US History, 1865-1896

choi

American history  l  Onward and Upward; Technology and capitalism shaped America in unexpected ways after the civil war. Economist, Aug 26, 2017
https://www.economist.com/news/b ... story-united-states
(book review on Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands; The United States during reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896. Oxford University Press, 2017)

"Three great themes run through this sprawling narrative[:] * * * The first is that capitalism was never as triumphant in this era as its apostles claim. Contemporaries such as Ida Tarbell did a good job of demonising John D Rockefeller [who founded Standard Oil Co, Inc, 1870-1911 (break-up under anti-trust law) ]  and other tycoons as 'robber barons.' * * * The second theme is the conflict between America's conception of itself as a land of equal and self-reliant citizens and the reality of post-civil-war America. The North took up arms against the South in order to universalise the ideal of a republic based on free labour. * * * The third theme is the unification of the country, as Americans gave up saying the United States 'are' and began to say the United States 'is.' * * * In the first half of the 19th century the flow of American trade was north-to-south via the coasts and river systems. In the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the arrival of the railways, it was increasingly from east to west.

"The 'creative' side of creative destruction did not necessarily compensate: Americans who were born during the gilded age were shorter and had a briefer lifespan than those born half a century earlier. * * * At times, Mr White is so keen on exposing the destructive side of capitalism that he downplays the creative side.

Note:
(a) The title of the book (The Republic for Which It Stands) comes from Pledge of Allegiance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance
(1892- )

"[I]t" refers to the flag.


(b) "it [the book] takes America from the end of the civil war, when the South lay shattered, to the height of the gilded age, when America was taking over from Britain as the world's mightiest economy. * * * This era saw * * * the discovery of efficient methods of producing steel and oil.such as populism and progressivism, and wild pendulum swings of political fortunes.
(i) Gilded Age
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age
(ii) Angus Maddison statistics of the ten largest economies by GDP (PPP)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An ... t_economies_by_GDP_(PPP)
(Table 2 showed that UK barely outstripped US but was overtaken in 1880)

Even so, UK still beat US in terms of per capita GDP (PPP), until before World War I.  

(c)
(i) robber baron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron
("The [German] term Raubritter was coined by Friedrich Bottschalk in 1810/ * * * Only the Holy Roman Emperor could authorise the collection of such tolls * * * In contrast, the men who came to be known as robber barons or robber knights (German: Raubritter) violated the structure under which tolls were collected on the Rhine either by charging higher tolls than the standard or by operating without authority from the Holy Roman Emperor altogether")
(ii) robber baron (industrialist)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist)
("The metaphor appeared as early as Feb 9, 1859, when The New York Times used it to characterize the unethical business practices by Cornelius Vanderbilt")
(iii) German-English dictionary:
* Raub (noun masculine): "robbery"  (Compare: Räuber (noun masculine): "robber")
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Raub
* Ritter (noun masculine): "knight"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ritter

(d) creative destruction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction

Basically means invention of new things destroy old, outdated sectors.