9 Ways to Imagine Jeff Bezos’ Wealth - The New York Times
The Gospel of Wealth Book by Andrew Carnegie
The complete and original book - all 48 pages of it. Who gets to decide which sentence teachers will pull out from it to give to students?
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The Making of African American Identity: Vol. II, 1865-1917, Primary Resources in U.S. History and Literature, Toolbox Library, National Humanities Center
A collection of primary resources-historical documents, literary texts,and works of art-thematically organized with notes and discussion questions from National Humanities Center from National Humanities Center
Building the Railroads · SHEC: Resources for Teachers
This is the whole package - primary & secondary documents, teaching activities, etc.
Dawes Act (1887)
Approved on February 8, 1887, "An Act to Provide for the Allotment of Lands in Severalty to Indians on the Various Reservations," known as the Dawes Act, emphasized severalty, the treatment of Native Americans as individuals rather than as members of tribes.
Competition and Monopoly: Single-Firm Conduct Under Section 2 of the Sherman Act : Chapter 1
Monopolies are legal - the justice department says so. Just show this document to students and have them interpret the language in Chapter 1 concerning "The Anticompetitive-Conduct Requirement". Then try to explain to them how it is possible for so many lazy teachers across the country teach their students that monopolies are illegal.
Section 2 prohibits acquiring or maintaining (and in some cases attempting
to acquire) monopoly power only through improper means.<a href="#N_36_"><sup>(36)</sup></a>
As long as a firm utilizes only lawful means, it is free to strive for
competitive success and reap the benefits of whatever market position
(including monopoly) that success brings, including charging whatever
price the market will bear. Prohibiting the mere possession of monopoly
power is inconsistent with harnessing the competitive process to achieve
economic growth.
Another great way to teach critical thinking is to show students how they are lazily taught that monopolies are illegal. Have them take this paragraph from a Justice Department report and justify how it can permit monopolies. This could be a simple ten minute thought exercise at the start of class
[Postcard] Perhaps the World Ends Here, by Julian Brave NoiseCat | Harper's Magazine
Alternative reading for US History students that connects climate change's effect on the Pine Reservation with Wounded Knee. One way to help students become better writers is to expose them to better writing
Curriculum - Women & the American Story
From the New York Historical Society. Teachers should skim through this while planning to see how and where they can incorporate lessons, ideas and events of women's history into their planning.
Gold Rush California Was Much More Expensive Than Today’s Tech-Boom California
Like other periods in US history, the Gold Rush, if it is mentioned at all, is relegated to one word "forty-niners", then forgotten. This short book review shows how much more there is to the story.
Black America, 1895 – The Public Domain Review
Public understandings of the past are as much a product of entertainment as they are of education or the work of historians. Just like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show created a false mythologized depiction of Native Americans and the west, the Black America extravaganzas in the early 20th century taught white Americans that slavery wasn't so bad after all. Late 20th century complaints that education is changing history, may be a result of these falsehoods
Black America has escaped popular memory perhaps due both to its smaller production run and inability to create lasting dramatic storylines. Wild West shows helped establish the classic settler colonial drama of “cowboys versus Indians”, but Black America presented something somewhat different — plantations without White antagonists, racial uplift without a whisper of who was keeping the race down to begin with.
Pessimists Archive
This primary document collection demonstrates that every new invention strikes fear in some people.
American Capitalism: A History -- FINALS - YouTube
Professors Edward Baptist & Louis Hyman of Cornell University are featured here in 100 videos explaining various aspects of the economics history of the United States. The real value of this resource is the targeted nature of the videos, world teachers can supplement lessons on the origins of money, accounting, slavery and the spice trade. US History teachers can supplement lessons on the Virginia Company, the social impact of department stores or the automobile. Quick, targeted and replete with an accesible, yet more sophisticated than would ever be found in a textbook
American Panorama - Foreign Born
Digital tool that provides data on size, origin and location of foreign-born populations across the United States and across time. In what area of at what time were Koreans immigrating to the United States? IN what states and communities did people from Vietnam immigrate to? When? Lots of possibilities here - teachers should have students dive into the data and see what they can find
USS Samuel Gompers
Would he have ever believed that a US Navy boat would have been named for him?
The Samuel Gompers Papers
Letters and articles collected by the University of Maryland
Pryamid of the capitalist system
Political Cartoon that is not unlike those of the French Revolution except with this one there are not three estates, but rather several levels with "capitalism" rather than the king at the top. Just the same, it is the workers at the bottom, just like the peasants of the Third Estate
Man with a Plan | The New Yorker
Teachers covering social darwinism can give students an reading exercise with this article, focusing on Herbert Spencer's tour of the US popularizing his theory (which was not Darwin's). It will take some editing, but is is grade level and reading level appropriate for high school readers
Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class (book)
The Theory of the Leisure Class is considered one of the great works of economics as well as the first detailed critique of consumerism. In the book, Veblen argues that economic life is driven not by notions of utility, but by social vestiges from pre-historic times. Drawing examples from the contemporary period and anthropology, he held that much of today's society is a variation on early tribal life.This may have relevance for the digital age when facebook "tribes" are branded for marketeers.
Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920
The American Variety Stage is a multimedia anthology selected from various Library of Congress holdings. This collection illustrates the vibrant and diverse forms of popular entertainment, especially vaudeville, that thrived from 1870-1920. Included are 334 English- and Yiddish-language playscripts, 146 theater playbills and programs, 61 motion pictures, 10 sound recordings and 143 photographs and 29 memorabilia items documenting the life and career of Harry Houdini. From the Library of Congress
Ragtime Vaudeville Show
History of Vaudeville, some information about performers from a personal site
Edward Bellamy
Collection of resources, excerpts, and original essays dedicated to the author of the most celebrated utopian novel of the nineteenth century: Looking Backward.
Who was Henry George?
Biographical article and other information from progress.org
Charles Loring Brace, - Life of the Street Rats
Excerpt from 1872 book describing German and Irish immigrants in the city
The History of the Standard Oil Company
Full text of book by Ira Tarbell from the University of Rochester. Exposé of the Standard Oil Company, run at that time by oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, the richest figure in America's history. Originally serialized in 19 parts in McClure's magazine, the book was a seminal example of muckraking, and inspired many other journalists to write about trusts, large businesses that (in the absence of strong antitrust law in the 19th century) attempted to gain monopolies in various industries.
Child Labor and the Building of America - (Library of Congress)
Students are immersed in primary source materials that relate to child labor in America from 1880-1920 to gain a personal perspective of how work affected the American child within a rapidly growing industrial society. This project is student-driven. Students engage in visual and information literacy exercises to gain expertise in analyzing historical data. Most importantly, students emerge from this experience with a very personal sense that children significantly and heroically affected the building of America.
How Theodore Vail Built the AT&T Monopoly
Not only does the history of AT&T destroy the myth of free markets in the United States, but the arguments of AT&T's long-time chairman, Theodore Vail provide a great source of counter-argument against open markets. In defending his monopoly and championing it as a positive good, the quotes in this article provide students with a more nuanced understanding of government regulation.
It may sound strange to our ears, but Vail, a full-throated capitalist, rejected the idea of "competition." He judged monopoly, when held in the right hands, to be the superior arrangement. "Competition," Vail had written, "means strife, industrial warfare; it means contention; it oftentimes means taking advantage of or resorting to any means that the conscience of the contestants ... will permit." His reasoning was moralistic: <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=7moAAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA309&ots=SiUiPogpAq&dq=%E2%80%9CThe%20vicious%20acts%20associated%20with%20aggressive%20competition%20are%20responsible%20for%20much%2C%20if%20not%20all%2C%20of%20the%20present%20antagonism%20in%20the%20pu" target="_blank">Competition was giving American business a bad name</a>. "The vicious acts associated with aggressive competition are responsible for much, if not all, of the present antagonism in the public mind to business, particularly to large business."
Adam Smith, whose vision of capitalism is sacrosanct in the United States, believed that individual selfish motives could produce collective goods for humanity, by the operation of the "invisible hand." But Vail didn't buy it: "In the long run ... the public as a whole has never benefited by destructive competition." Smith's key to efficient markets was Vail's cause of waste. "All costs of aggressive, uncontrolled competition are eventually borne, directly or indirectly, by the public," Vail wrote in one of the Bell telephone system's annual reports. In his heterodox vision of capitalism, shared by men like John Rockfeller, the right corporate titans—monopolists in each industry—could, and should, be trusted to do what was best for the nation. But Vail also ascribed to monopoly value beyond mere efficiency. With the security of monopoly, he believed, the dark side of human nature would shrink, and natural virtue might emerge. He saw a future, free of capitalism's form of Darwinian struggle, in which scientifically organized corporations, run by good men in close cooperation with the government, would serve the public best
This belongs in a DBQ regarding capitalism/communism economic systems
Open Collections Program: Women Working - , 1800-1930
Women Working, 1800-1930 explores women's roles in the US economy between 1800 and the Great Depression and includes documentation of working conditions, conditions in the home, costs of living, recreation, health and hygiene, conduct of life, policies and regulations governing the workplace, and social issues Check the menu on the left for digitized diaries and links to corporate and organizational records.
The Chinese Experience in 19th Century America
An entire unit from the University of Illinois; complete with lessons, primary documents and teacher materials. Some of this material addresses immigration generally and 19th century American ideas.
Ten Companies own most of the world's food brands. - Graphic
This graphic from Oxfam lists hundreds of products from life savers, chex its and M&Ms to Chex and Cheerioes. Almost all of the food products can see in a local WaWa or supermarket. Despite the variety of brands, they are only owned by ten companies. Teachers can throw this up on the screen while talking about Sherman Anti-Trust law.
Popular Music and Race - 1890s vs 1990s
This lesson has students comparing lyrics of African American sheet music of the 1890s and rap music of the 1990s. They can then think about the contextual forces that account for the many similarities.