1890-1900 Essay -- Essays Papers

1890-1900 The United States’ Progressive Era, a time of reform and corporate reconstruction, occurred in the 1890s (Sklar intro). Before the decade, Americans identified with the idea that the country should stay out of any other countries concerns, especially European affairs (Britannica 1). The new thinking of the 1890s soon changed these convictions. Foundations of foreign policy, political liberalism, and a corporation-capitalist economy were among developments of this era. As the U.S. became a "great power" after post-Civil War economic growth, the public soon believed the nation should begin to "act like one" (Britannica 1). In addition, Social Darwinists of the 1890s theorized only strong nations could survive, for "the world is a jungle" (Britannica 1). Finally, idealists and religious leaders added their reasoning, for America had a duty to "take up the white man’s burden" of spreading its "superior culture and the blessings of Christianity" to the so-called "backward pe oples of the world" (Britannica 1). Along with the new ideology of American supremacy, citizens were enjoying the expansion into the west at a quickening pace. Leaders of the United States during the 1890s included Presidents Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893), Grover Cleveland(1893-1897), and William McKinley (1897-1901). The nation celebrated President George Washington’s centennial anniversary inauguration during this time (Klapthor 54,56). World events in the 1890s included the Spanish-American War. Ignited by Spanish rule in Cuba, Spain soon faced a brutal revolution with rebels upset about a depression caused by a decline in U.S. sugar purchases from Cuba. Once a submarine mine sank the USS Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, Congress autho... ...n’s intrinsic weakness" during the nineteenth century (American Eras 68). Gilman was remedied by well-known physician S. Weir Mitchell through a so-called "rest-cure" of remaining in bed and being prohibited from reading, writing, or communicating with the outside world (American Eras 68). "The Yellow Wallpaper" is Gilman’s story of Jane, a young wife and new mother who too is suffering from depression (Gale 140). Jane is taken to a rented mansion in the country where she is confined to a bed and urged not to write by her husband, brother, and physician, who Gilman frankly named S. Weir Mitchell (Gale 410). Undoubtedly, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s reflection on her past experiences in "The Yellow Wallpaper" caused an uproar during its times by confronting unspoken feminine issues of the day, leaving her defined as one of the many forthright female writers of the 1890s.