Progress and Poverty in Industrial America is my 18-page document-based question guides students through the historian’s process with an investigation of the essential question, “How do we evaluate the social costs and benefits of technological innovations?” To make the question relevant to students, it begins with a brief examination of the impact of 21st c technologies / global economy on progress and poverty in contemporary America.
Online overview here
Available as a free iBook here
And a web-based version here
Next the book turns to historic content set in late 19th century America. “Stop and think” prompts encourage a deep reading of many notables of the “Gilded Age” – including Russell Conwell, Henry George, Andrew Carnegie and Stephen Crane. Visual source material includes posters, 1908 Sears Catalogue, a gallery of photographs by Lewis Hine and video of one of Edison’s early Vitascope films.