American History Homework Seven Answers - Student Nineteen

JonathanR

1. What was the ‘Gilded Age’? Gilding is a method of brushing on very thin films of different metals, like gold, to give the appearance of the metal as solid. The Gilded Age was the era towards the end of the 1880s. It was very similar to gilding being that on the outside, Wall Street looked like it was doing well, but on the inside there were very wealthy people called ‘robber barons.’ They got that way though underhanded, devious business practices. Jay Gould, a financer on Wall Street, was the worst ‘robber baron’ who committed extensive fraudulent acts by printing counterfeit stock certificates to dupe investors. And he tried to corner the gold market by hoarding huge amounts of it, and in doing so, driving the price up quite a bit and also causing a panic called Black Friday.

Superb. Will include your insightful description of "gilding" as a model answer.

2. What do you like about Thomas Edison, and do you think homeschooling him created enormous wealth? I like the way he thought about work, and if we all thought about work that way, imagine where our society would be today. And to the latter question, I think that homeschooling gave him a sense of authority over his work. Had he been in a public school, he would have constantly been put down by his teacher, and no human being can stand that constant beating to their character. Whereas, a homeschooler has the advantage of a loving parent gently guiding you along with the kind of love and attention that no public school teacher can give. I do not think that homeschooling was the sole purpose of his success, but that God planned for him to be just that smart, and give us the inventions that we hold not as dear as we really should. So I thank God, then Thomas Edison for those inventions.

Amen. But keep in mind that Edison did not think he was any smarter than others. He said he simply worked harder.

3. How do you think the frontier might have affected the views of Americans? I think that the Americans’ feeling of expanding their country gave them a sense of adventure, pride, and they probably had good feelings for the frontier.

Good.

4. What do you think is special about the United States that has made it the world leader in inventions? I think that the US is the leader in inventions because they were still pioneering new land and the people probably thought that there would be new jobs, but not enough people to do them. So an invention or two would have to be underway.

Terrific.

5. How influential do you think political cartoons really are? Give an example or two. They are pretty influential because I was reading through last week’s cartoons, and the ‘Chinese Question’ one struck me, and changed my line of thinking. Before the cartoon, I thought that Americans had every right to be angry with the Chinese, but after reading it I felt Americans should welcome them because ‘America means fair play for all men.’

Good personal example! But don't let cartoons be too influential over you!

6. Other than Thomas Edison, who do you think was the most influential person between 1877 and 1896? George Westinghouse Jr. He was an inventor that pioneered AC current as an alternative to Edison’s favored DC because there was a drawback to Edison’s plan for DC: the effective range for DC current was only three miles. In The Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, Westinghouse and his hired assistant Nikola Tesla made a big splash, and their AC was supreme; later, 95% of the public had AC power in their homes.

Superb answer, will use as a model!

7. Please interpret the above cartoon, with special emphasis on explaining the images used and including a description of the point of view of the cartoonist. The cartoon depicts the habit of using silver and gold as currency, but America can’t break that habit (get out of the quicksand) without a change from metal to paper (making it to prosperity). The artist was probably democratic.

Close, but not quite. (Minus 1). See model answers.

Terrific insights in your answers. Score: 69/70. Well done.