A Distant Mirror: Corporations, Plutocrats and Two Constitutional Amendments

Description

Current events and controversies warrant a look back at similar issues and areas of contention in the half-century between the Civil War and the First World War. Prominent issues in the United States then and now include protective tariffs, large corporations on the cutting edge of technology, unprecedented individual and family wealth, immigration, political populism, presidents' territorial aspirations and disputes over the validity of varying forms of money. The talk will conclude with significant events in the early 1910s that significantly changed the nation and the issues above.

Course Takeaways

• Both the good and bad parts of the past often reappear in the present.
• Or, put differently, there's very little that appears new that doesn't have previous counterparts.
• We, the people and the government, can learn from the past. However, using that knowledge requires curiosity and conscious effort.