PowerPoint on Immigration Regulation and Restriction

In order to review the lecture below on immigration regulation and restriction, it may be helpful for you to see the PowerPoint without the audio. Here it is:

Immigration Regulation and Restriction, 1882-1921

What do you think of when you see the Statue of Liberty? For millions of Americans, especially immigrants, the statue is a symbol of welcome, of America as an asylum and haven for the oppressed. But although the poem of Emma Lazarus inscribed on its base perpetuates this idea, most Americans feared the impact of immigration on the nation during the half century after the statue was erected. In this lecture we look at the reasons why Americans slowly but steadily lowered the gates into the nation in the wake of seismic changes in the sources and number of immigrants coming into the country between 1882 and 1921. We will also look at how this change contrasts with what took place before and since this period.

Click for vodcast on the Immigrants in the late Nineteenth century (iPod video format)

The Politics of the Gilded Age

Yesterday we looked at the politics of the Gilded Age, an age of political deadlock in some ways not unlike our own. While politicians concentrated on getting out the vote and "waving the bloody shirt of the rebellion," they feared most of all antagonizing voters by addressing the real issues of the time. We talked about the role of the "politics of the past" in derailing the possibilities of federal regulation of the economy -- at the very moment when the Supreme Court was immobilizing the states from representing the interests of the farmers, workers and non-corporate interests.

Click on this link for the vodcast of the lecture in the iPod video format