Age,” so called in part because of the 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner entitled The Gilded Age. The satirical novel, written in just a few months and intended as a caricature of the era, describes what the authors viewed as the greed and hypocrisy of American society and the folly of countless numbers of ordinary citizens who firmly believed that some magical scheme would lead them to riches. As articulated by Twain and Warner, the term “Gilded Age” refers primarily to the middle-class…
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and contrasts against the 1991 sci-fi film, Bladerunner directed by Ridley Scott. These two texts, though composed in two different centuries, share a variety of common key issues including the idea of ambition and the lengths one will go to achieve their desires; nature versus nurture or how the environment and experiences contribute to a person’s character; and the role of women, and their place in society. Shelley began the composition of Frankenstein during the stormy summer of 1816 while trapped…
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As seen with two of the more-famous muckrakers, Steffens and Nader, this group has continued to play its role as a light illuminating corruption throughout history in an attempt to benefit the general public. Through their actions, numerous social problems have been resolved and various sources of corruption cleansed. The muckrakers have served in an attempt…
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look of wealth or prestige.2 Struck by what was seen as greed of the marketplace, the corruption in national politics, and a social disaster for those in the midst of the turmoil, Twain mocked a society whose serious problems, he felt, had been masked by a thin coating of gold. This essay will examine why historians found a great deal of validity in Twain’s characterization based on the events that took place. During the late nineteenth century, the economy and civilization was growing at an exponential…
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Leadership Power and Influence Dennis Kosinski ABS415 Instructor: Theodore Framan Power Corrupts This assignment addresses the issue of power in leadership. It analysis the statement from Lord Action a British historian in the nineteenth century, he made the statement that “power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Daft, 2008). Through history many leaders as they have increased their positions of power, have tended to abuse their power. When one has authority and…
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The Protestant Reformation was a major sixteenth-century European religious movement. It was widespread revolt aimed at reforming the beliefs and principles of the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation was initiated by a German priest, Martin Luther, who publicly criticized the corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. This movement is important to American history because the Protestant Reformation created many groups who became religious minorities, such as Puritans, Anglicans, Quakers, and…
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cartography in The Octopus. The opening map of the novel, Berte suggests, has been too often condescendingly, or easily, dismissed as not integral to the novel. However, she argues that the map contained at the beginning does, in fact, play a crucial role in the text. Such a map “announces the centrality of cartography and space itself to the question of economic and political force that Norris explores in the novel” (202). Further, this “cartograph suggests that the ‘County Described in ‘The Octopus’…
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Lochner v. New York Legal Review The 1904 Supreme Court case of Lochner v. New York addressed the constitutionality of the state of New York’s Bakeshop Act of 1895 and whether it violated the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Joseph Lochner, a bakery owner, after being fined multiple times, was charged with violating the state statue, which prohibited bakery workers from working more than sixty hours a week or ten hours a day. Upon appealing to the higher court, the Fuller Court, with…
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ensured government jobs were often given to party workers or friends of the victorious politician. It had been first instituted by Andrew Jackson after his victory in the 1828 election over John Quincy Adams and gradually developed over the nineteenth century. After assuming office, Jackson purged the administration of many Adams supporters and appointees, instead installing those who had endorsed him. Jackson was often ruthless in his use of patronage, as an 1828 editorial said that Jackson “will…
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The New Imperialism From a world history perspective, the most noticeable trend in the history of the late 19th century was the domination of Europeans over NonEuropeans. This domination took many forms ranging from economic penetration to outright annexation. No area of the globe, however remote from Europe, was free of European merchants, adventurers, explorers or western missionaries. Was colonialism good for either the imperialist or the peoples of the globe who found themselves subjects of one empire or another…
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