Gilded Age Dbq

The United States experienced unparalleled growth during the period of time following the Civil War, known as the Gilded Age, with city expansion supported by new and growing industries, railroad expansion, technological inventions, GNP increases, skyscrapers being built, and more. While many view the industrialists of the Gilded Age as Captains of Industry for the way they grew America economically and lifestyles-wise, they were really Robber Barons because of the fraudulent, corrupt actions they took to hurt both their consumers and their laborers. While the Gilded Age industrialists were truly Robber Barons, the way in which they contributed to and improved America's overall lifestyle exhibited that they were also characteristic of Captains

The Gilded Age, a period from approximately 1869 to 1900, was, in many respects a golden age of advancement for America. The economy boomed, wages rose, and incredible new technologies were created. At the forefront of this progress stood industrial leaders. Their investment capitals helped bolster innovation and their companies improved transportation, communication, and nearly every other aspect of life. The government was partially laissez faire but also willing to step in at times, providing land grants and other incentives, spurring growth.

At the end of the 18th century, a new aged had arrived, known as the Gilded Age, it is where the economic, social, and political atmosphere was heavily influenced by industrialization. Before the Gilded Age, United States was still expanding their territories, Southerners were still living in small farms, while England and other European countries were more advanced in industrialization. Then 30 years later, after the Civil War, America was one of the countries in the world to lead in industrial power. The dramatic development, changed everyone’s life, people that used to live in farms moved to the urban cities in search of new opportunities, wave of inventions such as the telephone was made, and industries boomed. Industries affected the economic, social, and political atmosphere, affluent industries was manipulating iron, oil, railroads and even the workers; which increased the gap between the wealthy and the poor.

In the late nineteenth century, the United States witnessed a tremendous growth in wealth and corruption in government, which created great difference between the poor and the rich. Two American authors, “Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, called this era of growth in prosperity and corruption The Gilded Age” (Roark Johnson, 518). During this period of time, the American economy was dominated by railroads, steel, and oil industries which were controlled by influential individuals, rather than the government. Having control over major industries only benefited the wealthy individuals, and worsen the conditions of those in lower classes.

The Gilded Age was an important era in American history, this was the time of economic growth and industrialization, but also had high percentages of poverty and immigrant problems because of urbanization which provided horrible living conditions for many people. This started with labor force and farmers. Historically, farming became increasingly hard due to new expensive equipment, railroads increased farmers’ costs by gouging them, foreign competitor and overproduction made prices go down. Many farmers responded by overproducing, this lead to more debt for farmers because they needed money to buy land and machines. Similarly, the labor force had to abide the same thing.

We begin our year working with the novel "Lord of the Flies" and view it through the eyes of Sigmund Freud 's id, ego and super-ego theories. This unit specifically looks at literary analysis and introduces the thesis essay. Our next units follow the social studies curriculum and are run more like a civics class. We will be starting our antebellum/Cival War unit in January. This unit focuses on research skills and argumentative writing.

“The rich will get richer while the poor will get poorer” incapsulates America from the 1870s to the 1900s. This period was a time for tremendous social change and economic growth for America. Big businesses rose and there were new innovations in science and technology, but it masked the underlaying problems of corruption, depression, working conditions, low wages, etc. This time period was given the name “The Gilded Age” by a writer, Mark Twain, to describe the increasing glamorous lifestyle of the rich while the poor suffered. Even though it was a time of widening the gap between the rich and poor, it was still a great time of progress for many.

The impact, the industrialists had on the Gilded age was a tragedy because it changed by how the Gilded age would work. People would move west and urbanization, would be part of the impact of industrializaton .Kids at a young age would work a jobs at an early age, yet many parents wouldn 't have enough for their childrens needs and they would send their kids to go work at a very early age, and wouldn 't have fullfilling lives in those couple of years they would have as kids . Therefore, lives during the Gilded age would change rapidly and would have changes due to carnegies business and rockefellers too. They both would go aginst eachother , until one of them would be better than the other one .

“The old nations of the earth creep on at a snail’s pace; the Republic thunders past with the rush of the express. The United States, the growth of a single century, has already reached the foremost rank among nations, and is destined soon to out-distance all others in the race. In population, in wealth, in annual savings, and in public credit; in freedom from debt, in agriculture, and in manufactures, America already leads the civilized world.” -Andrew Carnegie. The early 1900s were a time of great prosperity for the United States of America especially in two areas, oil and steel.

Industrialize and the Gilded Age To begin I’d like to start off with a quote from Mark Twain, “What is the chief end of man?–to get rich. In what way?–dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must.” Since I read this in the book The Smart Aleck’s Guide to American History I’ve almost obsessed over it because I see it so fit for not only this era but also for current situations now. After the Civil War had ended American citizens needed something else to focus on, so what did they turn to? Inventing.

There is a difference between being selfish and being greedy. The definition of greed is “Intense desire for something, especially wealth or power”, whereas the definition of selfish is “Lacking consideration for others”. During the Gilded Age, America was characterized as the Land of the Free, which attracted immigrants from all over the world to come live the American Dream. Was it greedy or selfish for these immigrants to come to America and improve their way of living? During the Gilded Age, greed is what motivated industrial innovation and for people to improve their ways of living.

Late 19th century, the United States became the leading industrial nation in the world which transformed the national economy of the nation during the period called Gilded Age. The most influential development of this era were the new inventions of the inventors, who invented new ideas and new products which led to a rise of big business. The inventors mostly controlled the nationwide industries, factories and had much control over the government and people who owned small business. Because of these new inventions the American life was changed and there was a drastic growth in the urban areas, there were significant changes in the transportation, agriculture, communication, and there was a demand in the labor union because of the newly built factories and industries. The life of this era was seemed to be constantly in motion as big businesses were rising and the life of every American got busier and busier because of the newly invented products.

In the early 1800’s the United States economy was relatively small and predominantly agriculturally based. In the nineteenth century, the country had an unstable yet impressively expanding economy due to immigration, industrialization, new technological advances and territorial expansion. After the Civil war came to an end in 1865, the American economy was driven by innovation and invention. At the end of the century, America had one of the largest industrial economies in the world. Not only did the rapid growth of industry propel the country towards self-sufficiency but also gave rise to proliferating development in cities.

The Gilded Age was an era reflecting the combination of outward wealth and dazzle with inner corruption and poverty. This time lacked leadership of a president, which led this to be a period defined completely by negatives. John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and J. Pierpont Morgan were some of the most momentous and dynamic captains of this era in American history. Their tactics in the world of industrialization were not always fair, but in order to crush the competition they allowed very little get in their way. With the booming business of the Standard Oil Company (John D. Rockefeller), the brilliant railroad monopolizer (J. Pierpont Morgan) and one source of his steel success (Andrew Carnegie) the United States was able to continue on their way to a powerhouse of an economy.

The Second Industrial Revolution, known as the Technological Revolution, was described by Mark Twain as the “Gilded Age.” This was a time of rapid industrialization during the last 30 years of the 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century. While it brought changes to the workplace and transportation, the lives of the majority of society were not affected as positively as they had been during the first industrial revolution. It was a time of corruption and crime, hidden behind growth and prosperity.