Essay On The Gilded Age

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

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