Compare The Transition From The Gilded Age To The Progressive Era

The period between 1870 and 1900 was a time to change politics. The country was for once free from war and was united as one nation. However, as these decades passed by, the American farmer found it harder to live comfortably. Crops such as cotton and wheat, once the cash crop of agriculture, were selling at prices so low that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit. Improvements in transportation allowed larger competitors to sell more easily and more cheaply, making it harder for American yeoman farmers to sell their crops. Finally, years of drought in the Midwest and the fall of business in the 1890s devastated the farming community. Most notably, the Populist Party arose to fight what farmers saw as the issues affecting

Throughout the 1880s and 1890s America was going through many changes and many of these were fought by the Populists. Silver being demonetized was another major problem for the Populists and they fought it along with asking for a national government regulated currency as well. The Populist Party also fought against the harsh taxes that were in place at the time in the United States. The biggest concern for many of the Populists was how to handle crop failures and how prices were to be controlled. All in all, the Populist movement was centered on helping out the farmers and improving the ever changing economy.

The Populist Movement began in the late 1800s with the Farmer’s Alliance. The Farmer’s Alliance aimed to improve economic conditions, including low agricultural prices and loss of land as a consequence (Foner, 510). In the 1890s, the Farmer’s Alliance grew into the Populists or the People’s Party. The evolved party appealed to a larger audience, specifically the working or “producing” classes (Foner, 511). Two of the Populists’ main focuses were lower mortgage interest rates and the

The Populist Movement ultimately failed to survive because of their desire for inflation and the support for the coinage of silver, as well as the fact that they merged with the Democratic Party to combat the Republicans. The 1896 election undermined agrarian insurgency, and a period of rapidly rising farm prices helped to bring about the dissolution of the Populist Party. Another important factor in the failure of the party was its inability to affect a genuine urban-rural coalition; its program had little appeal for wage earners of the industrial east. Although the populists were not outright socialists, many conservative interests saw the Populists as a threat to the basic economic system of the United States. The Populists’ agenda was

After 1880, the Grange gave rise to regional farmers’ alliances, which joined in 1892 to form the People’s Party. In the elections in the same year, their candidate gained 1 million popular votes showing the major political parties how serious the farmers’ issues were. The fall of the People’s party can be attributed to the financial panic that America faced in 1893. People started to embrace the idea of raising money supply by coining silver, which later became a burning issue in the 1896 Presidential election. Consequently, the populist joined forces with the Democratic party to support William Bryan for president who lost the seat to William McKinley, Republican. After the election, the party lost significant political power. 3.The New Deal It brought reforms in the sense that it raised the role of the American government in business and people’s welfare. When Roosevelt was elected, he made several changes to relief the starving individuals and the unemployed during the great depression

From the ashes of the American Civil War period, the Gilded Age movement emerged into rapid economic growth. From the end of reconstruction in 1877 to the panic of 1893, the American economy nearly doubled in size. The expansion of Industrialization led to growing wages and the urge to work. As new machinery developed, so did the urgency for rapid production of manufactured goods. In this period, new ideas of time being money emerged. Big business men controlled the Gildan age instead of political leaders. Out of the rapid need to gain money and work harder, negative effects such as child labor, women labor, and unfair working conditions appear. In response, the progressivism era emerged. The Progressive movement arose as a response to negative effects of industrialization such as child labor and unemployment. Reformers longed to regulate private and large industries to strengthen working conditions for both employers and consumers Progressivism was an important political and social reformation from 1890-1920 that aimed to make major political and social reforms in effort to progress society after the negative outcomes of industrialization.

The Omaha Convention which took place in Omaha, Nebraska in 1892. According to Eric Foner, “ The platform put forth a long list of proposals…direct election of U.S. senators, government control of the currency, a graduated tax income, system of low-cost public financing to enable farmers to market their crops, and recognition of the right of workers to form labor union.” (Foner, 2010, p. 682) Although many farmers joined this cause, it was primarily farmers, and with the major population of United States consisting of industrial workers plans didn’t go far. Some Populists tried to gain more members by trying to unite black and white farmers as one but because of the racism between southern farmers, the alliance in the southern areas would not allow blacks from partaking in meetings. So Populist tried to join forces with factory workers by engaging and supporting the worker rights, but industrial workers didn’t appeal to the Populists ideology, though both fought against large corporations their political standpoint was different. Farmers wanted low tariff prices and higher priced agricultural resources

At the end of the 19th century the United States were in a time called “The Gilded Age”, coined by Mark Twain; a time of mass immigration, Western settlement, and industrialization. Out of these times emerged a political party named the Populist party, later changed to the People’s party. This party stood for the working man, like farmers and factory laborers. Though this party meant well, it did not last long. Surviving until 1896, the Populist party eventually merged with the Democratic party. With this being said, the Populist party was a short lived dream and failure.

Due to “…falling agricultural prices and growing economic dependency” (Foner 636) in the mid-nineteenth century, farmers in the South began to face inevitable economic uncertainty. Farmers, both white and black alike, were thrown into poverty due to sharecropping and the fall of the price of cotton, and many faced the fear of losing everything they had due the inability to pay bank loans. Believing that their situation was caused by “…high freight rates…excessive interest rates for loans…and the fiscal policies of the government” (Foner 636), disgruntled farmers hoped to better their lives and conditions through the founding of the Farmers’ Alliance in the 1870s. However, by the 1890s, the Alliance transformed into what became known as the Populist Party. Keeping their roots in mind, the Populists sought to end what they considered political corruption and economic inequality that arose during the Reconstruction. In order to do so, they proposed “…the direct election of U.S. senators, government control of currency, a graduated income tax, a system of low-class public financing…the right of workers to form labor unions…[and a] public ownership of the railroads” (Foner 638). In addition to their propositions, the Populists were considered radical due to their embracement of science and technology, their belief that the

From the years 1878 to 1889, America was in a period of time known as the Gilded Age. The term “Gilded Age” was coined by the prolific American novelist Mark Twain due to the growth of industry and the way wealth was amassed by corporate magnates such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. During the Gilded Age, the large petroleum corporations of John Rockefeller, for example, created monopolies on oil. These tycoons would also create trusts in which they would give an opportunity for stockholders in competing companies to sell their stock in exchange for stock certificates. These trusts would give the larger corporations the upper-hand in commerce and forced Americans to buy its products exclusively. Moreover, during the Gilded Age,

Throughout the progressive era there were many reform movements due to the abundance of political, social, and economical corruption in America in the gilded age as seen by political machines like William Marcy tweed and American financiers like J.P. Morgan. Some of the many issues that made themselves present in the gilded age include the large wealth gap, child labor, women’s lack of rights, influx of immigrants, Urbanization, Indian wars, monopolists, political machines, and alcoholism. All of these issues were brought to attention by Muckrakers like Jacob Riis, the photographer of How the Other Half Lives, and Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle. Once these issues were raised, Much to the monopolists dismay, America knew they had

Although vastly different in their characteristics and motives, the Populist and Progressive era was chiefly caused by the lack of control among the masses and the government. With power revolving around large corporational bosses, individuals of this era sought to enact alterations in order to return order and strength to the people by attempting to limit the authority of corruption. With Progressivism focusing on the purification of American politics, social reforms, such as Women’s Suffrage and prohibition, and the implementation of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth amendments were the main results of the Progressive era. For followers of the Progressive era, eliminating the political corruption of the United States government would only be achieved following the amelioration of their social standards and the unity of the masses. On the other hand, Populists focused their efforts on the repairment of America’s economy. Consisting of frustrated farmers who felt that their agrarian society was threatened by the rise of industrialism. With political machines relying on industries, such as steel and railroads, for their economic needs, the American economy eventually lost the focus on farmers. In order to regain the respect and power previously held, the Populist party called for alterations including an increase in currency and a revenue tariff. Ultimately, Populism and Progressivism acted as a direct representation of the anger and desperation felt by Americans towards those involved in the corruption that shaped America’s

     While the works of Upton Sinclair are not widely read today because of their primacy of social change rather than aesthetic pleasure, works like The Jungle are important to understand in relation to the society that produced them.  Sinclair was considered a part of the muckraking era, an era when social critics observed all that was wrong and corrupt in business and politics and responded against it.  The Jungle was written primarily as a harsh indictment of wage slavery, but its vivid depictions of the deplorable lack of sanitation involved in the meatpacking industry in Chicago resulted in public outrage to the point where Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair uncovers the horrors of working in the meatpacking district of Chicago. Sinclair acquired the inspiration to write The Jungle when he was sent into the stockyards to unveil the truth about the workingmen’s lives in Chicago. Sinclair’s story caused an uproar and led to him being labeled as a muckraker, a term that referred to journalists that documented the harsh conditions of workers during industrialization. He intended his novel to bring light to the socialist party, but instead the readers were more concerned about the diseased and mistreated meat that the were eating. Because of the upset, Sinclair’s novel led to the formation of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Sinclair published five novels between 1904 and 1906, but none were as influential or as popular as The Jungle. A silent movie was made as a film adaptation of this story in 1914. I have not read any of the other novels published by Upton Sinclair.

Congress passed a law to stop silver, silver were becoming too expensive, gold is the standard to determine currency. Money supply shrink and money were less valuable. Even harder for American farmer to pay back debt. Farmer began to becomes more connection (nation movement), merged with each other; start to become more political. Encourage member to vote for candidate who show their interests. Farmer alliance becomes the people party in 1892. (Populist Party) Demand they made includes: