argues that Darwinism, often with unorthodox interpretations, was effective in overturning a central ideological obstacle to women's equality–the biblical story of Eve. Charles Darwin's theory, against his own conservative views, turned upside down traditional ideas about women. Freethinkers, socialist, sexologist seized on evolutionary science to build arguments against recalcitrant traditional views. They asserted that their contemporary culture was a construct of erroneous ideas calling for change, in order to live in accordance to the evolutionary laws of nature. As “reform Darwinists,” Hamlin's subjects stood against social Darwinism, religious teaching, and custom. Yet, evolutionary science under male control was deployed to reassert women's subordination. Sex difference as interpreted by many male scientists pointed to female intellectual inferiority. Women, mostly outside the science establishment, called on the evidence of “woman's experience” against claims of scientific men.Hamlin offers a lucid narrative of how a group of women intervened in a period between the demise of Eve, as the metanarrative for the meaning of womanhood, and the masculinist consolidation of evolutionary science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimberly A. Hamlin is an associate professor in American Studies and history at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Her book from Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science and Women's Rights in Gilded Age in America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), provides a history of how a group of women's rights advocates turned to Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory to answer the eternal “woman question.” Hamlin's fascinating intellectual history uncovers how the new evolutionary science provided multiple arguments by which to advance the cause of women's rights in the home and society. Many scholars are familiar with the Enlightenment, religious, and socialist origins of feminist thought. Hamlin suggests another significant strand of thought offered by the science of human origins. She argues that Darwinism, often with unorthodox interpretations, was effective in overturning a central ideological obstacle to women's equality–the biblical story of Eve. Charles Darwin's theory, against his own conservative views, turned upside down traditional ideas about women. Freethinkers, socialist, sexologist seized on evolutionary science to build arguments against recalcitrant traditional views. They asserted that their contemporary culture was a construct of erroneous ideas calling for change, in order to live in accordance to the evolutionary laws of nature. As “reform Darwinists,” Hamlin's subjects stood against social Darwinism, religious teaching, and custom. Yet, evolutionary science under male control was deployed to reassert women's subordination. Sex difference as interpreted by many male scientists pointed to female intellectual inferiority. Women, mostly outside the science establishment, called on the evidence of “woman's experience” against claims of scientific men.Hamlin offers a lucid narrative of how a group of women intervened in a period between the demise of Eve, as the metanarrative for the meaning of womanhood, and the masculinist consolidation of evolutionary science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimberly A. Hamlin is an associate professor in American Studies and history at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Her book from Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science and Women's Rights in Gilded Age in America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), provides a history of how a group of women's rights advocates turned to Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory to answer the eternal “woman question.” Hamlin's fascinating intellectual history uncovers how the new evolutionary science provided multiple arguments by which to advance the cause of women's rights in the home and society. Many scholars are familiar with the Enlightenment, religious, and socialist origins of feminist thought. Hamlin suggests another significant strand of thought offered by the science of human origins. She argues that Darwinism, often with unorthodox interpretations, was effective in overturning a central ideological obstacle to women's equality–the biblical story of Eve. Charles Darwin's theory, against his own conservative views, turned upside down traditional ideas about women. Freethinkers, socialist, sexologist seized on evolutionary science to build arguments against recalcitrant traditional views. They asserted that their contemporary culture was a construct of erroneous ideas calling for change, in order to live in accordance to the evolutionary laws of nature. As “reform Darwinists,” Hamlin's subjects stood against social Darwinism, religious teaching, and custom. Yet, evolutionary science under male control was deployed to reassert women's subordination. Sex difference as interpreted by many male scientists pointed to female intellectual inferiority. Women, mostly outside the science establishment, called on the evidence of “woman's experience” against claims of scientific men.Hamlin offers a lucid narrative of how a group of women intervened in a period between the demise of Eve, as the metanarrative for the meaning of womanhood, and the masculinist consolidation of evolutionary science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimberly A. Hamlin is an associate professor in American Studies and history at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Her book from Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age in America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), provides a history of how a group of women’s rights advocates turned to Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory to answer the eternal “woman question.” Hamlin’s fascinating intellectual history uncovers how the new evolutionary science provided multiple arguments by which to advance the cause of women’s rights in the home and society. Many scholars are familiar with the Enlightenment, religious, and socialist origins of feminist thought. Hamlin suggests another significant strand of thought offered by the science of human origins. She argues that Darwinism, often with unorthodox interpretations, was effective in overturning a central ideological obstacle to women’s equality–the biblical story of Eve. Charles Darwin’s theory, against his own conservative views, turned upside down traditional ideas about women. Freethinkers, socialist, sexologist seized on evolutionary science to build arguments against recalcitrant traditional views. They asserted that their contemporary culture was a construct of erroneous ideas calling for change, in order to live in accordance to the evolutionary laws of nature. As “reform Darwinists,” Hamlin’s subjects stood against social Darwinism, religious teaching, and custom. Yet, evolutionary science under male control was deployed to reassert women’s subordination. Sex difference as interpreted by many male scientists pointed to female intellectual inferiority. Women, mostly outside the science establishment, called on the evidence of “woman’s experience” against claims of scientific men.Hamlin offers a lucid narrative of how a group of women intervened in a period between the demise of Eve, as the metanarrative for the meaning of womanhood, and the masculinist consolidation of evolutionary science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimberly A. Hamlin is an associate professor in American Studies and history at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Her book from Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age in America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), provides a history of how a group of women’s rights advocates turned to Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory to answer the eternal “woman question.” Hamlin’s fascinating intellectual history uncovers how the new evolutionary science provided multiple arguments by which to advance the cause of women’s rights in the home and society. Many scholars are familiar with the Enlightenment, religious, and socialist origins of feminist thought. Hamlin suggests another significant strand of thought offered by the science of human origins. She argues that Darwinism, often with unorthodox interpretations, was effective in overturning a central ideological obstacle to women’s equality–the biblical story of Eve. Charles Darwin’s theory, against his own conservative views, turned upside down traditional ideas about women. Freethinkers, socialist, sexologist seized on evolutionary science to build arguments against recalcitrant traditional views. They asserted that their contemporary culture was a construct of erroneous ideas calling for change, in order to live in accordance to the evolutionary laws of nature. As “reform Darwinists,” Hamlin’s subjects stood against social Darwinism, religious teaching, and custom. Yet, evolutionary science under male control was deployed to reassert women’s subordination. Sex difference as interpreted by many male scientists pointed to female intellectual inferiority. Women, mostly outside the science establishment, called on the evidence of “woman’s experience” against claims of scientific men.Hamlin offers a lucid narrative of how a group of women intervened in a period between the demise of Eve, as the metanarrative for the meaning of womanhood, and the masculinist consolidation of evolutionary science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimberly A. Hamlin is an associate professor in American Studies and history at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Her book from Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age in America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), provides a history of how a group of women’s rights advocates turned to Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory to answer the eternal “woman question.” Hamlin’s fascinating intellectual history uncovers how the new evolutionary science provided multiple arguments by which to advance the cause of women’s rights in the home and society. Many scholars are familiar with the Enlightenment, religious, and socialist origins of feminist thought. Hamlin suggests another significant strand of thought offered by the science of human origins. She argues that Darwinism, often with unorthodox interpretations, was effective in overturning a central ideological obstacle to women’s equality–the biblical story of Eve. Charles Darwin’s theory, against his own conservative views, turned upside down traditional ideas about women. Freethinkers, socialist, sexologist seized on evolutionary science to build arguments against recalcitrant traditional views. They asserted that their contemporary culture was a construct of erroneous ideas calling for change, in order to live in accordance to the evolutionary laws of nature. As “reform Darwinists,” Hamlin’s subjects stood against social Darwinism, religious teaching, and custom. Yet, evolutionary science under male control was deployed to reassert women’s subordination. Sex difference as interpreted by many male scientists pointed to female intellectual inferiority. Women, mostly outside the science establishment, called on the evidence of “woman’s experience” against claims of scientific men.Hamlin offers a lucid narrative of how a group of women intervened in a period between the demise of Eve, as the metanarrative for the meaning of womanhood, and the masculinist consolidation of evolutionary science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimberly A. Hamlin is an associate professor in American Studies and history at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Her book from Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age in America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), provides a history of how a group of women’s rights advocates turned to Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory to answer the eternal “woman question.” Hamlin’s fascinating intellectual history uncovers how the new evolutionary science provided multiple arguments by which to advance the cause of women’s rights in the home and society. Many scholars are familiar with the Enlightenment, religious, and socialist origins of feminist thought. Hamlin suggests another significant strand of thought offered by the science of human origins. She argues that Darwinism, often with unorthodox interpretations, was effective in overturning a central ideological obstacle to women’s equality–the biblical story of Eve. Charles Darwin’s theory, against his own conservative views, turned upside down traditional ideas about women. Freethinkers, socialist, sexologist seized on evolutionary science to build arguments against recalcitrant traditional views. They asserted that their contemporary culture was a construct of erroneous ideas calling for change, in order to live in accordance to the evolutionary laws of nature. As “reform Darwinists,” Hamlin’s subjects stood against social Darwinism, religious teaching, and custom. Yet, evolutionary science under male control was deployed to reassert women’s subordination. Sex difference as interpreted by many male scientists pointed to female intellectual inferiority. Women, mostly outside the science establishment, called on the evidence of “woman’s experience” against claims of scientific men.Hamlin offers a lucid narrative of how a group of women intervened in a period between the demise of Eve, as the metanarrative for the meaning of womanhood, and the masculinist consolidation of evolutionary science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimberly A. Hamlin is an associate professor in American Studies and history at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Her book from Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age in America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), provides a history of how a group of women’s rights advocates turned to Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory to answer the eternal “woman question.” Hamlin’s fascinating intellectual history uncovers how the new evolutionary science provided multiple arguments by which to advance the cause of women’s rights in the home and society. Many scholars are familiar with the Enlightenment, religious, and socialist origins of feminist thought. Hamlin suggests another significant strand of thought offered by the science of human origins. She argues that Darwinism, often with unorthodox interpretations, was effective in overturning a central ideological obstacle to women’s equality–the biblical story of Eve. Charles Darwin’s theory, against his own conservative views, turned upside down traditional ideas about women. Freethinkers, socialist, sexologist seized on evolutionary science to build arguments against recalcitrant traditional views. They asserted that their contemporary culture was a construct of erroneous ideas calling for change, in order to live in accordance to the evolutionary laws of nature. As “reform Darwinists,” Hamlin’s subjects stood against social Darwinism, religious teaching, and custom. Yet, evolutionary science under male control was deployed to reassert women’s subordination. Sex difference as interpreted by many male scientists pointed to female intellectual inferiority. Women, mostly outside the science establishment, called on the evidence of “woman’s experience” against claims of scientific men.Hamlin offers a lucid narrative of how a group of women intervened in a period between the demise of Eve, as the metanarrative for the meaning of womanhood, and the masculinist consolidation of evolutionary science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kimberly A. Hamlin is an associate professor in American Studies and history at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Her book from Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age in America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), provides a history of how a group of women’s rights advocates turned to Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory to answer the eternal “woman question.” Hamlin’s fascinating intellectual history uncovers how the new evolutionary science provided multiple arguments by which to advance the cause of women’s rights in the home and society. Many scholars are familiar with the Enlightenment, religious, and socialist origins of feminist thought. Hamlin suggests another significant strand of thought offered by the science of human origins. She argues that Darwinism, often with unorthodox interpretations, was effective in overturning a central ideological obstacle to women’s equality–the biblical story of Eve. Charles Darwin’s theory, against his own conservative views, turned upside down traditional ideas about women. Freethinkers, socialist, sexologist seized on evolutionary science to build arguments against recalcitrant traditional views. They asserted that their contemporary culture was a construct of erroneous ideas calling for change, in order to live in accordance to the evolutionary laws of nature. As “reform Darwinists,” Hamlin’s subjects stood against social Darwinism, religious teaching, and custom. Yet, evolutionary science under male control was deployed to reassert women’s subordination. Sex difference as interpreted by many male scientists pointed to female intellectual inferiority. Women, mostly outside the science establishment, called on the evidence of “woman’s experience” against claims of scientific men.Hamlin offers a lucid narrative of how a group of women intervened in a period between the demise of Eve, as the metanarrative for the meaning of womanhood, and the masculinist consolidation of evolutionary science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Martin, author of "Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America."

James Martin, author of "Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America."

James Martin, author of "Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America."

James Martin, author of "Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America."