Too much corporate influence in politics; the specter of socialist policies undermining capitalism and individual freedoms; a middle class in apparent decline; waves of immigration that threatened to alter the character of American society; new technologies that introduced new social problems as well as offering new opportunities; and a general sense that the common people had lost control of their government: To a sometimes surprising degree, the issues that troubled Americans in the last quarter of the nineteenth century resembled our own. The past often loses much of its vigor and tumult as it becomes codified as history, and it can be difficult at times to understand how truly revolutionary- transformative, disruptive, unprecedented, and divisive-an event such as the Industrial Revolution was for the people who lived through it.
• What were the most revolutionary social and economic developments of the last quarter of the nineteenth century?
• How did different groups of Americans respond to those changes and how effective were their responses?
• What role did government play in these developments?