Introduction

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Chapter 20: Intellectual and Cultural Trends

Introduction
American education, social philosophy, the sciences, and literature all experienced significant changes in the Gilded Age. The American population was growing and generally better-educated than ever before, and demand for reading material skyrocketed; the era was probably the golden age of American magazine publishing, and libraries, newspapers, and reading groups proliferated. Many magazines took on the social issues of the day. Literature also reflected this focus, as realists such as Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and Henry James gained prominence. American art also reflected this realism. As they witnessed the social changes wrought by industrialization, Americans also became interested in social theory, and social scientists applied the idea of social Darwinism to human relations of all sorts as they attempted to use scientific methodology to find objective truths in subjective fields. Social scientists were also drawn into practical affairs over questions about slums and trusts. Evolution even influenced law and the study of history, as show in the work of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Frederick Jackson Turner. Although the literacy of much of the population was a triumph in itself, educators realized that traditional education did not prepare students for life in industry. Progressive educators, John Dewey foremost among them, saw schools as mechanisms for social reform and argued for a more inclusive curriculum taught by professional instructors. And though only about 2 percent of the eligible population went to college, the modern college and university has its roots in this era. Finally, while the theory of evolution helped explain much of modern life, its logic also made it difficult to justify fixed systems and eternal verities, and that, carried further by Charles Pierce, concepts could only be fairly understood in terms of their practical effects. This thinking, represented most visibly in the work of Pierce and William James, was known as pragmatism.

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