Rethinking the Gilded Age and Progressivisms: Race, Capitalism, and Democracy, 1877-1920

FAIN: ES-231176-15

Chicago History Museum (Chicago, IL 60614-6038)
Robert Douglas Johnston (Project Director: February 2015 to October 2015)
Rachel Allmen (Project Director: October 2015 to May 2018)

A four-week institute for thirty school teachers to explore the history of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.

The Chicago Metro History Education Center (CMHEC), in partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Loyola University Chicago (LUC), proposes a Summer Institute entitled “Rethinking the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Capitalism, Democracy, and Progressivisms, 1877 to 1920.” From Jun 27 to Jul 22, 2016, thirty K-12 teachers will deepen their knowledge and understanding of this important time period through readings, discussions, lectures, inquiries into primary sources, and exploration of historical and cultural resources in Chicago. The institute responds to the National Endowment for the Humanities’ “The Common Good” initiative by creating an intellectual space where teachers can contemplate and debate how individuals and groups defined, reformed, and contributed to a vision for American democracy, opportunity, and culture during a period when radically different perspectives often dominated the political and cultural discourse.