The Importance Of The Gilded Age In The Gilded Age

The rapid growth of the economy in the United States the Gilded Age generated a lot of wealth. The growth of the railroads, telegraph and later telephone lines stretching across the country created new opportunities for entrepreneurs and the people looking for work; and gave cheaper goods to consumers.

The Gilded Age was characterized by rapid industrialization, reconstruction, ruthless pursuit of profit, government, corruption, and vulgarity (Cashman 1). After the Civil War, America was beginning to regroup as a nation. There were many other changes developing in the country. Industrialization was taking over the formerly agricultural country. The nation’s government was also in great conflict (Foner 20). Many changes occurred during the Gilded Age. These changes affected farmers, labor, business, and politics.

Frances Willard was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women’s advocate. She taught at a public school, was the president of the Evanston College for Ladies, and became dean of women at Northwestern University. After Willard relinquished her career as an educator she became a reformer in the Temperance Movement. The Temperance Movement was the social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Willard took on the duty of trying to stop alcohol consumption in the United States. She did this without pay for many years and became the secretary of the Chicago Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. While working

Throughout the history of the United States, the Gilded Age is regarded as a period that spanned the last three decades of the 19th century. This period starts from the Civil War came to an end in the 1865 up to 1900. The term Gilded Age was formulated by writers Charles Warner and Mark Twain in The Gilded Age: A Tale of Toady in 1873. They did this since they believed it to be an era that would be characterized by a variety of severe social problems that were camouflaged by a minute gold gilding.

The late 19th century of American history is most commonly known as the Gilded Age, because of its attractive appearance, but underlying corruption. Popular themes during this period were greed and guile. This can most clearly be seen in the nature of city governments and political machine systems. Political machine systems were made up influential men preying on the vulnerable for their own gain. A shining example of this unethical system is Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall was a political force in New York City from its 1789 inception as a benevolent association to its infamous end in the early 20th century (Tammany Hall). Run by William M. Tweed, commonly referred to as Boss Tweed, this political ring gained its popularity by supporting immigrants and the lower class. Tammany Hall pushed for real improvements in hospitals, schools, and infrastructure (Burns). Although these examples are viewed as a good within the system, they are irrelevant and ineffective in the overall upheaval caused by Boss Tweed and his political machine. Tweed 's idea of city government and his political machine was a failure because it took advantage of taxpayers, used political graft and corruption to disparage the Constitution, and set a bad example for future political leaders.

Throughout the course of the Gilded Age, several influential figures rose impacting the economic, political, and cultural status of the United States. One of the most important figures of this time period was Frances Willard, born in New York in 1839. Francis Willard held several important positions, exceeding as an educator, a women’s suffragist, and a co-founder of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (Britannica). The fact that Frances Willard held these positions indicates that she contributed towards 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

During the nineteenth century, there was a time of critical social problems we now know

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

From the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century many economic changes occurred, from booms to busts, but all effected minorities less favorably.

The American Industrial Revolution, also known as the Gilded Age that took place from the 1870s to the very early 1900s. The Gilded Age is defined as, “A period of enormous economic growth and ostentatious displays of wealth during the last quarter of the nineteenth century” (Roark, p. 479). Over the years of the American Industrial Revolution, there have been an enormous amounts of new technology and innovation throughout this time period that have brought many exceptional advances to the revolution. But there are three particular technological advances that noticeably affected America’s Industrial Revolution. These three technological advances include, steel, automobile and electricity that substantially improved the Gilded Age.

Frances Willard began her career in education in the mid-1800s as a school teach in rural schools and then later, academies. Willard, with formal study at universities in Berlin and Paris, continued her career path in more advanced “educational responsibilities.” These “educational responsibilities” include becoming president of Evanston College for Ladies and the women’s designer of Northwestern where began her interest in gender equality through education. In 1873, Willard found interest in the temperance movements and joined the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and was elected secretary of the national organization the following year. While Willard was president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the organization advocated for

In the time 1870-1900 yes,it was a gilded age. Because the rich lived good without any

A successful economy is perhaps the most key ingredient leading to a successful nation. An economy is a delicate balance of many different conflicting and coexisting elements. Naturally, an economy’s success can often be measured by the amount of wealth it contains, not to mention the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of its distribution of the wealth. Effective distribution of wealth is no easy feat. Wealthy and poor people will always need to coexist- this is an inescapable truth. The government’s job in many cases becomes that of a referee. Naturally, perfect peace and harmony between two totally different classes would be a utopia, and probably will never be completely achieved. A government must, therefore,

Stemming from the end of the Civil War, the age of Reconstruction boomed. Some industries were starting to populate prior to and during the War, such as the iron industry and the California Gold Rush. However, the idea of Big Businesses and their large impact on America was greatly noticed in the years to come called the Gilded Age, coined by Mark Twain as America started to gleam with gold. The start of such growth in American happened as businesses wanted to expand and workers began discovering new crops and demand for them increased. Farming so many crops quickly became more of a hindrance and required more hands to help harvest the crop. Then, as more crops grew, so did the demand, and the natural human pace no longer sufficed for harvesting. Such demand required better technology and faster transport on top of more workers to lend a hand. As technology also boomed during this era, it helped fuel the industries capability to flourish beyond belief. Industrialization grew like no one thought it could bring in a thriving economy, expanding cities, and with such growth a challenging workforce.