Discussion Questions
October 14, 2008

1. Taken together, what do the readings regarding mining tell us about the industry?  What was the workforce which comprised the mining industry?
2. What would have been the concerns of the middle class reformers regarding newsboys?  Why were newsboys such a feature of the urban environment?  What factors created their existence/
3. What does the working class budgets tell us about the working class during the Gilded Age?  How is it possible to reconcile those budgets with the attention paid to Balls and Dances at the same time?
4. According to McClyver in his article on working class standards of living, "...the power to act autonomously is largely a function of the ability to command some surplus income beyond that required to keep body and soul together."  If that is true, what impact would it have on the Gilded Age as a whole?