In The Struggle for America’s Promise, Claire Goldstene seeks to untangle one of the enduring ideals in American history, that of economic opportunity. She explores the varied discourses about its meaning during the upheavals and corporate consolidations of the Gilded Age. Some proponents of equal opportunity seek to promote upward financial mobility by permitting more people to participate in the economic sphere thereby rewarding merit over inherited wealth. Others use opportunity as a mechanism to maintain economic inequality. This tension, embedded with the idea of equal opportunity itself and continually reaffirmed by immigrant populations, animated social dissent among urban workers while simultaneously serving efforts by business elites to counter such dissent. Goldstene uses a biographical approach to focus on key figures along a spectrum of political belief as they struggled to reconcile the inherent contradictions of equal opportunity. She considers the efforts of Booker T. Washington in a post–Civil War South to ground opportunity in landownership as an attempt to confront the intersection of race and class. She also explores the determination of the Knights of Labor to define opportunity in terms of controlling one’s own labor. She looks at the attempts by Samuel Gompers through the American Federation of Labor as well as by business elites through the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Civic Federation to shift the focus of opportunity to leisure and consumption. The Struggle for America’s Promise also includes such radical figures as Edward Bellamy and Emma Goldman, who were more willing to step beyond the boundaries of the discourse about opportunity and question economic competition itself.
See also Sectional conflicts Abortion : and Clinton presidency , 679 ; and Great Depression , 549 ; 1950s , 595 ; 1960s , 612 ; 1970s , 633 , 642 ; Reagan - Bush era , 663 Abraham Lincoln Brigade , 556 Acoma , New Mexico , 8 Adams ...
Chapter 22 The Rise of American Cities Also Featuring Some special pages show up only once in ... Route of Dias 1487-1488 Route of Da Gama 1497-1499 Gold Slaves Silk After you've read the section , stop and review what you've read .
A sweeping and original work of economic history by Michael Lind, one of America’s leading intellectuals, Land of Promise recounts the epic story of America’s rise to become the world’s dominant economy.
America's Past and Promise
At this defining moment in our history, Americans are hungry for change. After years of failed policies and failed politics from Washington, this is our chance to reclaim the American dream.
Jeffrey Clements reveals the far-reaching effects of this strange and destructive idea, which flies in the face of not only all common sense but most of American legal history as well.
The foremost Republican, William H. Seward, was a poor match for this evenhanded platform. He had made enemies with his radical ... In the North, Lincoln faced Douglas; in the South, Breckinridge confronted Bell. On November 6, 1860, ...
"This big-shouldered book, full of ardor...offers us a reasonable hope that with attention and care we can again make public education what it was meant to be, and must yet be."—The Los Angeles Times.
Two socialist thinkers revisit the Civil Rights-era Freedom Budget for All Americans, explaining its origins, its main goals and how it might be reimagined to help achieve economic equality today. Simultaneous. Hardcover available.
This new book examines America’s retirement system honestly and comprehensively, and makes the case that further strengthening defined contribution retirement plans offers us a way to increase savings, and give more Americans the peace of ...