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The Positive And Negative Factors Of The Gilded Age

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The Gilded Age, a term created by Mark Twain, described the conditions of the 1890s and 1900s. Twain stated that even though there were significant advancements and achievements, the United States was cheap and full of corruption. In my opinion, this concept is overstated and too harsh. The United States did have its imperfections such as big businesses monopolizing industry and poor working conditions for employees, but the positive factors of this era outweighed the negative factors. These positive factors included the termination of the spoils system, growth of industry, and the creation of the middle class. The first positive factor of the Gilded Age is the end of the spoils system which was practiced by numerous politicians. The spoils system, also known as the patronage system, is the act of giving jobs to friends and family as a reward for helping the politician win the election. This meant that corrupt politicians could appoint people to government jobs without any regard for the person’s qualifications. On July 2, 1881, President James Garfield was shot by a Charles Guiteau, a spoilsman, after Guiteau did not receive the federal position he thought he deserved. As part of the reform …show more content…

As industry grew, jobs were created which pulled both farmers and immigrants to cities. New industrial and agricultural technology, such as the lightbulb and mechanical reaper, helped push for industrial development. Also, the Gilded Age saw a surplus of goods to be sold to the growing urban markets, and the innovative railroads allowed these goods to be sold across the country there were few limitations on business, people such as Andrew Carnegie were able to go from “rags to riches” and grow their small businesses into giant ones. By 1914, the United States had become the largest industrial nation, and this further proves that the Gilded Age was an overall prosperous

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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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The Gilded Age soared up from the 1870’s to around ! 900 and everything changed. Technology surged and began to move everything along at a rapid pace. There was corruptness in the government and big businesses started to take over. These companies only sought out for wealth, power, and land.

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The Gilded Age has been often portrayed as one of those dark periods in American history—a period of greed and corruption, of brutal industrial competition and harsh exploitation of

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The Gilded Age, the period between the 1870s and the early 1990s, was an era of rapid industrialization, Laissez-faire practices, and no income tax. Industry moguls, such as Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller, thrived, following the philosophy called 'Social Darwinism' in business while millions of men, women, and children worked long hours for low pay in dangerous factories, railroads, and mines. Starvation wasn't uncommon. All this was against common sense and totally unfair for the working class because no one could choose whether to be born in a poor and wealthy family. The companies took advantage of huge numbers of people desperate for jobs.

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The Second Industrial Revolution brought many great things to America such as advances in technology, new businesses, job opportunities, and "new" immigrants. America was truly the "City Upon a Hill." America, although booming after the Second Industrial Revolution, was problematic. The period after the Second Industrial Revolution is called the "Gilded Age" by Mark Twain because America at that time was glittering on the outside but corrupt on the inside.1 Alongside all the advances in the economy, technology, and society there are negative factors coinciding with the progress. The negative factors prove to be detrimental to America's society, politics, and economy.

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Industrialist had a huge impact on the gilded age. The gilded age was a rapid expansion of industrialism and a massive jump in the population of immigrants in america. The industrialist during the gilded age such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt had a big impact because of their businesses. Vanderbilt was the first of the three to be a leader of industry. Vanderbilt made millions using the railroad system and built an empire with them.

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After the Civil War, the United States experienced many events in terms of economy, culture and social, and those events made a big change to the U.S. One of the richest person in the world, “Andrew Carnegie”, who is also known as the civil leader, built the steel mill by 1900. While, most of the firms were working by themselves or family at that time, he was good at vertical integration. Including him, thanks to the genius and rich inventors, the concept of social and economy of U.S. had changed. On the contrary, because these rich people had most of the finance, the number of people who were under the lower-class had been increasing.

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The Gilded Age was a time where the rich continued getting richer, and the poor poorer. Along with these economic effects came the second industrial revolution. The population in cities grew, and all throughout the country, factories which had production and manufacturing capabilities that could not even be imagined decades ago sprung up. The population of America was greatly effected by this industrialization, especially farmers and the industrial workers themselves. The farmers experienced a populism movement, while industrial workers created unions to protect their rights, and reform civil service.

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1.0 Introduction Self-evidently the economic development is extremely important to a county. Whether it is to ensure the integrity of the national sovereignty, territorial integrity, military construction or improvement of the national standard of living, all these policies are not able to achieve without economy. As an example The united states, between year 1860 to 1990 also called “Gilded Age” during this period United States had rapidly increased in economy. The millions of immigrants came to the United States from Europe at the meanwhile with rapid development of heavy industry including railways, factories, mining. The output value in the manufacturing during this period increasing sharply from 19 billion dollars to 11.4 billion us dollars; the railway mileage of the 30,000 miles to 250,000 miles; coal production from 10 million tons to 212 million tons; the steel production increased to 1,100 tons from production

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If someone asks a group of historians their view on whether the Gilded Age is an era of opulence or hardship, that person will regret the question because they will later hear an argument about the great and terrible moments in that era. This is because the Gilded Age had plenty of amazing moments where America discovered new ways to make a business and get rich, but it also underwent plenty of downfalls for the poor. The era was given its name from a novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, and it means “covered with a layer of gold, but it also suggests that the glittering surface covers a core of little real value and is therefore deceptive” (Foner 615). This definition truly exhibits that the Gilded Age has a rich outlook with the

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The Gilded Age was a period economic growth as the United States strived to the lead in industrialization. The nation was rapidly expanding, not only its borders, but also its economy, industry and big business rising fast. Many were enthusiastic about this industrialization, and those who were fortunate, rose to the top. After the Civil War, many started to move out west, looking for land and job opportunities. Railroads, often called the first “big business," took advantage of this westward expansion.

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Politically, economically and socially the Gilded Age was truly a “Gilded Age”. Noteverything added to the “Gilded” effect of the time period. The “robber barons”, two major de-pressions and the labor unions (though not originally a bad thing) did add to the age. The Gilded Age saw the rise of Andrew Carnegie, John

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The Guilded age was a period of wealth and improvement which was used to cover up poverty and corruption inside the united states. Eventhough there were lots of improvements, not only in technology but also in society, there were lots of problems. Problems such as corruption and poverty. As time went on people started to realise this problems and some got improved, but others didn’t. 　　This gilded age was a problem.

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What was the Gilded Age and why did Mark Twain refer to it as such? To help understand this question, one must know the meaning of the word gild. Per Merriam Webster, the term gild means to “to give an attractive but often deceptive appearance to” (Gild, n.d.). After the Civil War the American people had become tired of all the corruption and simply wanted to see an end to it and to have a stable economy. The Gilded Age was fashioned to be prosperous times for all Americans, promising wealth, and an end to past political corruption.

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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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