The 19th Century: The Gilded Age

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During the 19th Century, the United States went through a time called “The Gilded Age”. The term was given by writer Mark Twain, which ridiculed an era of serious social problems that were masked by a thin gold gilding. Everything began to change, from technology all the way to the way society worked. Rural American as we knew it, soon became more urban and industrialized. To earn a dollar in the mid-1800s, most American’s still did farm work. By the end of the 1800s, factories began taking over. Even though factories weren’t new to America, technology had advanced greatly. The telephone was invented. Electricity lit homes and powered the factories. Steam tractors, harvesters, and combines increased agriculture production for farmers. Railroads …show more content…
There was no such thing as a trash pickup system (so think of all of the horse manure) on the un-paved streets. Now think of all that horse manure that probably ran into the river where city residents got their drinking water. Contaminated drinking water led to many diseases which causes a lot of deaths. Gang related activities flourished during this time between the rival ethnic groups that flooded the cities. Housing became a serious problem for the cities. People were flooding into American, and it was impossible to build housing to accommodate every one. This issue left many people living in building unequipped for living areas, or worse, homeless. In the midst of a very crowded, dirty, and rather dangerous city life, American’s still hoped for their own personal “American Dream”. There was a hope to make more money to their families. Cities had zoos, theaters, museums, sporting events, and even amusement parks. The Progressive Era was from 1900-1917, and made numerous attempts towards making a better society. The “Progressives” main goal was to fix social, economic, and political problems. They wanted to improve the cities living conditions, as well as expanding the public education system, and put an end to prostitution and child labor once and for all. During the Progressive Era, several workplace improvements were made. Women’s work days were now restricted to shorter hour days. Factory
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