Dernier cours de Civilisation Américaine

Correction :

• He was born on Dec 31, 1613. ( not in).
• 17 november 2011 ( pas de "th").
• The book is entitled, Be Happy
• Can't start a sentence with " and", "but" or a number.

Exam : Short answers ( 8 sentences), Blanks ( names, places, dates), matching ( names, places and dates), essays.

After the Civil war, the south needed to be rebuilt ( expansion of the west also). There were several things : Many people were migrated, there was an economic boom, invention of technologies, new energy sources, big demand of goods, lack of cheap unskilled labourers, ricks taking of businessmen and bankers ( this changed the speed and direction of the country). The post Civil War Era created a heavy competition in one area specifically : The railroad. By 1900, there were almost 200 000 miles and this permitted to go accross the country ( 1 week instead of one month). It cut down a lot of travel time and this was good for business. It changed the notion of time. Sun time to " standard time". It openes opportunities for businessmen. Andrew Carnegie was a businessman who was a poor Irish immigrant who came to migrate to the USA. He started to take small jobsand then he became the owner of the Carnegie Steel Company. Businessmen liked him, he was getting rich because the railroads were made of steel. J. Pierpont Morgan said, at a party, " if you have to ask ( the coast), you can't afford it". He was born in a very wealthy banking London family. The government came to him to ask for loans. John D. Rockfeller made his money thanks to oil. He discovered petroleum could be used as lubricant or a heating soutrce : He founded the Sta,dard Oil Company. All of these rich men are called " Captains of industry" or " Robber barons". They were successful, wise, efficient, they developed " trusts" and they used new techniques of business. A lot fo the labourers in factories were parts in a fast machine world ( they didn't know the boss and the boss didn't know them). In the factories, workers were no longer artisnas, they were just unskilled workers who had just to push a button or something. Some of then worked 12 to 16 hours day and they were poorly paid. In factories, they worked in the dark. The goal was only to make money. Competition between business was unhealthy for many workers as far as the conditions are concerned. They didn't embrace the socialism of Marx because many thought that it would break the ideas of America : Private propreties, self interests...Marx's ideas would have stopped the possibility to compete in a free way. Many workers started to embrace labor unions. As the size of business increases, the number of angry employers increased too. Many went on striken and complained but others were hired to replace the ones ons tricke ( they were called scabs – the ones who replaced). Unions worked that way : They took little membership fee to everyone ( it wasa kind of business too). In 1870's-1880's, it changed thanks to Samuel Gompers. Instead of organizing unions, he proposed to organize a big union. He proposed a national federation that represented the workers. He advocated a 8 hour working day, he achieved mine safety laws and he was able able to have employer's liability for workers'injuries. At the end of the 19^th century, the American Federation of Labour was created ( AFL). At first, there was over than 1.5 million of workers. The robber barons made their fortune on the sweat of poor uneducated immigrants. In the 17^th century, 40% of the American population lived in cities. Between the 1830's and 1860's, plus or minus 4 million immigrants were coming from Northern Europe. Then, in 1900, there were 11 million of immigrants. NYC became the welcoming port for them and Ellis Island was the arrival point. Many of the immigrants coming from Europe were leaving for overpopulation, famine, wars and the temptation to have a job that pays and to have bread was convincing. Immigrants came to cities and they lived into communities (example : NYC with little italy, it is communautarianism). Immigrants lives in appartment building called tenements. There's another reason why immigrants were gathering together : contacts and a lot of native Americans didn't like foreigners. Many of them feared the immigrants' growing influence and many also detested that these newly arrived people would accept to work for a very poor wage, they woudl actually steel Americans' jobs. In the tenements, there were no electricity and no toilets' facilities : It was getting filthy and there was a lot of hygiene problems. An area of this type is called a slum. There was someone that ownes these tenements : They were slum-lords. During the same area and cities, there was a middle class that started developing : small bankers, lawyers etc... They were able to work, make money and move out to the surburbs. Segragation began then. It was based on education and money. Neighbourhoods: A new class was born. The custops of the Americans started to change with the arrival of migrants. Then, there was a culture of leisure and amusements activities : Amusement parks ( Like Coney island). After long hours of work and hard conditions of leaving, people were looing for a little bit of pleasure. They could turn their back from misery. Entertainment like Vaudeville shows, theather performances etc... All of these were for low classes. Other classes preferes songs or church. The working class embraced ragtime ( with usic, people could dance with the opposite sex). A lot of ready-made clothing came to the USA from France and sometimes, it created tensions between the classes. Many questions arose about morality. A mass public education developed for everyone to have the same education and the same way of thinking : T his was a way to develop an unique American culture.