The Role Of Class In The Gilded Age And Progressive Era

In the first half of the 19th Century the working class in the newly industrializing American society suffered many forms of exploitation. The working class of the mid-nineteenth century, with constant oppression by the capitalist and by the division between class, race, and ethnicity, made it difficult to form solidarity. After years of oppression and exploitation by the ruling class, the working class struck back and briefly paralyzed American commerce. The strike, which only lasted a few weeks, was the spark needed to ignite a national revolt by the working class with the most violent labor upheavals of the century.

In the late 1800s and the early 1900s, labor was anything but easy. Factory workers faced long hours, low pay, high unemployment fears, and poor working conditions during this time. Life today is much easier in comparison to the late 1800s. Americans have shorter days, bigger pay and easier working conditions. Not comparable to how life is today, many riots sparked, and citizens began to fight for equal treatment. Along with other important events, the Haymarket Riot, the Pullman Strike, and the Homestead strike all play a vital role in illustrating labor’s struggle to gain fair and equitable treatment during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

After the civil war, up until the early 1900s, the need for a larger workforce grew as industrialization expanded. Samuel Slater brought the industrial revolution from England, and even since then, there were people trying to get better working conditions. Due to the growth in population by immigrants and expansion of industrialization, the working conditions became worse and worse, causing workers to suffer. Many people fought to solve this problem and changed many American’s lives for the better.

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era were two very different time periods in American History. During these two time periods the government played two different roles in America. During the Gilded age the government took a laissez faire approach in governing America, but during the Progressive era the government began to take action in governing America. The Gilded Age was a time of corruption, scandals, urbanization, and immigration. (Lecture Notes) The Progressive Era was a time where the government stepped in and began to end corruption, and regulate big businesses. During this time period the government tried to solve the problems of society. While the Gilded Age government used a hands off approach towards American affairs, the Progressive Era government began to take action and form the bureaucracy we have come to know today.

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 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.

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 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 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.

As class played a crucial role in influencing the character of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, race to some degree also played an integral part impacting the immigrant experience of the Chinese and Southern Europeans, how African Americans faced ill-treatment, and showcasing how racism correlated with imperialism.

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

In contrast, the Gilded Age was a time of major social and economic change. The Gilded Age increased industrialization, urbanization, transcontinental railroads, innovations in science and technology, and the rise of businesses very rapidly. However when the Gilded Age got in a bind the Progressive Era took over and was then left fixing all the issues that were left behind from the Gilded Age. In return, there was a benefit from having to fix these issues that were left behind from the past.

Teniola Olafuyi The Gilded and Progressive eras are two historical eras constantly debated overtime. Historians argue that the Gilded and Progressive era should be categorized as a “Long Progressive Era”. Both eras has a long period of reform in social and political problems caused by industrialization. However, historians argue that there is less regulation of the government in the Gilded Age because the rise of monopolies and less rights for workers.

During the 19th century, economic and social inequalities were at a peak. The Gilded Age yielded many inventions and advancements that led to extreme wealth and power, but it also led to poverty and despair. Both Sumner and George had theories of how poverty could have been eliminated, but their points were sometimes on opposite spectrums. This paper will discuss how some points were similar, but also very different in aspects to relieving poverty in the 19th century.

In the late 19’th century, many new immigrants came to America with hopes to escape religious and political persecution, to find better employment opportunities, for more freedoms, and a chance to start over again. The immigrant work force grew fast as the demand for factory labor grew. These immigrants were important to industrialization in the United States. They were willing to work in unsanitary work conditions for little pay. Because of this, American industries were able to hire more of these types of workers. Although they were unskilled, the type of jobs they were required to do were jobs that didn’t demand much knowledge.