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Essay On The Gilded Age

578 Words3 Pages

In the gilded ages America had been changed by many different people. Many people who caused a change, had something to do with businesses, muckraking journalism, or progressivism. Immigration also took a part in changing America. Immigration, and all of those people, together, changed America politically, socially, and economically. Politics are a big part of America, and politics faced a lot of changes in the gilded age, many of them are still in effect today. One change, caused by a progressive, Robert La Follette, was the creation of initiative, referendum, and recall. Initiative let citizens suggest a possible law to the government. Referendum lets voters review suggested laws. Recall, lets voters kick out an incompetent president. Someone who chose muckraking journalism to get their message around, Lincoln Steffens, announced that New York’s government, and state governments across the nation …show more content…

The economy had to face a lot during the gilded ages too. With unions starting boycotts and strikes to get what they want, money that could have been made, was not made, and companies lost money. Businesses came up with many ways to make money though, and some of those ways are what caused the unions to be started. One change in businesses was the use of assembly lines, or scientific management. Instead of one person doing all the work, every person in an assembly line had a specific job to do. If one person did all the work, the job would get done slower, so the business wouldn’t make as much money. Also during the gilded age, there were new forms of business such as vertical integration, where the company buys all the supplies from its suppliers, in hopes of that badly affecting its competition. Another example of a business form started then is a corporation. A corporation is where, one owner owns multiple businesses, but they all don’t have the same name. Businesses found many ways to keep and make more

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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.

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Eventually allowed these business owners such as Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and J. D. Rockefeller to control everything around them including the government. From 1870 to 1900, corporations grew significantly in number, size, and influence in the United States causing big corporations to control the government and the people in America. After the civil war, railroads became the main way to transport people or goods.

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When these major events occurred in the Gilded Age, it caused periods of success, failure, and sometimes overall no change. Some outcomes of these new ideas being formed caused corruption, but led to the government and politics becoming much stronger and more organized. Most of the ideas published wanted to increase wealth and rivalries between businesses. Even though the Gilded Age benefited with the reforms created and fell with it’s poor use of money, it helped create the way we run our government

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The Gilded Age in America lasted from 1878- 1889. During this time many industries experienced drastic growth and as a result, an influx of immigrants flooded America. The 3 biggest industries included railroads, factories, and coal mines. Working conditions during the Gilded Age were poor, with low pay, unsafe working conditions, and long hours. Large corporations throughout the Gilded Age controlled the pay of many workers within the United States , held great political power by influencing legislation, and had a negative impact on a majority of American citizens.

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Captain of industry were owners who sought the benefits of production for the greater good. Like building railroads to modernize transportation or improving working conditions for employees. Robber barons were those who only saw industrializing as profit and would monopolize for their own benefit. It was problems like this that caused Americans to change socially. People were forming union labors, muckrakers were exposing private industustries, and organizations were winning their fight with

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Imagine working sixteen hours a day in an unsanitary, dangerous, place for a big business gaining two dollars. This is what laboring-class Americans had to go through during the Gilded age. Politically, the first largest American labor union was formed during the Gilded age and many other organizations formed as well as violent strikes. Socially, different ethnics joined together to share their thoughts and realize the evils of big business and of the federal government. Mentally, most we 're losing their personal life while some were financially stable and glad.

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The Gilded Age highlighted many issues with America's government, economy, and social life. While it may have appeared fine from the outside, the truth is that America was running on the bare minimum amount of regulations, the governments were riddled with corruption throughout and it was not sustainable. Political machines were running parts of the government essentially controlling votes, and lack of economic regulations led to trusts growing out of control. These big businesses had very few rules on how they had to treat their employees, which enabled them to be subject to harsh working conditions. The Progressive movement was a time to move forward and ignited widespread political change which led to social reform and lesser corruption.

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The Gilded Age was an age of rapid economic growth. Railroads, factories, and mines were slowly popping up across the country, creating a variety of new opportunities for entrepreneurs and laborers alike. These new inventions and opportunities created “...an unprecedented accumulation of wealth” (GML, 601). But the transition of America from a small farming based nation to a powerful industrial one created a huge rift between social classes. Most people were either filthy rich or dirt poor, with workers being the latter.

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The Gilded Age in America's young history is characterized as a period of time in which America appeared to be this beautiful, prosperous solace. However, at its core, America was this corrupt and amoral place in which discrimination and hatred ran rampant. The Gilded Age occurred during the same time that a large stream of new age immigrants began to migrate to the country seeking out opportunity, prosperity, and freedom. The increase in immigrants was directly responsible for the urban growth that took place during this period. The immigrants may not have been able to bring much of their tangible possessions with them but the culture and traditions they would carry with them to the United States would forever impact the future of America.

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Businesses could not afford to slow downproduction during the Panic, so they continued to keep their prices high, but the people didn’thave access to the scarce money. Not only were businesses charging high prices, but also thePhiladelphia and Reading Railroad went bankrupt, causing less modes of transportation for work-ers and farmers. In total, over 15,000 companies went bankrupt during the Panic and the unem-ployment was the highest in history. Labor Unions were also created during the Gilded Age, which added to the idea of theGilded Age being truly “gilded”. The American Federation of Labor was one of the first laborunions created in the United States.

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The Gilded Age is a term used to describe the period in American history between the 1870s and the 1890s, during which there was a rapid increase in industrialization, urbanization, and economic growth. It is called the Gilded Age because while there was a lot of wealth and prosperity on the surface, there were also a lot of underlying social, economic, and political problems. These problems included income inequality, corruption, and environmental degradation. This paper will discuss the Gilded Age and its significance in American history, and will explore questions about the differences between Robber Barons and Captains of Industry, the negative impact of the Gilded Age on the environment, and the Progressive Era that followed.

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Stemming from some of the Populist party’s ideas and following the turbulent times of the Reconstruction Era and Gilded Age, the Progressive movement arose in the 1890s in the United States as a means of utilizing the federal government to achieve national development. This was a huge step forward for the common man, as the industrialization of the nation and rise of big businesses, which exploded around the 1860s, left him robbed and mistreated. But this backtrack no longer reigned with the development of the Progressive Era, which brought prosperity through major reforms. This movement was a nationwide event, not bound to any singular political party or social class, but rather a mix, demonstrating its widespread success. The Progressive

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Forces such as immigration, industrialization, and the populist party during the time e=were the foundations that led to the progressive era reforms which impacted the American Government greatly in its democracy and in its activeness and involvement in businesses an so on. The progressive era reforms is quite similar to the New deal era in the 1930s, they each produced a record amount of programs and policies that worked to change the status of Americans living in poverty, which included their working

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The Gilded Age lasted from 1870 to World War 1, “1900s.” The Gilded Age was a period of fast economic development, but also much social struggle. Mark Twain in the late nineteenth century founded the “Gilded” Age, which means covered with gold on the outside, but not really golden on the inside, for example, tin. This period of time was glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath. In other words, the outside looked beautiful, but the inside looked old and trashy.

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