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Essay On The Gilded Age

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Gilded Age Immigrants from all over the world were looking for work, opportunity, and prosperity; the United States of America appeared to be the paradise they had long searched for. All that was heard of America was the rag to riches stories of foreigners striking it rich when arriving in the United States. It appeared to perfect on the outside, but on arrival in America, they were met with the exact opposite. Mark Twain described this time period as the “gilded age” since on the outside America appeared to be pure gold but when the people dug deeper, they realized that it was only skin deep. America was full of monopolies, poverty, and political corruption. The industrialization of America brought new big businesses that led to monopolies. Men like J.P. Morgan, Jay Gould, and John D. Rockefeller owned all or nearly all the industry in their respective fields by using vertical and horizontal integration to squeeze out all other …show more content…

Carnegie was a true rags to riches story that spread to countries all over the world, which lead to an even higher desire to come to America. After entering into America, life was extremely difficult. Factories were extremely dangerous places that loved to employee not only men but women and children, also. After a full days work of twelve hours, the employees came home to tenements just outside the industrial district. Being so close the factories, it was only natural for the dwellings to be full of noises and pollution. The houses were also shared often with two or three families in a single room; the close quarters led to the rapid spread of diseases amongst the residents of the tenements. These poor living and working conditions were the dirt behind the golden covering of America. Although life might have been better than other countries, the American Dream was not as astounding as it was

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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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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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There were several labor disturbances during the Gilded Age. A few of the most popular disturbances were the construction of new railroads, advancement in science and technology, and rise of big businesses. There were four important events that happened during the Gilded Age that was considered labor disturbances; 1877 Railroad Strike, the Haymarket Riots, the Homestead Act, and the Pullman Strike.

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The Gilded Age was a period of great industrial and economic growth in the United States. Major social and political difficulties, mainly for the working class and farmers, were evident throughout this period. In contrast to these problems, the People's Party, also known as the Populist Movement, was formed to accomplish political, social, and economic changes. Two of the main causes of the rise of populism in the 1890s were the accumulation of money and power in the hands of powerful businesses, in addition to the negative effects of technology on the lives of farmers and workers. The concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a select few was one of the main causes of populism's developments in the 1890s.

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Barons such as Andrew Carnegie, J.P Morgan, and John Rockefeller dominated the country through the enormous wealth that they amassed. The power that these individuals wielded was unfathomable. They even bought the presidency. It was through their combined might that William McKinley was elected. This pushed their power and wealth to even greater heights.

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The decade between 1890 and 1900 expressed a crucial time in the United States of America’s history. Many people experienced struggles throughout this time while others prospered. Mark Twain suggested that despite the significant achievements of the United States, Americans experienced poverty. This statement is an accurate description of the lively hood people experienced in their daily lives during the Gilded Age whether it was positive or negative. Many people during this time period focused on the positive outcomes that resulted from the Gilded Age such as new inventions, the gospel of wealth, additions of land to the country, urbanization, and middle-class improvements.

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Between 1870 and 1900, an estimated 25 million immigrants had made their way to the United States. This era, titled the Gilded Age, played an extremely important role in the shaping of American society. The United States saw great economic growth and social changes; however, as the name suggested, the Gilded Ages hid a profound number of problems. During this period of urbanization, the publicizing of wealth and prosperity hid the high rates of poverty, crime, and corruption. European immigrants who had come to the United States in search of jobs and new opportunities had fallen into poverty as well as poor working and living conditions.

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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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For this discussion post, I am supposed to reflect on what I had found interesting, surprising, or even confusing about the golden age and the Cold War era at home and abroad and The American Indian Movement occurred to direct the attention to the issues that the Native Americans had persistently been dealing with. The AIM’s sole purpose is to “inspire the renewal of native culture” (Barnes & Bowles, 2014). From what I understand, please allow me to touch on one mistake I have repeated a few times in my life of education. I seem to get confused when discussing the golden era with the gilded era which the Guilded age the Gilded Age takes its name from a book by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that was called the Gilded Age a tale of today it was published in 1873 and it was not that successful but while the Gilded Age conjures up vision of fancy parties and ostentatious displays of wealth the book itself was about politics and it gives a very negative appraisal of the state of American democracy if that helps anyone of you.

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