The Gilded Age Essay

Submitted By AshliPadilla

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The Gilded Age
Ashli Padilla
HIS/120CA

The Gilded Age
Following the Civil War, from 1877 to 1893 Americans experienced the Gilded Age. Symbolic of this era of tremendous economic wealth was steel production and railroads.
An article, written by Carl Swenson for “Model Railroader” in July of 2006, exemplifies, both the positive and negative aspects of the relationship formulated between the railroads and livestock shippers (Swenson, 2006). Railroads and livestock shippers have experienced many conflicts dating back to the 1850s. Such conflicts developed after the end of the Civil War and cultivated with the progression of stockyards developing in big cities and meat-processing factories. The struggle slowly began to vanish during the 1960s. Railroads have taken on a significant role in the livestock transporting industry. With the development of refrigerated boxcars in the 1880s, the livestock transporting industry began to grow extraordinarily quick. The development of these boxcars allowed meats to be shipped throughout the United States, without any apprehension that the meat would spoil.
The expansion that America experienced in the 1880’s was attributed to westward migration, however it would be railroads that would bookmark history as the end of the Gilded Age. The first signs of trouble for the railroad was the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. As international trade increased, so did the demand for American steel production. (Stevens, 1894).
The railroad company had financially over extended themselves by incurring expenses that could not be covered by incoming revenue. The Quarterly Journal of Economics published Analysis of the Phenomena of the Panic in the United States in 1893. The article identifies banking habits and rail road speculation as major indicators of “The Panic of 1893”.
Equally important are the social ramifications

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In Twain’s “Gilded Age”, several aspects can be found to have been influenced the author in preparing and eventually publishing (in a narrative mode) his criticisms against the prosperity which myriads of Americans enjoyed in the post- Civil War era in an unequal manner. In this work of Mark Twain one is sure to find that the Gilded Age embodies an age of unequal distribution of wealth and unequal distribution of prosperity. Twain and Warner considered this Gilded Age as an age in which the United…

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The Gilded Age An accurate characterization of these capitalists during the Gilded Age that began in the 1870s would be “robber barons”. Despite the fact that many of these robber barons came from rags to riches, many of them reach the riches through corrupt means, such as vertical consolidation or horizontal consolidation. Once, these robber barons became wealthy they still remained avaricious, they had terrible conditions for labourers and bribed government officials. These robber barons…

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Essay On The Gilded Age

In United States history, the time period from 1865 to 1900 is known as the Gilded Age, better known as the Industrial Revolution. Several industries such as oil, steel, and railroads rose during this time. Not only were new industries responsible for the development and growth of the American economy, but several dominant political figures of the day also had a close relationship with the industrial titans. One of the governing industrial titans was Andrew Carnegie and one of the biggest political…

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The Gilded Age began right after the Civil War. To create this Age the American lifestyle changed drastically. This period in time is singled out from others by its explosive industrial economy that produced a massive amount of wealth. However, it also left many farmers and workers struggling to survive. The expansion of industrialization led to wage growth spread across the increasing labor force. New technologies impacted this age enormously and caused major changes in American lives. Some new…

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Urbanization In The Gilded Age

out-of-reach opportunities at every turn, and, in the end, only the taunting whispers of the land of the free, of “all men are created equal” of democracy and of a world where anyone could rise up in life. These people worked in the shadows of the Gilded Age- in railroads and factories, asking for nothing but sanctuary in America in return for their contributions to our…

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Dependency In The Gilded Age

woman and children were part of and were seen as good “dependency”, and on the other hand, this “charity and relief” were seen as bad. “The old distinction between the deserving and the undeserving poor intensified in the late nineteenth century’s Gilded Age. Theoretically, the undeserving should not be receiving aid, but constant vigilance was required to make sure they did not slip in, disguising themselves as deserving. Dependence on assistance became increasingly stigmatized and it was harder and…

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Women In The Gilded Age

anniversary of Columbus discovering the New World. It is important to note climate of the culture and people of the time. The Civil War had ended in 1865 and Chicago had suffered a huge fire in 1871. The Era of Reconstruction had moved to the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age saw substantial industrial growth, an influx of immigrants and the beginning of class conflict within America. World Fairs and Exhibitions were a way to connect the people of the country and world together and this was the intention of the…

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Analysis: The Gilded Age

This period of time is called the Gilded Age because although from the outside it may look like the country is going well with people making lots of money and black men finally having rights, there is a lot going on underneath that isn’t great. In the first document by Thomas Nast he shows the corruptions of America. At this time a lot of scandals relating to government are breaking news in the papers, so examples of which are Fisk and Goulds gold plan, Credit Mobilier Scandal, and the Whiskey Ring…

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