The Bah Faith In America Early Expansion 1900 1912

In 1903, Harriett Gibbs Marshall, the first African-American woman graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, opened the Washington Conservatory of Music. This was the first private conservatory owned and operated exclusively by black Americans. Most of the instructors were female graduates of leading music schools, and the majority of the students were women. This project examines the repertoire studied and performed at the Washington Conservatory in order to suggest that its program of study supported the genesis of a "black canon" developing in the United States. Several concert programs from the school thematize racial accomplishment by featuring works by prominent black composers. An investigation of repertoire, courses, letters, and financial records of the school describe the means by which Marshall negotiated a place within white dominated society using the cultural currency of "high" concert music. In addition, Marshall's career illustrates the contributions that black American women have made in shaping musical practice in the United States through their work as teachers and administrators.

"The Promise of American Life" is a book by Herbert Croly that opposed aggressive unionization and supported economic planning to raise general quality of life in early twentieth-century America. It made a significant impact on many leading progressives, influencing Theodore Roosevelt to adopt the platform of "The New Nationalism" after reading it, and being popular with intellectuals and political leaders of the later "New Deal". Croly advocated a new political consensus that included as its core nationalism, but with a sense of social responsibility and care for the less fortunate. Since the power of big business, trusts, interest groups and economic specialization had transformed the nation in the latter part of the 19th century, Croly pressed for the centralization of power in the Federal Government to ensure democracy, a "New Nationalism".