Progress and Poverty: The Gilded Age in American Politics and Literature, 1877-1901

FAIN: BI-50092-09

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center (Fremont, OH 43420-2701)
Steven L. Culbertson (Project Director: March 2009 to June 2011)

Two one-week workshops for fifty community college teachers to study politics and literature in the Gilded Age.

The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio (www.rbhayes.org) proposes two one-week workshops to allow community college instructors from a number of disciplines to analyze and re-evaluate the complexities of the Gilded Age through an examination of its political and literary counter-forces. Community college faculty will examine perceptions of corruption and reform in the period from 1877 through 1901 with an emphasis on the role of key writers including Henry Adams, Henry George, Edward Bellamy, William Dean Howells, and Mark Twain. This outcome will be achieved via presentations by respected scholars; tours of the Hayes Presidential Library, Museum, Home, and grounds; and research activities in archival holdings of artifacts, books, manuscripts, illustrations, and photographs.