The American Dream and the Gospel of Wealth in 19th-Century American Society
A reproducible, document-based teaching unit
NOTE:
NH127 is the printed format
This title is also available for immediate download in digital format as NH127Ebook
Students read excerpts from Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick or Street Life in New York (1868), P. T. Barnum, Thorstein Veblen, Andrew Carnegie, and Nathanael West to understand American values as they progressed from eighteenth-century values of frugality and hard work to the increasingly urban mid-nineteenth century values of luck, pluck, and self-help as the path to success. Students evaluate the writings for positive and negative interpretations of the "gospel of wealth."
Grades 9-12
Lessons
Lesson One: Benjamin Franklin and the Virtues of Frugality
Lesson Two: Horacio Alger and the Virtues of Wealth
Lesson Three: The Gospel of Wealth