Tradition and Change in the Gilded Age : Political History of Massachusetts, 1879-1893

Tradition and Change in the Gilded Age : Political History of Massachusetts, 1879-1893

Massachusetts politics during fifteen years within the industrial and early immigration periods of the late 19th century. From Harmond: "As this study seeks to show, Massachusetts confronted a dual set of challenges in the post-Reconstruction era. In the first place, the Irish-Americans and workingmen, provoked by their marginal status, united in a political revolt to obtain greater recognition and benefits for themselves. From 1878 to 1883 this ethnic-labor insurrection, led by Benjamin F. Butler, was the focus of Massachusetts politics....Secondly, the accelerated tempo of industrial and technological change spawnwed a spirirt of on-rushing materialism which threatened the Commonwealth's traditional business and political mores. Investors in the newly-developed water gas process, and the electric trolley, for example, resorted to extensive lobbying to secure favors from the legislature. One result was a series of scandals in the middle and later 1880s endangering the state's relatively high level of public morality....On the whole, Massachusetts met these challenges well. Under the leadership of members of the Yankee establishment, a conservative, but realistic, attempt was made to accomodate the needs of a new day to the Bay State's intellectual and political heritage."

Harmond, Richard Peter

1966

en

Thesis/Dissertation

1879-1893; Massachusetts

No

411

New York, New York

Ph. D., Political Science

Columbia University

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