The American Industrial Revolution: The Gilded Age

The invention of the automobile completely changed life as we know it, and now almost every job relies on this amazing invention. The first practical automobile was invented in the twentieth country by Henry Ford. The Model T sold for $490 in 1914, one fourth the cost of the previous decade. The invention of the practical automobile caused a boost in the economy, increase sociality, and cause the government to introduce changes.

The Gilded age was a time of deception and industry. Many businesses tried to make it to the top but most failed. Very few went on to become a huge success, such as Carnegie’s steel production. Being a captain of industry is a big importance, and even though people may not like your methods, they work for you and your business.

During the Gilded -age, The United States economy grew at a rapid rate generating a massive amount of wealth, where railroads, telephone lines stretched across the country which created opportunities for business owner and required cheaper products for consumers. While the economic and political profited on America’s rapid expansion of wealth, industrial workers were struggling to survive ,while wages were low and work days were longer.

The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the “Gilded Age,” was a time period after reconstruction to World War I. This period was a time when new technologies helped bring about urbanization and make it possible for innovations in technology. It was also a time when many monopolies came about in the United States economy. Some of the major industries that came about was oil, railroads, finance, and most importantly steel. These industries were mainly dominated by one large company, or a monopoly, that was about to control prices on these materials. The owners of these monopolies were extremely rich men, and while monopolies are now considered illegal, back then, they weren’t.

During the rise of industrialization, the United States had just ended the Civil War and was starting to move on. People had an aspiration at this time to make a more than decent living for themselves, and the economy was at the right spot for this to be possible. This time period in American History is referred to as the Gilded Age, termed by the famous author Mark Twain, which simply means covered in gold; however, Twain did not necessarily mean this in a good way. He believed right under the surface of this gold plating was still problems with the American society that didn’t look so appealing. This essay will discuss how practices during the rise of industrialization during the Gilded Age shaped the American work and labor force.

Two prominent eras of American History were the Gilded Age at the end of the nineteenth century and the succeeding period, the Progressive Era. The Gilded Age, also know as the Second Industrial Revolution, was a peak of high economic development with the rise of technological advancements in a free market environment, meaning that the economy was driven by self-interest instead of government authority. Besides its economic growth, the Gilded Age handle changes in social divisions. After the abolishment of slavery, the class system had three major groups: robber barons, middle class, and working class. The following time period, the Progressive Era from around 1890-1920, was a time span full of reforms. These reforms allowed government to get involved in business regulations. The progressive era was driven by the middle class as they saw unfavorable outcomes from the other two social divisions. The upper ten were too corrupt and the working class was too immoral. This resulted in a movement of economic, political, social, and moral transformations accomplished by the government. The Gilded Age of negative liberty transitioned into positive liberty at the start of the Progressive movement since free market economies included problems of restrictive competition, contracted labor, and social inequality.

The video in slideshow 6 (Slideshow 6:4) presents information relating to the American industrial revolution after the Civil War. Several years following the Civil War saw the United States' emergence as an industrial nation. Old industries were expanded with new ones being founded. For instance, the country experienced the emergence of steel manufacturing industries, oil industries, and the development of electrical energy. In addition, the railroads expanded significantly with the large investments of over $100 million bonds. A successful middle class emerged, thereby making buying a common practice among all individuals unlikely previously, where only the wealthy were able to purchase products. Mining and agricultural practices experienced

The Gilded Age was a very special time for our nation that took place from the 1870s to around 1900. During this time, economic growth was at a rapid increase, politics were corrupted yet had high turnouts, and urbanization flourished. Every aspect of the life of an American changed drastically throughout this time of the Gilded Age. The entire era was focused on the enormous changes that each aspect of America was going through. As this is brought to attention, if we are to look into the way that America is in our time of today, we can find that there are many similarities to that of the original Gilded Age. The United States of America have currently found themselves to be experiencing the second era of the Gilded Age throughout the areas of economic, politic and social transformation.

The Gilded Age was the last three decades of the nineteenth century, when America’s industrial economy exploded generating opportunities for individuals but also left many workers struggling for survival. With the many immigrants, skilled and unskilled, coming to America the labor system is becoming flooded with new employees. During this period, the immigrants, including the Italians, were unskilled and the skilled workers were usually American-born. There was also a divide in the workers and the robber barons. Robber barons were American capitalist who acquired great fortunes in the last nineteenth century, usually ruthlessly. There was much turmoil throughout the business and labor community. Two major organizations, the Knights of

Throughout the course of the Gilded Age, several influential figures rose impacting the economy, political factors, and culture of the United States. One of the most important figures of this time period was Frances Willard, born in New York in 1839. She held several important positions, exceeding as an educator, a women’s suffragist, and a co-founder of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. The fact that Frances Willard held these positions indicates that she contributed to the improvement of the United States, specifically by educating Women, fighting for Women’s rights, and fighting for prohibition. These key roles were complementary to the issues associated with the United States at the time. For example, a significantly low percentage of the population attended college after completing high school. Most of the people that attended college at the time were men. Women were typically held to Victorian standards by society’s expectation of them to stay home to raise children, making it uncommon for them to attend college. In terms of alcohol, Christian churches completely disagreed with and despised the consumption of liquor, leading to the establishment of temperance reform. Frances Willard was the most influential figure of the Gilded Age because of her work through the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union that contributed towards the ratification of the 18th and 19th amendment, prohibiting the consumption or production of alcohol and

The gilded age was a time of poverty and unfair treatment of groups of people. The ones that laid the tracks to the place we are in now, as an industrial based country, were treated poorly. The Gilded Age was covered in corruption, filth, lies, and injustice. The heart of it all, New York City, contributed the most. With the incoming factories, boats filled with desperate immigrants, and developing technologies, nothing but the word gilded could appropriately describe this time.

The concept of the automobile was first started in England during Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century. The automobiles were powered by steam engine. Later on, inventors like Henry Ford began thinking further ahead about gasoline engine to produce powerful cars because steam engine cars were not enjoyable because it takes almost ten to twenty minutes to heat up the engine before driving. On June 16, 1903 Henry Ford started the ford motor company (Wikipedia). Almost 500,000 workers were employed in the automobile industry (Nick). Following this many Americans found job opportunities to make their life better in other hand they help the economy and expedite the growth of the country. Soon Ford motor company produced automobiles that were affordable like the Model-T. ”By 1927 the Ford Motor Company had sold over 15.5 million Model Ts in the United States.” (My Life and Work 560). “Nearly half of all American families owned a car in 1929” (561). According to this cars become big part of American's life. Families can go visit family or friend living farther away. Workers drive their automobile to workplace and arrive on time. Overall automotives boost up the productivity and efficiency which led American people to live cozy life, besides give them more time to entertain and refresh

An American writer, Susan Sontag, stated that capitalism is, “the ideology [which] makes us all into connoisseurs of liberty—of the indefinite expansion of possibility”. From 1850 to 1907, there was a mass immigration to America and the rise of ‘Gilded Age’ which the United States population and economy grew quickly. Capitalism is a social and economic system where both the means of production and any associate trades are privately owned. During 1850 to 1907, there were a number of factors which contributed to the rise of Capitalism such as: significant entrepreneurial figures such as Henry Ford; mass immigration and cheap labour; and Railway and telegraph lines expansion to transport goods to be sold.

     The birth of the automobile was truly something special. Once a far fetched dream is now what many people believe to be the back bone of the American economy. When people think about the automobile the name that comes to mind is most usually Henry Ford. Although he is not credited with the invention of the automobile, Henry Ford played a crucial role in the development of mass production. The automobile was first invented Europe in 1771 with a top speed of 2.3 miles per hour. A man by the name of Gottliech Daimler produced what was known as the milestone car in 1889, this vehicle traveled at 10 miles per hour (Brown, 105). Not more then a handful of these cars were produced over seas. Not many people had ever

The American industrial revolution took place from the late 1800s into the 1900s. An industrial revolution is a boom in industry and manufacturing. It requires a workforce, leaders, and most importantly natural resources like coal, steel, gold, silver and lumber. Coal was a valuable resource needed to power factories and transportation like the transcontinental railroad that spanned across the US. After the transcontinental railroad was built in 1869, more coal was found in the west that could be mined and then transported to the factories in the east. This led to the increase in material production and made manufacturing easier and cheaper. However, when coal is burned it gives off pollution so an increase in coal usage also impacted the environment. Additionally, working conditions in the factories back then were unimaginable. Workers were overworked and around dangerous machines at a young age.