argumentative essay on gilded age

The Gilded Age Essay

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Gilded Age is a period between 1870 and 1890. This is a very complicated period in the life of American citizens as during these years corruption flourished, social life in the country was supported with constant scandals and the gap between poor and rich was extremely big.

This period is characterized by enormous wealth, however, the philanthropy was also on a high level. Democrats and Republicans were two major parties which fought for power, and having received it they tried to make sure that the more people are put on the leading positions in the local and national government. Reading different sources of information, it is possible to create a personal opinion about the Gilded Age and the political issues which were spread there.

There are different points of view about political system which was during the Gilded Age. Cash ruled human decisions, and therefore, the politics was based on those people who had more money (Flehinger 159). Such state of affairs is inappropriate. It is impossible to run the country without the desire to make it better.

Those who got power by means of money were sure to have the goal to get more money from people to return what they spent and to earn more. In this case politics for people becomes simple source of money, not the desire to improve human life and to change something for better.

Buder said that “the Gilded Age was, of course, the time when the United States experienced profound demographic and economic growth” (Buder 873). It is impossible to contradict this opinion, however, it is also impossible to agree that all people experiences economic growth.

The political contradiction and the division of power negatively affected simple people. The lower layers of population were not really satisfied with what was going on. I am sure that the economical growth of the country was a successful issue, however, the benefit from such growth was available just for rich and wealthy people while simple employees remained with their personal income.

Among various disadvantages and negative effect of the Gilded Age in the American politics, Gage points to the radical violence (Gage 107). The violent acts flew through the whole country. People suffered from those but the government could do nothing to protect them. The question whether they wanted to do it raise here. Moreover, it is essential to understand that the accidents of violence could be useful for the government who could satisfy their interests while people suffered from violent acts.

Giroux is sure that the Gilded Age was even more antidemocratic than the previous period even though democracy was proclaimed as the political regime in the country. Looking at the illegal actions of the powered people and their lack of desire to maintain order in the country, It is impossible to disagree with the author of the article as proclaiming democratic regime in the country, people did not have any rights to govern the country. Only money solved all the problems and was the source of the decisions in the USA (Giroux 587).

“The Gilded Age celebrated two kinds of virtues: those of the soldier and those of the entrepreneur” (“The Loss of Public Principles and Public in Interest” 147) and this phrase reflects the real estate of affairs during the Gilded Age. Simple people had nothing, neither the power to govern the country, nor the opportunities to change anything. Just leading the lives they had to survive. Of course, the economical growth of the country affected their well-being, however, it was not that great at the well-being of the powerful people.

White says that “Gilded Age financial corruption consisted of quotidian faults—lying, deception, and dishonesty—played out largely on paper and along telegraph lines, but on a national and international scale” (White 21).

Much has already been said about corruption, however, White tried to measure the affect of corrupted government on simple population. Dwelling upon the reasons of the corruption which was provoked by the decisions proclaimed by the government, White is sure that the situation could be changed and I agree with the statement.

Cherny’s review of the book From Bloody Shirt to Full Dinner Pail: The Transformation of Politics and Governance in the Gilded Age by Charles W. Calhoun is a great opportunity to consider the presidents and the would-be presidents of the country during the mentioned period.

Having considered the presidents, their thought and reforms it is possible to draw personal conclusions about the reasons of the high economic and low political development of the country during the Gilded Age. The author points to the highest level of human participation in politics, however, the reasons and the real mechanism of that participation is not covered which is a great limitation of that study (Cherny 215).

Reuter dwells upon the place of the business in politics. He is sure that those who got more money could control the legislation in the country during the Gilded Age. This is correct and money run business in America during that period (Reuter 55).

Considering the Gilded Age, I become more and more assured that the present situation in the USA is similar to that one which happened in America in 1870-1890s. However, during 1876 and 1892 none of the candidates managed to get the priority in votes, that is why the power was constantly shared between two parties, Democrats and Republicans (Miller 51).

Cashman’s work America in the Gilded Age is the fullest edition which presents the political situation in the country. Having read this piece of writing I understood that even though the economical situation improved, the political issues were distant from being called perfect.

Two parties managed to run the country without giving an opportunity for others to interfere into the political process, however, these two parties were too opposite to agree on the manner how the country should be governed. “Government’s primary role during the nineteenth century was to distribute resources and privileges to identifiable groups” (Miller 59) rather than consider the problems of people and solve them on the political level.

Therefore, it may be concluded that the Gilded Age was a very controversial age. Being economically flourishing, it just promoted rich people, however, the charity was also developed. The political system might be characterized by the Democratic-Republican duopoly, democratic regime and corruption.

It is impossible to say for sure whether that period was good or bad as it contained both positive and negative issues. As for me, the political regime of the Gilded Age should be characterized as the negative one due to the reasons discussed above.

Works Cited

Buder, Stanley. “James T. Wall. Wall Street and the Fruited Plain: Money, Expansion and Politics in the Gilded Age.” Enterprise & Society 10.4 (2009): 873-874. Print.

Cashman, Sean. America in the Gilded Age: Third Edition . New York University Press, 1993. Print.

Cherny, Robert W. “From Bloody Shirt to Full Dinner Pail: The Transformation of Politics and Governance in the Gilded Age.” Journal of American History 98.1 (2011): 214- 215. Print.

Flehinger, Brett. “Party Games: Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics.” Canadian Journal of History 41.1 (2006): 159-160. Print.

Gage, Beverly. “Why Violence Matters: Radicalism, Politics, and Class War in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.” Journal for the Study of Radicalism 1.1 (2007): 99-109. Print.

Giroux, Henry A. “Beyond the biopolitics of disposability: rethinking neoliberalism in the New Gilded Age.” Social Identities 14.5 (2008): 587-620. Print.

Miller, Worth Robert. “The Lost World of Gilded Age Politics.” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 1.1 (2002): 49-67. Print.

Reuter, William C. “Business journals and Gilded Age politics.” Historian 56.1 (1993): 55. Print.

“The Loss of Public Principles and Public in Interest: Gilded Age Rhetoric, 1872-1896.” Language of Democracy: Political Rhetoric in the United States & Britain, 1790-1900 , (2005): 146-163. Print.

White, Richard. “Information, Markets, and Corruption: Transcontinental Railroads in the Gilded Age.” Journal of American History 90.1 (2003): 19-43. Print.

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1. IvyPanda . "The Gilded Age." November 6, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gilded-age/.

Bibliography

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How American Inequality in the Gilded Age Compares to Today

I t was a party, but also a paradox. As discussed in this exclusive clip from the new PBS American Experience documentary The Gilded Age , premiering Feb. 6, the ball held in New York City in 1897 exemplified both sides of the period in which it was held. The very wealthy flaunted their newly extravagant lifestyles, viewing their riches — a result of that century’s great social and technological changes — as proof that the U.S. was on the right track. Meanwhile, others in the city struggled to get by.

That’s why that term for that late-19th-century period in American history — the Gilded Age — is so apt. As historian Nell Irvin Painter explains, “‘Gilded’ is not golden. ‘Gilded’ has the sense of a patina covering something else. It’s the shiny exterior and the rot underneath.”

But, while the original Gilded Age inspired a wave of political change, from the first march on Washington to the rise of the Populists, its fallout did not lead to the end of inequality in the United States. As Painter tells TIME, there have been several major cycles of inequality in the U.S. since then: the mitigation of inequality during the Progressive era, the return to inequality in the 1920s, the great equalizer that was the Great Depression and the New Deal, and then the rise of inequality once again in the late 20th century. That trend has continued to this day, and Americans are now living in an era that has been called a new Gilded Age.

“We’re in these cycles in which we learn and forget and learn and forget,” Painter says.

It’s difficult to find a precise comparison between the level of inequality in the Gilded Age and that of today, because it hasn’t been tracked consistently and the modern income tax did not exist in the 19th century. Many studies that do compare over time start later, for example in the 1920s. What’s clear, however, is that both periods are marked by extreme wealth gaps.

One statistic cited by the Gilded Age documentary is that, by the time of that 1897 ball, the richest 4,000 families in the U.S. (representing less than 1% of the population) had about as much wealth as other 11.6 million families all together. By comparison, as of November 2017, the three richest individuals in the U.S. had as much wealth as the bottom half of the population. According a recent CNN analysis of Federal Reserve data, as of the end of 2017, the top 1% of Americans held 38.6% of the nation’s wealth.

But that doesn’t mean that today’s wealth gap is the same as that of more than a century ago.

For example, that 1897 ball might go down a little bit differently today. “One of the hallmarks of the Gilded Age is the flaunting of great wealth,” Painter tells TIME, pointing out that today’s wealthy Americans may be reluctant to expose just how much they have. “I think perhaps the roots of embarrassment over great wealth may go back to the 1930s, but that’s a really long time ago.”

One explanation could be that many of the people who are really wealthy today remember the 1960s, a time of not only greater wealth equality but also great idealism about the potential for equality, and not just economic equality. Even as equality has faded, she says, the nostalgia for that time remains. But, in the face of another round of technological and social changes, nostalgia only counts for so much.

“Capitalism makes some people really rich, and democracy is not strong enough to counter the power of great wealth,” Painter says. “Capitalism helps a lot of people in a lot of ways. Capitalists aren’t just robber barons and the very rich. It’s not all bad, but it’s very powerful.”

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Period 6: 1865-1898 (AP US History)

Period 6: 1865-1898.

The transformation of the United States from an agricultural to an increasingly industrialized and urbanized society brought about significant economic, political, diplomatic, social, environmental, and cultural changes. Topics may include:

• The Settlement of the West 

The "New South"

The rise of industrial capitalism, immigration and migration, reform movements, debates about the role of government.

Image Source : A detail from Across the Continent: “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way,” a lithograph by Frances Flora Bond Palmer, published in New York by Currier & Ives, 1868. (National Gallery of Art)

10-17% Exam Weighting

Resources by Period:

• Period 1: 1491–1607
• Period 2: 1607–1754
• Period 3: 1754–1800
• Period 4: 1800–1848
• Period 5: 1844–1877
• Period 6: 1865–1898
• Period 7: 1890–1945
• Period 8: 1945–1980
• Period 9: 1980–Present

Key Concepts

6.1: Technological advances, large-scale production methods, and the opening of new markets encouraged the rise of industrial capitalism in the United States.

6.2: The migrations that accompanied industrialization transformed both urban and rural areas of the United States and caused dramatic social and cultural change.

6.3: The Gilded Age produced new cultural and intellectual movements, public reform efforts, and political debates over economic and social policies.

The Settlement of the West

Financing the Transcontinental Railroad

By maury klein.

Understand the funding and building of the railroads.

Native Networks and the Ghost Dance

By justin gage.

Watch a discussion about a spiritual dance performed to combat US expansion into the West.

The Development of the West

By ned blackhawk.

Gain an understanding of how the idea of the West played a role in the US emerging as a global power.

Indian Wars: The Battle of Washita

Report by General Custer describing conditions during the Indian Wars

• Primary Source

American Indians and the Transcontinental Railroad

By elliott west.

Learn about the impact of the railroads on Indigenous peoples in the West.

Official photograph from the “Golden Spike” Ceremony

The completion of the first transcontinental railroad lines at Promontory Summit, Utah.

Horace Greeley: “Go West”

Editor of the New York Tribune encourages young men to pursue westward expansion.

William T. Sherman on the western railroads

Letter recognizing the railroad’s value to the military

An Introduction to the History of Women and Gender Roles in Indigenous Societies

By k. tsianina lomawaima.

Learn about the social changes and continuities in Indigenous communities. 

The "New South"

Citizenship in the Reconstruction South

By susanna lee.

Read about the active role freed men and women played in the struggle to define the contours of a biracial democracy. 

The Effects of the Civil War on the South

By edward l. ayers.

Watch a discussion contextualizing the economic and social impacts of the war.

Campaigning for the African American vote in Georgia

Broadside aimed at winning the Black vote in Georgia

Reconstruction and the South

Charles Sumner's claim that President Johnson was jeopardizing the North's victory.

Sharecropper contract

1867 contract agreeing to the terms for sharecropping

The War Ruined Me

Letter describing the economic struggles of an Alabama farmer and preacher

Frederick Douglass on Disenfranchisement

Letter by Frederick Douglass protesting the disenfranchisement of Black southern voters following Reconstruction

The Gilded Age

By t. jackson lears.

Learn about key moments and ideas that gave rise to the industrial era.

Building Carnegie Hall

Letter by Andrew Carnegie seeking assistance in the building of the Music Hall in New York City

Entrepreneurs and Bankers

By robert w. cherny.

Examine the rise of big business and captains of industry.

The Rise of Industrial America

By richard white.

Gain a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution.

The History of US Immigration Law

By jane hong.

Read about regional and national restrictions on immigration.

by Hasia Diner

Learn about push and pull factors and their relationship to the Industrial Revolution.

Workingmen's Party Pamphlet

Anti-Chinese and anti-immigration rhetoric from California

Expelling the Poor: Antebellum Origins

By hidetaka hirota.

Learn about the discrimination against poor immigrants from Ireland and China.

The Grange Movement

Lithograph promoting the needs of farmers

Labor Day: From Protest to Picnics

By joshua b. freeman.

Learn about the development of the labor movement and labor unions in the age of industrialization.

Anti-corporate cartoons

Cartoons expressing hostility toward corporate capitalism

The struggle for married women’s rights, circa 1880s

John Brown's daughter on the "struggle for a married woman’s rights"

Assassinating President Garfield

Assassin Charles Julius Guiteau pleads innocence through poetry

The Persistence of Ida B. Wells

By kristina durocher.

Read about Wells’s long struggle for racial justice and suffrage as well as the resistance she faced along the way.

The Haymarket Affair

Publication claiming that the accused in the Haymarket Affair were victims of anti-labor advocates

William Jennings Bryan on the Declaration

William Jennings Bryan draws on the ideals of Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson

Rethinking Huck

By steven mintz.

Gain an understanding the evolving critiques of Twain's Huckleberry Finn over time.

William Cullen Bryant opposes the protective tariff

An argument against tarriffs

Populism and Agrarian Discontent

By michael kazin.

Examine the Populist response to industrialization and the development of the People's Party.

People’s Party campaign poster

Image promoting Populist goals of "Equal Rights to All; Special Privileges to None"

The United States and the Caribbean

By jason colby.

Read about the role of private enterprise and US influence in the Caribbean.

American History Timeline: 1865-1898

Image citations.

Listed in order of appearance in the sections above

• Swain & Lewis, The World's Railroad Scene. Chicago, 1882. Chromolithograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Remington, Frederic. "The Ghost Dance by the Ogallala Sioux at Pine Ridge Agency. Dakota." Harper's Weekly, December 6, 1890. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Moran, Thomas. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. 1893-1901. Oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of George D. Pratt, 1928.7.1.
• Custer, George Armstrong. Report to Lt. Schuyler Crosby, Dept. of the Missouri, on the Battle of Washita, December 22, 1868. Manuscript. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04606.
• Currier & Ives, James Merritt Ives, and F. F. Palmer. Across the Continent, "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way." New York, 1868. Lithograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Russell, Andrew J. Joining of the Rails at Promontory Point [Russell #227], May 10, 1869. Photograph. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04481.01.
• Greeley, Horace. Letter to R. L. Sanderson, November 15, 1871. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00608.
• Sherman, William T. Letter to David Douty Colton, September 26, 1878. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05095.
• Joan Hill (Muskogee Creek and Cherokee), Women’s Voices at the Council, 1990. Acrylic on canvas. Gift of the artist on behalf of the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women. Oklahoma State Art Collection. Courtesy of the Oklahoma Arts Council.
• Nast, Thomas. “Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction and How It Works.” Harper's Weekly, September 1, 1866. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01733.08.
• Beard, James Carter. The Fifteenth Amendment. Celebrated May 19th, 1870. New York: Thomas Kelly , 1870. The Richard Gilder Personal Collection, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC10030.
• Democratic Party (Ga.). Colored Voters Read. 1894. Broadside. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC09000.
• Sumner, Charles. "[One man power versus Congress] Address." ca. October 2, 1866. Manuscript. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00496.088.01.
• Bailey, Isham G. Contract between Isham G. Bailey and freedmen Cooper Hughs and Charles Roberts. Mississippi, January 1, 1867. Manuscript. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04522.11.
• Ramsey, Alexander. Letter to J. J. Wardlaw, January 3, 1867. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC09311.
• Douglass, Frederick. Letter to Robert Adams, December 4, 1888. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04997.
• Bryant, William Cullen. Letter to Hamilton A. Hill, February 11, 1876. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02595.
• People's Party Paper (Atlanta, GA), April 28, 1892. Chronicling America. Library of Congress.
• People’s Party. Candidates for President and Vice President. Chicago: Chicago Sentinel Publishing Company, 1892. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Detroit Publishing Co. United Fruit Company banana conveyors, New Orleans, La. ca. 1910. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Hamilton, Grant E. "Where the Blame Lies." Judge, April 4, 1891. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Johnston, Frances Benjamin. Wooden Box Industry: Women in Work Room of Box Factory. ca. 1910. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Workingmen's Party of California. Chinatown Declared a Nuisance! San Francisco, 1880. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC06232.03.
• Nast, Thomas. "Which Color Is to Be Tabooed Next?" Harper's Weekly, March 25, 1882. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• J. Hale Powers & Co. Fraternity & Fine Art Publishers. Gift for the Grangers. Cincinnati: Strobridge & Co., 1873. Chromolithograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Hine, Lewis Wickes. Group of Oyster Shuckers in Barataria Canning Co. Biloxi, Mississippi, 1911. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Gillam, Bernhard. "The Protectors of Our Industries." Puck, February 7, 1883. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Adams, Anne Brown. Letter to Alexander M. Ross, January 16, 1886. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC03007.13.
• Guiteau, Charles. "My Case." June 6, 1882. Manuscript. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC06319.
• "Ida B. Wells." In I. Garland Penn, The Afro-American Press and Its Editors. Springfield, MA: Willey & Co., 1891. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Lum, Dyer D. A Concise History of the Great Trial of the Chicago Anarchists in 1886. Chicago: Socialistic Publishing Society, [1886]. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05640.
• Bryan, William Jennings. Letter to I. J. Dunn, January 4, 1895. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC07189.
• Bradley, A. F. Samuel Langhorne Clemens [Mark Twain]. 1907. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Tou, Edmond. John D. Rockefeller. 1912. Photograph. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05148.
• Carnegie, Andrew. Letter to Heram Hitchcock, January 31, 1889. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02896.
• Unknown photographer. Henry Ford. ca. 1925. Photograph. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02684.
• Lee, Russell. Textile Mills. New Braunfels, Texas.1940. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 

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What Was the Gilded Age?

Economic and industrial developments, social stratification and inequality, economic impact and legacy, the bottom line.

• Government & Policy

The Gilded Age Explained: An Era of Wealth and Inequality

Katie Miller is a consumer financial services expert. She worked for almost two decades as an executive, leading multi-billion dollar mortgage, credit card, and savings portfolios with operations worldwide and a unique focus on the consumer. Her mortgage expertise was honed post-2008 crisis as she implemented the significant changes resulting from Dodd-Frank required regulations.

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The Gilded Age, which roughly spanned the late 1870s to the early 1900s, was a time of rapid industrialization , economic growth, and prosperity for the wealthy. It was also a time of exploitation and extreme poverty for the working class.

Reconstruction preceded the Gilded Age, when factories built as part of the North’s Civil War effort were converted to domestic manufacturing . Agriculture, which had once dominated the economy, was replaced by industry. Ultimately, the Gilded Age was supplanted by early 20th-century progressivism after populism failed.

The term “gilded age” was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in a book titled The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today . Published in 1873, the book satirized the thin “gilding” of economic well-being that overlaid the widespread poverty, corruption, and labor exploitation that characterized the period.

Key Takeaways

• The Gilded Age lasted from the late 1800s to the early 1900s and was characterized by economic growth for the wealthy and extreme poverty for the working classes.
• A societal shift from agriculture to industry resulted in a movement to the cities for some and westward migration for others.
• The beginning of organized labor, investigative journalism, and progressive ideologies began to spell the end of the Gilded Age and its rigid class structure.
• The Gilded Age marked the beginning of industrialization in America—a time of innovation, transportation growth, and full employment. It was also a time of economic devastation and dangerous working conditions for labor.

As the United States began to shift from agriculture to industry as a means of economic growth, people began to move from farms to urban areas. Railroads expanded, industry began to mechanize, communication improved, and corruption became widespread.

Railroad Expansion

Railroads expanded dramatically in the U.S. in the 1870s. From 1871 to 1900, 170,000 miles of track were laid in the United States, most of it for constructing the transcontinental railway system. It began with the passage of the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 , which authorized the first of five transcontinental railroads.

Mechanization of Industries

The late 19th century saw an unprecedented expansion of industry and production, much of it by machines. Machines replaced skilled workers, reducing labor costs and the ultimate selling price of goods and services. Instead of skilled workers seeing a product through from start to finish, jobs were often limited to one task repeated endlessly. The pace of work increased, with many laborers forced to work longer hours.

Communications Networks

Technological advancements, including the phonograph and the telephone, came into existence during the Gilded Age. So did the advent of mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. Professional entertainers quickly adopted these new forms of communication, making listening and reading news new leisure activities.

Monopolies and Robber Barons

During the Gilded Age, many businessmen became wealthy by gaining control of entire industries. Controlling an entire sector of the economy is known as having a monopoly . The most prominent figures with monopolies were J.P. Morgan (banking), John D. Rockefeller (oil), Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads), and Andrew Carnegie (steel).

Because of the way they exploited workers with low wages, long hours, and dangerous working conditions, these wealthy tycoons were often referred to as robber barons , a pejorative term used to describe the accumulation of wealth through that exploitation.

Rural Life and Urban Life—Gilded Age Homes

Homes during the Gilded Age reflected the lifestyle and wealth of the homeowner. While the wealthy built magnificent mansions with stately names like Vanderbilt Mansion, Peacock Point, and Castle Rock, many of the less fortunate lived in tenement buildings in cities, where they flocked for jobs, or in the West, in claim shanties—small shacks built to fulfill Homestead Act regulations.

The Gilded Age saw rapid growth in the economic disparities between workers and business owners. The wealthy lived lavishly, while the working class endured low wages and horrid conditions.

Real Wage Increases

The technological changes brought about by industrialization are thought to be largely responsible for the fact that real wages of unskilled labor grew 1.43% per year during the Gilded Age vs. 0.56% per year during the Progressive Era and just 0.44% per year from 1990 to 2005.

By those measures and comparisons, the Gilded Age would seem to be a success. In 1880, for example, the average earnings of an American worker were $347 per year. That grew to $445 in 1890, an increase of more than 28%.

Abject Poverty

“While the rich wore diamonds, many wore rags.” This summarizes the income and lifestyle disparity that characterized the Gilded Age. In 1890, 11 million of the nation’s 12 million families (92%) lived below the poverty line. Tenements teemed with an unlikely combination of rural families and immigrants who came into urban areas, took low-paying jobs, and lived in abject poverty.

Though wages rose during the Gilded Age, they were deficient initially. As noted above, in 1880, the average wages of an American worker were $347 per year ($10,399 today, as of this writing) but had risen to $445 by 1890 ($14,949 in today’s dollars). Given today’s federal poverty level (FPL) , which is $30,000 for a family of four, most Gilded Age Americans were excessively poor despite the impressive wage growth of the time.

The annual inncome of an American worker in 1890, at the height of the Gilded Age. Adjusted for inflation, that's just under $1,500 in today's dollars.

Labor Unions

The rise of labor unions was neither sudden nor without struggle. Business owners used intimidation and violence to suppress workers, even though they had a right to organize. By 1866, there were nearly 200,000 workers in local unions across the United States. William Sylvis took advantage of these numbers to establish the first nationwide labor organization, named the National Labor Union (NLU).

Unfortunately, Sylvis and the NLU tried to represent too many constituencies, causing the group to disband following the Panic of 1873 when it couldn’t serve all those competing groups. The NLU was replaced by the Knights of Labor, started by Uriah Stephens in 1869. Stephens admitted all wage earners, including women and Black people.

The Knights of Labor lost members and eventually dissolved for two reasons. First, Stephens, an old-style industrial capitalist, refused to adjust to the changing needs of workers. Second, a bomb thrown into a crowd at a rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886, was blamed on the union, driving even more members away.

By December 1886, labor leader Samuel Gompers took advantage of the vacuum left by the demise of the Knights and created a new union based on the simple premise that American workers wanted just two things: higher wages and better working conditions. Thus was born the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

Corruption and Scandals—Muckrakers

Another product of the Gilded Age was investigative journalism. Reporters who exposed corruption among politicians in the wealthy class were known as muckrakers for their ability to dig through the “muck” of the Gilded Age to uncover scandal and thievery.

Notable muckrakers included Jacob Rils, who in 1890 exposed the horrors of New York City slum life. In 1902, Lincoln Steffens brought city corruption to light with a magazine article titled “Tweed Days in St. Louis.” Ida Tarbell put her energy into exposing the antics of John D. Rockefeller; her reporting led to the breakup of Standard Oil Co. In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose conditions in the meatpacking industry. This led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Immigration

Many immigrants came to North America during the Gilded Age, with 11.7 million of them landing in the United States. Of those, 10.6 million came from Europe, making up 90% of the immigrant population. Immigrants made it possible for the U.S. economy to grow since they were willing to take jobs that native-born Americans wouldn’t .

While factory owners welcomed these newcomers, who were willing to accept low wages and dangerous working conditions, not all Americans did. So-called nativists lobbied to restrict certain immigrant populations, and in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act passed Congress. But millions came despite the obstacles. The Statue of Liberty beckoned, and the “huddled masses” responded. The children of immigrants began to assimilate, despite their parents’ objections. Another hallmark of the Gilded Age was born, as America became a true melting pot.

Women in the Workforce

Industrialization created jobs outside the home for women. By 1900, one in seven women were employed. The typical female worker was young, urban, single, and either an immigrant or the daughter of immigrants. Her work was temporary—just until she married. The job she was most likely to hold was that of a domestic servant.

The Gilded Age also saw an increase in college-educated women. Colleges, including Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, and Mount Holyoke, opened their doors to women in the post-bellum years. This did not happen without some incredible chauvinism. Scientists of the era warned that women’s brains were too small to handle college work without compromising their reproductive systems. Many, it turned out, took that risk. The predominant fields held by female college graduates were nursing and teaching.

The Black Experience

As reconstruction ended on a state-by-state basis, Black people could migrate away from plantations and into cities in search of economic opportunity, or to move west or south in search of land that they could work for themselves. From 1870 to 1900, the South’s Black population went from 4.4 million to 7.9 million. People found jobs in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, working on railroads and in mines, lumber, factories, and farms. For some, however, sharecropping replaced slavery, keeping Black workers tied to the land without ownership.

For a small set of others, this period led to the foundation of what’s known as the Black elite or “the colored aristocracy,” as was noted by Willard B. Gatewood in Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880–1920 . Among this group were members such as Blanche Bruce, a Republican senator from Mississippi; Josephine Beall Willson Bruce, a women’s rights activist in Washington, D.C., and the wife of Blanche Bruce; and Timothy Thomas Fortune, economist and editor of The New York Age , the nation’s leading Black newspaper at the time.

The Gilded Age saw the transformation of the American economy from agrarian to industrial. It saw the development of a national transportation and communication network. Women began to enter the workforce as never before. Millions of immigrants took root in a new land. Enterprising industrialists became titans and wealthy beyond measure.

Production and per capita income rose sharply, albeit with great disparity among wealth classes. Earlier legislation, like the Homestead Act, motivated the movement westward of millions of people to lay claim to land that would give them a new start and a chance at the American dream. As America became more prosperous, some of its citizens fell victim to greed, corruption, and political vice. This combination of extraordinary wealth and unimaginable poverty was the ultimate juxtaposition of capitalism and government intervention. The debate continues today.

Are There Gilded Age Mansions Left?

You can still see and even visit some of the most opulent examples of Gilded Age domicile excess today. In New York City, for example, you can drive past the Vanderbilts’ Plant House, the Carnegie Mansion, the Morgan House, and others, if you know where to look.

What Was the Worst Scandal of the Gilded Age?

The Gilded Age gave birth to enough scandals to create competition for the worst of the lot, but many historians agree that the transcontinental railroad scandal was the cream of the crop, so to speak.

The federal government, in deciding to underwrite a transcontinental railroad, created an opportunity for corruption that it did not anticipate. As builder of the railroad, the Union Pacific company engaged in price fixing and bribery that affected members of the Ulysses S. Grant presidential administration. The corruption was uncovered by investigators, bringing the scheme to an end.

When Did the Gilded Age Start and End?

The Gilded Age in America refers to the period from the end of Reconstruction to the turn of the century (1870 to 1901). Some extend the period into the early 1900s, but most agree that the beginning of the Progressive Era in the early 1900s is the ultimate ending point.

The Gilded Age was critical to the growth of the United States by introducing industrialization and technological advances. It was also a time of political turmoil, greed, and extreme income inequality. The U.S. became the most economically powerful country in the world due to the era. It was a time of unprecedented progress and unimaginable poverty.

The wealth gap between the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Morgans, and Vanderbilts and the rest of the country was palpable. With wealth came greed. With innovation came corruption. Muckrakers, the first investigative journalists, helped uncover the graft, and unions helped labor even the playing field. Ultimately, this “best and worst” of times became another important chapter in the American saga.

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ The Growth of Populism .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ Progressivism Sweeps the Nation .”

History. “ Gilded Age .”

Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, via Google Books. “ The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today .” Penguin Publishing Group, 2001 (originally published in 1873).

Library of Congress. “ Railroads in the Late 19th Century .”

Library of Congress. “ Work in the Late 19th Century .”

Digital History, University of Houston. “ An Age of Innovation .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ The Gilded Age .”

Dupont Castle. “ Castle Rock .”

Preservation Long Island, via ArcGIS StoryMaps. “ Peacock Point .”

South Dakota State University. “ South Dakota Claim Shanty .”

Rockoff, Hugh. “ Great Fortunes of the Gilded Age .” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 14555, December 2008, Page 32.

Long, Clarence, via National Bureau of Economic Research. “ Wages and Earnings in the United States, 1860–1890: Chapter 3, Annual Earnings .” Princeton University Press, 1960, Page 41 (Page 4 of PDF).

PBS. “ American Experience: The Gilded Age .”

CPI Inflation Calculator. “ $347 in 1880 Is Worth $10,399.49 Today .”

CPI Inflation Calculator. “ $445 in 1890 Is Worth $14,948.63 Today .”

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. “ Federal Poverty Guidelines .”

Khan Academy. “ Labor Battles in the Gilded Age .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ Early National Organizations .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ American Federation of Labor .”

Washington State University Libraries, Digital Exhibits. “ Immigrant Factory Workers .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ The Rush of Immigrants .”

Stacy A. Cordery, via Google Books. “ The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America ,” Pages 119–121. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.

Leslie H. Fishel Jr. “ The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America ,” Page 144. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.

Willard B. Gatewood, via Google Books. “ Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite 1880–1920 (p) .” Page 203. University of Arkansas Press, 1990.

Town and Country. “ 10 Gilded Age Landmarks in New York City Still Standing Today .”

History. “ Crédit Mobilier .”

The History Junkie. “ The Gilded Age Facts and History .”

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What was the Gilded Age?

The Gilded Age was a period of flashy materialism and overt political corruption in the United States during the 1870s.

Who were some of the key figures of the Gilded Age?

Among the best known of the entrepreneurs who became known, pejoratively, as robber barons during the Gilded Age were John D. Rockefeller , Andrew Carnegie , Cornelius Vanderbilt , Leland Stanford , and J.P. Morgan .

Who coined the term Gilded Age?

The Gilded Age took its name from the novel The Gilded Age , written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner and published in 1873

Gilded Age , period of gross materialism and blatant political corruption in U.S. history during the 1870s that gave rise to important novels of social and political criticism . The period takes its name from the earliest of these, The Gilded Age (1873), written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner. The novel gives a vivid and accurate description of Washington, D.C. , and is peopled with caricatures of many leading figures of the day, including greedy industrialists and corrupt politicians.

The great burst of industrial activity and corporate growth that characterized the Gilded Age was presided over by a collection of colourful and energetic entrepreneurs who became known alternatively as “captains of industry” and “ robber barons .” They grew rich through the monopolies they created in the steel, petroleum, and transportation industries. Among the best known of them were John D. Rockefeller , Andrew Carnegie , Cornelius Vanderbilt , Leland Stanford , and J.P. Morgan .

Twain’s satire was followed in 1880 by Democracy , a political novel published anonymously by the historian Henry Adams . Adams’s book deals with a dishonest Midwestern senator and suggests that the real source of corruption lies in the unprincipled attitudes of the wild and lawless West . An American Politician, by Francis Marion Crawford (1884), focuses upon the disputed election of Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, but its significance as a political novel is diluted by an overdose of popular romance.

The political novels of the Gilded Age represent the beginnings of a new strain in American literature , the novel as a vehicle of social protest, a trend that grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the works of the muckrakers and culminated in the proletarian novelists.

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Hello, I am taking AP US history and our assignment is to write an argumentative essay focused on the Gilded Age. We’ve been focusing on the reconstruction, railroads, corruption, and big industry. We have to come up with a question and then write an essay about it, using the book Devil in the White City as a source (and a primary source as another). We are allowed to use outside resources, and I was wondering if you guys could help come up with my question. The teacher is super critical and looks for complexity, and also likes the question to be concise. Some help would be much appreciated!

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Gilded Age — United States History: The Gilded Age

United States History: The Gilded Age

• Categories: Gilded Age

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Words: 785 |

Published: Sep 18, 2018

Words: 785 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Works Cited

• Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth. The Macmillan Company, 1888.
• Dubofsky, Melvyn, and Foster Rhea Dulles. Labor in America: A History. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
• Goodwyn, Lawrence. Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America. Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Levenstein, Harvey A. Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet. University of California Press, 2003.
• Levine, Lawrence W. Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America. Harvard University Press, 1990.
• Lloyd, Henry Demarest. Wealth Against Commonwealth. Harper and Bros, 1894.
• Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850. Macmillan, 1904.
• Wiebe, Robert H. The Search for Order, 1877-1920. Hill and Wang, 1967.
• Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. HarperPerennial Modern Classics, 2015.
• Zwick, Jim, and Mark A. Lause. American Workers, Colonial Power: Philippine Seattle and the Transpacific West, 1919-1941. University of Washington Press, 2002.

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