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UNDERSTANDING THE GILDED AGE IN AMERICA AND MCLEAN COUNTY
Tuesday, November 7, 2023 , 9:30 am – 11:30 am CST
October 17, 24, 31, November 7 (Tuesdays) 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Attend in person at ISU’s Alumni Center, 1101 N. Main St., Normal
OR
Watch Online via Zoom
FEES:
$35 for Senior Professional members (includes all four sessions)
$45 for non-members (includes all four sessions)
For in person participation, pricing is per person.
For ZOOM participation, pricing is one registration per household.
Price includes:
Four 2-hour sessions (one Academy of Seniors class).
$15 single-session option available for in-person attendance (pay at door).
Register online at seniorprofessionals.illinoisstate.edu or call (309) 438-2160.
Zoom participants will receive a Zoom link a week prior to the class(es) and again on the day of each session.
Class Description
October 24 – Was There a Gilded Age?
Learn how Americans in general and United States historians in particular came during the 1920s-30s to regard the late 1800s as a distinct period labeled the Gilded Age. Hear common arguments for and some arguments against the use of this term to set those decades apart. If the Gilded Age existed as a separate period, historians argue it is due to how industrial capitalism in an urbanizing society became intertwined with the headlong incorporation of the West into the country’s political economy.
October 24 – An Era of Cultural Ferment
A paradox of the Gilded Age is that critiques of the era and the social and political reform movements emerged from the cultural and intellectual ferment of the late 1800s itself. This class examines changes in popular culture, publishing and journalism, the visual and performing arts, architecture and design, education, and the professions that created the foundation for the U.S. as a significant influence on world culture in the 20th century.
October 31 – A Struggling Political System & Crisis of the 1890s
Most experts doubt that the political system in the Gilded Age actually was, as the stereotype suggests, short-sighted and corrupt by comparison to other eras. Instead, accusations that politicians had grown self-serving and ineffective represented widespread dissatisfaction with government’s ability to address the deep problems left over from the Civil War and Reconstruction. This class examines politics in the late 1800s and traces critiques and insurgent movements, culminating in the turmoil surrounding the Populist movement and the depression of the 1890s.
November 7 – The Gilded Age in McLean County
Enjoy an illustrated lecture on how the betrayal of the Republican ideal of Free Men and Free Soil supported the economic and labor transition of independent producers and crafts people into employers and farm tenants. It will detail the resistance to such change in the words and lives of those who struggled for personal freedom. Dr. Lessoff’s lectures provide an ample base for the much larger context of these issues.
Alan Lessoff, University Professor of History, ISU (October 17, 24, 31)
Greg Koos, Executive Director Emeritus, McLean County Museum of History (November 7)
