Captains Of Industry: The Development Of Big Business During The Gilded Age

Arguably one of the most pivotal points in American history, the industrialization of the 19th century brought about a new way of life, and with that came intense competition and crucial outcomes. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller are just a few examples of industrialists that made lasting impacts on society. I believe that these 19th century industrialists did not always play fair, but it was their motivation and intuition behind their choices that credit them as the “Captains of Industry” and helped shape American business. To earn this title, these men had to do whatever it took to stay on top. Being the front runners, they were constantly being targeted and had to fight back to ensure the prosper of their own

The Gilded Age was an era of rapid growth in the Americas, between 1870 and 1900. Early industrialists, like John D. Rockefeller, set out to create monopolies. In 1859, hundreds of people rushed to Pennsylvania to industrialize oil. Although they were ruthless competitors and hard-nosed employers, early industrialists like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie should be remembered most as "captains of industry" because their grit and resourcefulness left an invaluable positive impact on American society. It is true that some industrialists exhibit a few qualities of a robber baron.

During the Gilded Age 1876-1900, the presidents were not successful at passing a lot of legislation. Only five major bills made it through Congress to the president's desk. There was, however, a wide voter participation and interest in the political process; most elections saw about an 80% turnout. Yet the unique dilemmas created by industrialization, urbanization, and immigration were met with inactiveness and misunderstanding. At the national level, public interests tended to dominate the political scene.

With the current electoral college system, there exists winner-take-all states that gives the winning candidate of a political party all of the state’s electoral votes, which results in the election system ignoring voters who have different viewpoints, just like Nurse Ratched ignored the Chronic’s viewpoint. The electoral college system has been around since the time of Kesey, which further implies that the inclusion of Nurse Ratched’s rigged voting system may have been intentional, so that the reader can question whether or not vote rigging occurs in the real

The Gilded Age, named by Mark Twain, lasted from the 1870’s to about 1900. It was a time of rapid economic growth and is also known as the “Progressive Era”. Many industries skyrocketed at this time such as the railroad, coal, steel, oil, meat, sugar, farm machinery, electricity, and petroleum industries. Products were now being mass produced, therefore, the price of living decreased. People developed an appreciation for art, theatre, and many other forms of expression and entertainment.

From the era of Reconstruction to the end of the 19th century, the United States underwent an economic transformation marked by the maturing of the industrial economy, the rapid expansion of big business, the development of large-scale agriculture, and the rise of national labor unions and industrial conflict. America was home to the three key factors of production: land, labor and money, which allowed America to industrialize very quickly. The rapid industrial growth was a curse for America because the idea of Social Darwinism impacted the way big business operators thought; this led to hazardous labor conditions which put workers at risk and the relationship between businesses and government created a corrupt bribing system. Big business owner’s priority was to make a profit, most did not care who they hurt to achieve this goal.

The Gilded Age really means that the U.S. was covered with gold, or otherwise as known as wealth. Many people were really, really rich. They had tons of money with them, but the problem is that people seem to look nice and wealthy to other people, but they are more or less corrupted. One of wealthy people’s corruption is selfishness. If one gets too wealthy, all they would think about is money.

The Gilded Age occurred from 1870 to 1900 and the meaning behind the name was that the country was “gilded,” that on the outside the United States looks good, just like a gilded necklace with a gold coating, but, under the coating

The Gilded Age was a time of chaos and new booming businesses. Many people were gaining wealth as well as losing it. The Gilded Age from above, showed a layer of gold, while underneath, showed chaos and dissatisfactory. Good work does not always come easy. For example, The Great Wall of China took about 20 years, and in those 20 years, more than 1 million people died.

The Gilded Age was a time to be alive. Big business meant more money; more money meant a better economy. Everything was shiny and gold. Everything was just… not how it appeared to be. The Gilded Age was described by author Mark Twain as, “an era of serious social problems masked by a thin ‘gold gilding.’”

During the Gilded Age, Americans focused more on politics and national elections during the post-Civil War. Each election had the potential to disrupt the peace between the North and the South. In the late nineteenth century, there were record numbers of voters for each presidential election. The increase in voter turnout was also due to the result of the machine party politics. Powerful, political “bosses” in each party persuaded the urban residents into voting for a favored candidate.

The Gilded Age started as the reconstruction era in the United States, which meant the rebuilding of a broken nation. This was a time when a white supremacist view was the only right way to see the economic, political and social standpoints in the country. It later was labeled as the Gilded Age because there were so many issues that had to be covered up and could not be fixed. The term gilded means to cover with thin gold leaf, which is pretty much what they tried to do. During this time there was a rapid expansion of industrial growth, railroads began to become of high interest, and the wages in the north started rising.

The Gilded Age lasted from 1870 to World War 1, “1900s.” The Gilded Age was a period of fast economic development, but also much social struggle. Mark Twain in the late nineteenth century founded the “Gilded” Age, which means covered with gold on the outside, but not really golden on the inside, for example, tin. This period of time was glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath. In other words, the outside looked beautiful, but the inside looked old and trashy.

Justin Clement APUS DBQ Big businesses controlled the economy and politics throughout 1870-1900. They were in control of the prices for certain items because they destroyed their smaller competitors until there was no competition left. They had much sway over politics and took away the people’s say. As we can see from Document A, between 1870-1899, the price for food, fuel, lighting and living decreased with the emergence of big businesses.

The life of an industrial worker was very hard. Workers had to work long shifts and get paid very little. Some worked ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, and made less than one dollar per hour. Along with long hours and little pay, there was no regulation for breaks, safety, or age. Due to this, one in eleven workers died on the job.