H-SHGAPE Question of the Week: Multi-media Sources for Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Einav Rabinovitch-Fox Discussion

Welcome to H-SHGAPE's Question of the Week! Each Wednesday, the list editors will ask a question about the Gilded Age and Progressive Era that we hope will provoke lively discussion. We encourage you to share your thoughts by typing in the "Post a Reply" box below the original post, or, if you're getting this by email, by clicking on the "Read More or Reply" link. If you'd like to submit a question to be asked in a future week, please contact the H-SHGAPE Editor-In-Chief, Jeremy C. Young, at jeremy.young@dixie.edu. This week's question:

 

Do you have any recommended multi-media sources for Gilded Age and Progressive Era content that you use in your classroom? This could include YouTube clips, maps, cartoons, movies, etc.

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Since the Gilded Age and Progressive Era coincided with one of the great waves of immigration to the United States (over 20 million people migrated to the US between 1880 and 1920), I like to show my students clips from the 1986 animated movie An American Tale. This film provides examples of both "push" and "pull" factors that drove immigration to the US during these decades. Specifically, the movie shows the anti-Semitic pogroms that forced Jewish families to flee the Russian Empire (a push factor) as well as the misconceptions that many migrants had about life in the US (see the song "There Are No Cats in America").