American Society

In what ways did prevailing ideas of “freedom of contract” affect late-19^th century American society? In your discussion, be sure to note why and how defenders of “freedom of contract” endorsed its tenets (i.e., values)—also, detail problems, inconsistencies and hypocrisies embedded within their arguments. Finally, what alternative notions of freedom were proposed by some laborers (e.g., the Populists, or socialists like Eugene V. Debs), and what plagued them in uniting for their common goals?

* Note: when thinking about how prevailing ideas of “freedom of contract” affected American society during the last third of the 19^th century, specifically look into the ways in which it worked (or failed to work) for various segments of the population (e.g., industrialists/capitalist class; poor urban laborers and impoverished farmers; African-Americans).

Papers will not only utilize class notes and images, but will too incorporate the following documents: Plessy v. Ferguson, Carnegie’s Wealth, Deb’s “What can we do for the workingman,’ The Populist Party Platform and potentially even Booker T. Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise.” To not use—and critically analyze—the documents in any meaningful way equates to not performing as well (as your arguments will have less substance).

ONLY use class notes and assigned readings. NO OUTSIDE SOURCES. Do not plagiarize

Citing Directions.

There is no need to cite material garnered from lectures and/or slides.

When using assigned readings—primary or secondary documents–reference using only the author’s last name and page number (unless only a single page). Put these “locators,” if you will, in parentheses .

Example: (Carnegie, 47)–again, it wouldn’t actually be 47 (at least not likely) in Carnegie’s bounded volume, but it is from the source we’re using.

If a source is unpaginated, list a “page number” that correlates with the order in which it flows (so if there are ten pages, but no numbers, then if it were the eighth page in order, list it as “8”).

Writing/Style/Clarity. Your writing too counts—flow and clarity are important. Also:

After 4 typos, grammatical, and/or punctuation errors, there is a half-letter grade deduction (and a full-letter grade deduction after 7).