The Progressive Era Of The Gilded Age

At the turn of the century the United States of America was launched into the Progressive Era, which called for massive reform across a variety of areas such as, politics, social life, and economics. Through 1900 and 1920, progressive reformers in the presidency and congress brought about reform from the federal level to the national level.

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era were times of great change for women in the United States, and women entered into a new standard of living. As times progressed and new advances were made in both society and technology, people had to learn how to adapt to those changes while still being an asset and following societal rules. The purpose of this paper is to acknowledge the reformations and changes brought to people and society by women during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. Regardless of where women may have moved to and lived during these times of expansion and industry, women were determined to not revert back to the roles they had been put in for so long. The purpose of these changes and new roles was to advance society and make everyone equal, but not every woman accepted the changes given to them or received the same kind of treatment due to various differences. Ultimately, the reformations made by women during this time would shape future movements fighting for the same cause.

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 end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, the United States saw a huge growth both socially and economically. The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era was a time when we saw great industrialization as well the construction of new railroads across the country. However, during the years of 1870-1900, known as the Gilded Era, this period was seen as a time filled with great corruption and uncontrolled politics and capitalism. Well-known author Mark Twain referred to these years of as the “Gilded Age” to reference how on the surface everything looked as though it was perfect or glittering, however beneath it all was corruption. (Mintz, S) Even though this era was known to have a great deal of corruption and scandals, it can also be seen that it was a time for development. A lot was changing and people were transforming from small town producers to urbanized workers. It is also to be considered as a time of economic and political reform. The last few decades of the 19th century will prove to be rough and challenging as people struggle to adapt to the new changes. As the turn of the century came, America entered into a new time known as the Progressive Era. During the early years of the 20th century Americans began to see political, social and economic reforms. There would be stricter laws on child labor, factory regulations were being improved, schools and playgrounds were being built and the corrupted politics were being replaced with more efficient

The nation’s businesses, and politics prior to the Progressive Movement is best described by Mark Twain in his book, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. The nation was glittering and sparkling on the surface but corrupt underneath. In politics, the government looked the other way. In Joseph Keppler’s famous “Bosses of the Senate” cartoon, he depicted the big business owners as moneybags looking over the congressmen. This was an accurate view at how the government was run. The government never attempted anything that was against what the businesses wanted. If a politician did rebel, he would not win a reelection. Big businesses were continually growing, and along with it, disparity. The industries had no competition amongst each other. One person or group was in total control of an industry, and because of that, they could do as they pleased. Railroad rates, for example were as high as the owner wanted. Since there was only one railroad, people had no choice but to spend whatever the individual asked. Once the Progressive Era began, these political and business issues were taken care of.

The progressive era was a period of time of widespread social activism and political reform across the united states. It started in 1890’s and ended in the 1920’s really not that long ago. The purpose of this to eliminate problems that were caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and corruption in the government.The gilded age was the time between the civil war and world war 1. The population had grown in the U.S as well as the economy as that started to happen political corruption and corporate financial. Gilded age and Progressive Era may seem similar in some way based off their definition but they are basically opposites. Keep on reading and you’ll see how they differ from.

The Progressives were a group of reformers such as writers, politicians, and Social welfare advocate, etc. living mainly in cities during the early 20th century and working to change legislative issues, financial aspects, and good society. They accepted that change could originate from inside of man, and along these lines, dismisses the believe of Social Darwinism and regular determination. They were in charge of the section of many laws, including restriction, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the Interstate Commerce Act. During this era, “People work to make themselves and the society a safer and a better place to live. The Progressive worked to make big business regulate more responsible and clean up corrupted businesses, city, improving a better working conditions etc.”(Discussion 9). New comers to the movement strived to adjust to new conditions at one hand while attempting to keep up their particular society and dialect framework with the other making a perplexing circumstance.

While Progressive Era reformers and the federal government were relatively successful and effective at bringing about some essential forms of national reform like tariff adjustment and trust-busting, there were still many important reforms that many politicians chose to overlook when it came to substantially changing America in the 1900-1920 period. Presidents like Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson were all particularly influential when it came to changing many aspects of American politics, economy and society, but each had a very specific idea of which reforms should be instated and which should be ignored. By the end of the 1900-1920 period, many of the progressive groups had gotten their reforms passed, but many of

Throughout history, America was faced with many problems socially, economically, politically, and technologically. But America has also experienced many great successes in these areas as well. Some opportunities were seized, while others were wasted. We can learn from our past failures and successes and take what we have learned from them forward with us into the future, to help build and maintain a better America. The Gilded Age, during the late 1800’s, was a time in America where we experienced explosive economic growth, serious social problems, new innovative technology, and the rise of corporations and corruption in politics. We have learned from some of these things that we went through in the Gilded Age and fixed them, but we are still facing some of the problems we faced back then, today.

The Progressive Era was an influential time period that helped shape America into the present day country. During this time period, businesses were expanding rapidly and a new set of political, cultural, social, and environmental reforms were emerging under progressive ideals. Although different people associated and supported with different reforms, all progressives during this period were working for the advancement of American society. Despite the ineffectiveness of progressive reforms from 1900-1920 in creating an influential political platform to transform national politics, reformers were very successful in gaining the federal government the power to regulate trusts and industries.

The Progressive reform movement grew from the exposes of muckraking journalists who brought to the attention of the public many issues of society and government that people felt strongly about. All of the presidents of the time period, from Roosevelt to Wilson helped bring about reform, especially at the national level. Progressive Era reformers were moderately successful on the national level. Many bills were passed to help society, however, success was often limited by the fact that most reformers had little first hand experience at working in factories or felt no connection to certain causes because most reformers were middle class men and women. However, the success that they did achieve paved the way for future reform and helped to change the roles of the American people in the politics of their country.

In the early 20th century, a fervent desire to allow the United States to escape from the corrupt and unfair politics of the Gilded Age and to improve life for "the employees in utter ignorance of cleanliness or danger to [their] health" (Document B) emerged. This great desire to reform society became known as Progressivism. Under the leadership of three progressive presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, the Progressive Era reformers and the federal government brought low and moderate national reform, though these measures often fell short of Progressive ideals. Roosevelt took the first steps towards reforming American society with his "square deal," although his willingness to work with corporations and trusts

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

So finally in 1913, Congress passed the 17th amendment that called for the direct election of United States senators. Also Congress would later pass the 19th amendment which allowed women’s suffrage, or the ability to vote. Also states and people began to use the secret Australian ballot to keep the privacy of the voters. Before, big bosses and companies used to be able to scare or buy people to vote for whom they wanted, but now people could vote without the fear of being connected to their ballot. With people now voting anonymously, these businesses no longer as successful as before for they could no longer tell for whom the bribed were actually voting for. In the bar graph, it shows the gradual decrease in the number of voters who voted for the presidency (Document J). this showed how people were no longer being bribed or forced to vote for whomever the businesses wanted. This called for more fair and impartial elections for such important offices in the government. In the Washington Post 1907 article, Roosevelt is shown standing over a dead bear of bad trusts (Document A). This demonstrated Roosevelt’s attempted to rid the country of bad trusts for the good of the people. Also these reformers made great strides in the social component of the country.

During the Progressive Era from 1890-1920, America saw three new presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. This period of time is known as the Progressive Era due to the political and social changes made to move away from a laissez-faire government to a more active government by the administrations of these presidents. Prior to this period, Americans had to suffer through poor working conditions, low wages, social and class inequality and become victims to large corporations that took advantage of the people. In particular, the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson established the key principles and ideas of economic reform and social reform, which would end up returning the power from the manipulative corporations back to the government, establishing a model for a more active role for the federal government, and improve the lives of Americans. However, even though Roosevelt and Wilson had similar intentions of reforming America, they both had different means of achieving it.