American Colossus

Amidst the 1880s and 1890s, the nation was changing. Technology, entertainment and the population were all seeing intense transformations. Looking back, much to the technologies of the late 19th century can be seen in the modern United States. This age included the development of communication technology including the phonograph, the telephone and the radio. Transportation technologies were also evolving into more modern versions. These technologies included automobiles, trolleys and electric trains. At the time, immigrants, especially those from Hungary, Italy, Poland and Russia, were flooding into America. This massive increase of the population led to the horizontal growth and vertical rise of urban cities as we know them today. The events that occurred during the Gilded Age would be what helped Rockefeller become the “King of Oil” (Krasner 2014).

Capitalism, in its ideal form, is an economic system meant to give consumers the opportunity to become producers of a product and sell goods to consumers without much government involvement. In practice, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim can attest to this economic system’s ability to benefit an opportunistic minority, while it disadvantages the majority, especially the working and lower class. These three classical theorists have varying views in what way capitalism ensnares the poor and how to break the recurring cycle, but all three theorists believe that capitalism benefits few and subjects the majority to a dependence on consumerism and the endless cycle of materialism and a lack of money. In “Fight Club”, the Narrator finds that his identity

Accurately established by many historians, the capitalists who shaped post-Civil War industrial America were regarded as corrupt “robber barons”. In a society in which there was a severe imbalance in the dynamics of the economy, these selfish individuals viewed this as an opportunity to advance in their financial status. Thus, they acquired fortunes for themselves while purposely overseeing the struggles of the people around them. Presented in Document A, “as liveried carriage appear; so do barefooted children”, proved to be a true description of life during the 19th century. In hopes of rebuilding America, the capitalists’ hunger for wealth only widened the gap between the rich and poor.

Was it innovation or greed and corruption that played a pivotal role in making the United States the leading industrialized nation in the world during the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, also known as the Gilded Age? In the book, Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson the author describes how greed and corruption by the United States government ultimately leads to poor decisions after a horrific disaster in 1900 [Larson]. In addition, well-researched essays by Henry Demarest Lloyd and Emma Goldman back up Larson’s theory that the Gilded Age was actually a very dark time for the United States.

However, some may come to the deeper meaning of this text that the author was trying to get across. Some being the flaws of Capitalism and the “American Dream”; Social Darwinism, only the financially “fit” survive; and how Socialism could be the answer to those who need support financially. These issues have trailed the United States for many years, one example of a result of these issues is the creation of the Black Panther Party in the 1960’s; due to African American’s limited rights, inability to find a good paying job, and cold hatred towards the government. However, because of the ignorance by the majority of upper-class citizens, they would interpret the book as an attempt to persuade others to look down on Capitalism due to the struggles portrayed in the book in result of corrupt rich folk.

Eric Foner once said, “Between the Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century, the United States underwent one of the most profound economic revolutions any country has ever experienced” . This states that this era brought many changes to

As the United States started to build their own empire, the war fighting and peacemaking that marked the McKinley-Wilson years sparked a dramatic growth in the power of the American state. The years after the war brought the economy out of recession and pushed the GDP in 1918 to twice the figure at the end of McKinley’s war with Spain (Hunt, 81) . Americans also pioneered a modernity that promised a system of mass production and mass consumption which ultimately led to economic, social, and cultural

This part covers the following chapters in Henretta et al., America’s History, Seventh Edition: Chapter­17­ The Busy Hive: Industrial America at Work, 1877–1911 Chapter 18 The Victorians Meet the Modern, 1880–1917 Chapter 19 “Civilization’s Inferno”: The Rise and Reform of Industrial Cities, 1880 –1917 Chapter 20 Whose Government? Politics, Populists, and Progressives, 1880 –1917 Chapter 21 An Emerging World Power, 1877–1918 Chapter 22 Wrestling with Modernity, 1918 –1929

Between 1865 and 1900, many people looked at United States as a country where individual economic opportunities, social equality and political democracy reigned supreme. One cannot say that this people were entirely right or wrong. To some extent, they were right by from different perspectives, the same cannot be said. However, one thing that is for sure is the economic opportunities that were available during this period. All the three aspects, individual economic opportunities, social equality and political democracy were present, although not to everyone.

As the last sparkles of the Civil War cooled down, a period of transformation took over U.S. and the endeavour to restore post Civil War economy initiated. The Gilded Age, as Mark Twain referred, was a time identified with economic boom and social change. During those years, U.S. experienced the transition from agricultural to urban together with industrialisation, scientific innovations and an economic boom. This modernisation evolvement however, was followed by negative outcomes: as labour demand amplified the need for immigration broke out and poverty became a remarkable issue. What is more, the growth of middle class and its insatiable appetite

In 1870 United States, with the sudden spark of Industrialization, the county’s economy made a monumental change from agricultural to the manufacturing of products. Industry expanded at an alarming rate while millions left farms and other agricultural jobs to work in mines and factories in the urban areas. It was almost as if this change happened overnight. By 1914, the United States became the world’s leading industrial nation because of the many inventors, new technologies, and the expansion of industries, which increase the production of iron and steel, as well as lumber, gold, and silver. With the creation of steel, railroad development commenced and oil and steel were now in high demand.

In the period between 1890 and America joining the First World War, the United States experienced dynamic growth. The time became known as a 'Second Industrial Revolution'. The United States was transformed through population growth, technical innovation, and exploitation of the country's natural resources. There was an increase in urban populations and range of economic activity. Extracts 1, 2 and 3 present different views on this era of economic growth. Extract 1 looks at America's natural resources, the growth of technical ability and industrial capitalism, and the creation of a continental domestic market. Extract 2 takes a look at the weaknesses of the Gilded Age economy, which resulted in poverty and periods of depression and panic. Extract

The author narrates that during this period the American way of life was mostly communal in an Agrarian society. However, with the emergence of industrialization, society shifted to the urban areas, the railway corporations and other large corporations began to monopolize businesses causing a great divide between the rich and the poor. The American people’s discontentment propelled the government to pass laws to curb monopolization; however, these laws could not stop the big corporations, as they were largely ineffective. The result was a demand for reform, which caused widespread crisis of the early twentieth

In Thomas Picketty’s book Capital, he questions the ability of capitalism to remain the prevailing economic system in this country. Between 1945-1975 capitalism produced a system were incomes of the masses began to converge. It was a period were almost everyone was to enjoy and reap the benefits of the capitalistic system. However now that period seems more like an aberration, than a trend. With rates of inequalities rising, and economic growth slowing, some have wonder whether or not capitalism is doomed. Previous historical examples such as the French Revolution, have shown us that the masses will not subjugate themselves to a system that they believe is unfair and unequal. Today, capitalism has seemed to reach the tipping point, where we

The American economy experience massive transformations during the first half of the nineteenth century that created a unique and strictly American economic structure and way of doing business. During the country’s colonial period and for a few decades following independence, America maintained a rural, agrarian economy that featured only a microscope level of small scale industry in the Northeast. By the turn of the century in 1800, out of a population five million three hundred thousand, only 6 percent of the population lived in urban communities if urban is defined as having a population of more than two thousand five hundred, and that percentage shrinks to 3 percent if urban is defined as a population of ten thousand or more. 74 percent