The Gilded Age and Progressive Era

The rise of the Southern Pacific Railroad in California owes a great deal to the citrus industry and vice versa. Ben Jenkins joins the show to discuss how these two industries came to define the state during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Essential Reading:

Benjamin Jenkins, The Octopus's Garden: How Railroads and Citrus Transformed Southern California (2023).

Recommended Reading:

Genevieve Carpio, Collisions at the Crossroads: How Place and Mobility Make Race (2019).

Jared Farmer, Trees in Paradise: The Botanical Conquest of California (2017).

Phoebe Kropp, California Vieja: Culture and Memory in a Modern American Place (2008).

Richard J. Orsi, Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1950-1930 (2007).

Douglas Sackman, Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of Eden (2007).

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How much can a president do to shepherd the economy? The question has bedevilled the inhabitants of the White House since the office came into being, and it has material relevance for elections, democracy, social policy, and international relations. Mark Zachary Taylor joins the show to explain his findings on this topic, and to discuss his latest book Presidential Leadership in Feeble Times.

Essential Reading:

Mark Zachary Taylor, Presidential Leadership in Feeble Times: Explaining Executive Power in the Gilded Age (2023).

Recommended Reading:

Edward O. Frantz (ed.), A Companion to the Reconstruction Presidents, 1865 - 1881 (2014).

Mark Wahlgren Summers, Party Games: Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics (2005).

Jane McAlevey, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age (2020).

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Are you stuck for that showstopper holiday roast or side dish? Becky Diamond's latest book, The Gilded Age Cookbook is there to help. Go back in time to see how families ate during the holidays. And please try the "devilled spaghetti." The recipe is listed here!

Essential Reading:

Becky Diamond, The Gilded Age Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from America's Golden Era (2023).

Recommended Recipe (Full Recipe in Book):

Butter six ramekins or Texas-size muffin pans and set aside.

Cook the spaghetti until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain and allow to cool. When cool, chop finely and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk together to form a paste. Add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn down to low and add the chopped eggs, salt, cayenne, onion powder, nutmeg, and parsley.

Add the spaghetti to the sauce, stirring until combined. Using a large ladle, divide spaghetti mixture among the ramekins or muffin pan cups.

Mix bread crumbs and melted butter in a small bowl. Spoon on top of spaghetti.

Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes until tops are nicely browned. Remove from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes. When cool, remove from the muffin pan by running a knife around the edges and carefully turning out onto a plate. If using ramekins, serve in the individual ramekin dishes. Make an indentation in the top of each with the back of a spoon and add a teaspoon of chili sauce if desired. Serve immediately.

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How does a family of Jewish homesteaders interact with the indigenous people of the Great Plains? Journalist Rebecca Clarren explains how her family immigrated from Russia to South Dakota, lured by the promise of free land and how generations later she writes how it came at the expense of the Lakota. This book might grapple with the past, but it is not hard to find the contemporary relevance.

Essential Reading:

Rebecca Clarren, The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance (2023).

Recommended Reading:

Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020).

Pekka Hämäläinen, Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power (2019).

Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (2023).

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There are some years, and some seasons within a given year, that bear witness to immense change. Chris Wimmer, a podcaster and public historian, tells the story of the Summer of 1876, one such year and one such season.

Essential Reading:

Chris Wimmer, The Summer of 1876 (2023).

Recommended Reading:

Bill Bryson, One Summer: America, 1927 (2013).

T. J. Stiles, Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America (2017).

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One of the most consequential wars in global history happened in 1898, and despite the 125th anniversary of that war, there has been little attention paid to this conflict. One exception is the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition 1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions. The museum's curator Taína Caragol and historian Kate Clarke Lemay who created the exhibition join the show to explain why it was so important to showcase the events of that fateful year.

Essential Reading:

Taína Caragol and Kate Clarke Lemay, 1898: Visual Culture and U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean and the Pacific (2023).

1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revision (exhibition website)

Recommended Reading:

Bonnie Miller, From Liberation to Conquest: The Visual and Popular Cultures of the Spanish-American War of 1898 (2011).

Kristin Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood (2000).

Matthew Frye Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues: The United States Encounters Foreign Peoples at Home and Abroad, 1876-1917 (2001).

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Pulitzer Prize-winning historian T. J. Stiles joins the show to talk about George Armstrong Custer, and the art of biography writing. As one of the leading authors of the Gilded Age we also take on the question of periodization, uncomfortable history, and unlikeable historical figures.

Essential Reading:

T.J. Stiles, Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America (2016).

Recommended Reading:

Robert Utley, Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891 (1974).

Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West (1987).

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Better known to Californians as Mortimer, this week's episode takes us to the Wild West and the Pacific coast's most wanted outlaw Charlie Flinn. Matthew Bernstein joins the show to discuss his latest book Hanging Charlie Flinn, a page-turning tale of theft, murder, and jailbreaks.

Essential Reading:

Matthew Bernstein, Hanging Charley Flinn: The Short and Violent Life of the Boldest Criminal in Frontier California (2023).

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The architecture of the Gilded Age differed from that which came before and after. Phillip James Dodd joins me to discuss the various ways Beaux Arts design transformed the era, and the people responsible for the architectural renaissance that drew upon Greek and Roman style for the new American republic.

Essential Reading:

Phillip James Dodd, An American Renaissance: Beaux-arts Architecture in New York City (2021).

Recommended Reading:

Wayne Craven, Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society (2009).

Zachery J. Violette, The Decorated Tenement: How Immigrant Builders and Architects Transformed the Slum in the Gilded Age (2019).

Susanne Hinman, The Grandest Madison Square Garden: Art, Scandal, and Architecture in Gilded Age New York (2019).

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Daniel Coit Gilman is one of the Gilded Age's most important university presidents, and finally we have a book about his influence at Berkeley and Johns Hopkins universities and the Carnegie Institute. His biographer is a university president, too. Michael T. Benson, president of Carolina Coastal University joins the show to talk about Gilman and the start of modern universities in America.

Essential Reading:

Michael T. Benson, Daniel Coit Gilman and the Modern University (2023).

Recommended Reading:

John Thelin, A History of American Higher Education (2019, third edition). 

Jonathan Cole, The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected (2012).

Hal Boyd and Michael Benson, "The Public University: Recalling Higher Education’s Democratic Purpose," NEA Journal (2015). 

Daniel Coit Gilman’s inaugural speech (1876 at Johns Hopkins).

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