America’s Gilded Age was a period of sudden economic growth and it concentrated mainly on industrialization, it lasted from 1870-1890s. The Gilded Age was when immense wealth was accumulated by a few people, such as Andrew Carnegie who dominated the steel industry and John D. Rockefeller who dominated the oil industry. These two industrial leaders were known as “robber barons” especially Rockefeller because he drove out smaller businesses and he bought out all of his oil company competitions, this type of business method he undertook is known as horizontal expansion. Carnegie on the other took a different approach, he established a steel company that was “vertically integrated, meaning he controlled more than one stage of the supply chain.
Gilded age 1878-1889 was the age of fast growth of industry and immigrants in America history. The production of steel and iron rose radically than other time. In contrast, the Western resources increased such as silver,lumber, and gold. As well as the transportation also improved. Railroad develop and move goods from resources rich west to east.
New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905 written by Rebecca Edwards provides readers with many different individual accounts to illustrate the transformative time of America during the Gilded Age. The work shows the cultural, social, political and economical elements of the age that aided in forming the America we have today. Edwards’s purpose in writing New Spirits is to offer readers new insights on the era by eliminating predetermined stereotypes one may have established before reading the work. Edwards wants readers to put aside their prior knowledge to understand just what it was like to live in the Gilded Age by providing readers with the consequences and achievements of people during the time.
Emily Veit Mr. Tubbs AP US History 24 January 2023 APUSH DBQ The Gilded Age was an age of political and economic growth that occurred after the Civil War and before the 20th century. The transcontinental railroad made travel easier and let people expand westward. Companies began to set up and mass produce products for cheap via production lines. Although the United States experienced great economic and political growth during the 1870s to 1900s, because of the working conditions and the government being influenced by large corporations, many Americans were dissatisfied with the effect of these corporations that caused this growth.
The United States went through substantial changes during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Industries grew, and the way people lived and worked changed a lot. During this time, an important thing that happened was that the industry grew extremely fast. This made people like Andrew Carnegie and John D. extraordinarily rich and powerful. In previous years, Rockefeller was a wealthy and influential individual.
The Gilded Age led to Progressive reform, because America had big corporations that had business that corrupted government officials. The Progressive reform started in 1890s to the 1920s until they could get it settled. The people started to fight against the monopolies. The people fought until they got what they wanted.
The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, although chronologically adjacent, were two of the most wildly different periods in American History. The Gilded Age brought forth the rise of big business thanks to laissez-faire capitalism, allowing for a handful of wealthy elites to climb to the top of the social, political, and economic food chain and steamroll everyone else in their way. Meanwhile, the Progressive Era solved some of the issues the Gilded Age created and made life in America more suitable for all types of people. The Progressive Era was different from the Gilded Age because of the work of muckrakers, the ratification of progressive Amendments, and presidential interference with big business.
The legislative issues of the Gilded Age had failed to manage social and financial issues. Dashes of gold had put on insufficiencies of the time, which the issues could be revealed. In finding a fault for the developed economy and its requests on a faltered society, all was directed to the legislative problems of the Gilded Age. At the end of Civil War, the Gilded Age was Freedom's presentation and good awareness of resurrection. Slavery was well on its approach to turning into a flaw of being a free-loving nation.
As the Civil War came to an end, the U.S. entered into the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was characterized by industrialization, urbanization, and immigration, but it also consisted of poverty, labor unions, and political and business corruption due to the significant change of industrialization in U.S. society. In order to change and fix the troubles of the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era began in 1897, where progressives believed that it was the responsibility of the government to bring positive change for the working class. As businesses were becoming wealthy and powerful, they were also corrupt due to monopolies and trusts, while also influencing the government, factories also had no cleanliness or safety, and only white men held the majority
After the conclusion of the Civil War and the Reconstruction era, the American Government kept its hands almost entirely off the lives and day to day happenings of both individuals as well as business for over 3 decades. It was the widespread belief of both political leaders, as well as business owners that they should be left alone by government to maximize profits and production, even if it meant the common man, the factory worker, was to left be left behind both by lack of safety and lack of socioeconomic gain. However, the country’s opinion began to shift around the turn of the century, reform was brewing within every aspect of American culture and life. Workers desired greater pay, Citizens desired safer consumable products and more influence
Freedom for the wealth compared to freedom for the poor was huge difference in the Gilded Age. Like I mentioned above there was few people who accumulated a lot wealth but by doing so took jobs away from the poor and middle class. Andrew Carnegie believed that he had the responsibility to advance the society by giving some of his money to the communities to build libraries which also helped some of the poor to have jobs, but working under Carnegie meant that you would work everyday with two twelve-hour shifts. So yes you had a job, but the job didn’t come with good terms. Even having a job that you worked two twelve-hour shifts doesn’t mean that you would become wealthy, wealthy only came to those who were business men and had the access to
The time period from when the Second Industrial Revolution was beginning, up until President McKinley’s assassination in 1901, is known as the Gilded Age. After the Civil War, many people headed out West to pursue agriculture, and many immigrants moved to urban areas to acquire jobs in industrial factories. It is in this context that farmers and industrial workers had to respond to industrialization. Two significant ways farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age, were creating the Populist Party and the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
Jessica HillisMr. GillardAP US History5 January 2007Essay 16: Gilded AgeThroughout history, certain periods of time have been given certain names based on thehappenings that occurred. Many have called the period of 1865 to 1901 the “Gilded Age”, be-cause it was “shiny and pretty” on the outside but it was “rough and ugly” underneath. The term“Gilded Age” was actually coined by Mark Twain who satired the Gilded Age with a GoldenAge.
Bodnar, John. “Families Enter America.” Major Problems in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, ed. Leon Fink. D.C.
The Gilded age was a period in the late 1800s (1865-1900) that showed tremendous increase of wealth caused by the industrial age. The lifestyle of the rich during this period hid the many problems of the time that eventually brought about the progressive era movement. This was a movement for reform between 1900-1920s. Progressives typically held that the irresponsible actions of the rich were corrupting both public and private life. Forces such as immigration, the Populist Party and industrialization that led to the progressive era also impacted the American government both in its activeness and its democracy.
