The gilded age was a time of scandal, poverty and a little progress. Almost all of these improvements were done after issues arose, but it was not until someone important noticed them and made everyone aware of them but also when it affected powerful people such as the government or an enormous amount of people. The gilded age was mostly a time of making up for previous mistakes. The spoils system, was a system were the officials usually gave friends and supporters important government jobs, it didn’t matter if the people were qualified or if they weren’t, all that mattered was that they supported the president. By appointing supporters, they were guaranteed them a group of loyal supporters which would help them in future elections. Since …show more content…
There were presidents like Hayes that didn’t think the spoils system was a useful system and starting reforming it, of course many people were upset by this. Hayes began firing people who he thought were not qualified or were not needed and instead replaced them with qualified employees. This created a stronger government and by firing unneeded Republicans, he weakened them. It wasn’t with Hayes that people learned that spoils system wasn’t an efficient system but with Garfield. A man assassinated Garfield in form of revenge. He said Garfield promised him a job in the government if he helped him get elected. When Garfield didn’t give him the job, the man full of anger decided to kill Garfield. Arthur became president and passed the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which stated that jobs would be given to qualified people and stated that employees could only be fired due to political reasons. This was an improvement during the gilded age but again it was only made to prevent future …show more content…
Between the late 1800’s and the 1900’s many immigrants started settling in the U.S hoping to find a better life style, which the U.S offered during this period in time. In the U.S, Jews would have religion freedom and Italians wouldn’t have to pay those heavy taxes they had payed in Italy besides they wouldn’t have poor land to work on. Japanese immigrants would usually produce most of the vegetables and fruits in California, which definitely benefitted them, but at the same time didn’t, they were doing the job of others. Due not only this, immigrants from all over the world would face different types treatment but all would be discriminated in one way or another. Japanese people, while entering the country, would suffer less discrimination than Chinese people since Japan was a powerful country while China wasn’t. That wasn’t the only reason Chinese people suffered more discrimination than Japanese people. Chinese people would usually accept jobs under very low wages, which affected the amount of money an American would receive by doing the same job. Unions were supposed to help workers and to protect them but since they thought that if Chinese people continued to settle and work in America the wages would continue to decrease, they didn’t help Chinese. Chinese wouldn’t be helpful when it came to asking for wage rising due this. Eventually Americans realized that it
After the Civil War, business and corporations have expanded significantly throughout the United States. During this time period, known as the Gilded Age, many aspects of the United States were influenced by these large corporations. The Gilded Age was given that name after Mark Twain referenced it in one of his works. In the post Civil War period, big businesses governed by corrupt acts and held power of both the political system and the economy.
The Gilded Age was known as the Second Industrial Revolution because there was change in the economy, politics, and society. Most of the change was occurring because of the growth of large companies. The in the 1900s up to the 1920s, the companies started to decrease in power but not all since Henry Ford was being successful because of his automobile company that allowed the people to move more, and think differently depending on their sexuality. Even though Ford was successful, the businesses still didn’t run the people anymore, the people started to control the government more.
The Gilded Age and Progressive Era are extremely important in America’s history. There were many good and bad things about these time periods. The Gilded age made everything look wonderful on paper but was horrible in practice hence the Progressive Era which helped to fix problems such as racial inequality, industry, inequality for women, and laissez-faire presidents.
The Gilded Age was the spark of technical innovations and advance in America. Railroads, steel, kerosene, light bulbs, ac/dc electrical lighting, etc., were all innovations that lead to technical advances. Inventors or businessmen helped take the Gilded Age to the peek. Men impacted their time by creating theories, efficient innovations, faster transportation. Each idea was a step into the right direction.
The exact period of time in which the Gilded Age occurred is ever-debatable, but most historians can at least agree that it started within the 20 years after the Civil War ended and lasted until the early 1920s. (West) The Gilded Age itself was characterized by the beginnings of corporations and corrupt political machines. Policies such as the General Incorporation Laws allowed business to grow larger more easily, and with less red tape involved. New technology allowed faster and more efficient production, but this explosive growth of industry called for not only more resources, but new business practices and leaders as well. (Moritz 10-12)
The Gilded age and the Progressive Era are time periods that played an important role in the development of the American society. The Gilded Age is a period of American history between 1870 and 1900. This term was coined by Mark Twain in the late 1800s. By this, he meant that this period was glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath ("Learn About the Gilded Age"). The Gilded Age is well known for its political scandals and extravagant displays of wealth. At the same time, this was an era of major achievements in the industry and economy, which significantly changed life of American people. The Gilded Age was followed by the Progressive Era which lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s. Progressive Era is well known for its economical, political, social reforms and technological inventions. In my opinion, The Gilded Age had a more significant impact upon the United States than the Progressive Era because it gave rise to new industries, created transportation and communication networks which provided the infrastructure for further development of technology in the Progressive Era.
Howard Zinn approach to explaining the gilded age focused more with the financial part. He also gave names and their significance to the era and what they did to make it what is was. I would say Zinn went
Expansive growth was the moniker which expressly defined the Gilded Age. Industry in all sectors, witnessed massive growth leading to the creation of an American economy. Due to the rapidly changing nature of industrialization important men of both the public and private sectors attempted to institute their own controls over it. However this transforming landscape integrated both economic and political changes, but also cultural and social interactions. In turn, those who controlled the flow of business would also steadily impact the American social scene by extension. Alan Trachtenberg, professor of American studies at Yale and author of The Incorporation of America, argues that the system of incorporation unhinged the idea of national identity that all American’s had previously shared. As a result incorporation became the catalyst for the great debate about what it meant to actually be American, and who was capable of labeling themselves as such. Throughout his work Trachtenberg consistently tackles the ideas of cultural identity and how those ideas struggled against one another to be the supreme definition of Americanism. This work not only brings to life the issue of identity but it attempts to synthesize various scholarly works into a cohesive work on the Gilded Age and demonstrates that concepts developed during the incorporation of the time period have formed the basis for the American cultural, economic, and political superstructure. The Incorporation of America sets a high standard for itself one in which it doesn’t necessarily meet; however the work is still expansive and masterful at describing the arguments of the Gilded Age.
The Gilded Age was was an era that saw rapid immigration. This along with an explosion of Americans moving from farms to the cities, causing more people migrating to urban areas than ever before. The growth of cities gave rise to powerful political machines, that stimulated the economy, and gave birth to an American middle class. It was a time of highs and lows.
The Gilded Age took place during the last thirty years of the nineteenth century where unionization of workers would become more frequent. The reasoning behind the name of this era is due to the fact that everything seemed nice on the outside in America but in actuality corruption and inequality could be found underneath the surface. As the economy was changing during the industrial revolution workers began leaving rural areas and flooding to urban areas for the opportunities, such as working for the oil or steel industry. The development of steam engine railroads for transportation and increased development of factory manufacturing techniques, caused more
When the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law in May 1882, it was followed by a rapidly decreasing amount of new immigrants to the United States. Regardless of problems that the United States attempted to solve with the Act, violent massacre and persecution of Chinese people in the United States continued. Because of this, many Chinese immigrants that did stay in America continued on for years to receive prejudice and racism in the labor market and cultural society. This then continued to force many Chinese immigrants further and further down the path of segregation and into the protection of Chinatowns and poverty, counteracting the great American idea of the “melting pot.”
The Gilded age was considered one of the most prosperous eras of American history. Many public spaces, such as universities and libraries, were built. This, however came at the expense of the American population, many of them living in poverty and despair. Due to the economic policies the big businesses followed, the political control these big businesses had, and the harsh response by the people, big businesses were detrimental to the American society as a whole.
In chapter thirty five, author Shelley Sang-Hee Lee explains that “Immigration is an important part of our understanding of U.S. social experience” (Hee 128). Asian immigrants bring their diverse culture, language and custom from various Asian countries. They help improve American economic development. Also, they play an important role in American society. The first Asian immigration flow is the Chinese Immigration in the mid-19th century to work in the gold mines and railroads. The Asian immigrant population grew rapidly between 1890 and 1910 (Hee 130). The increasing of population of Asian immigrants have brought a lot of problems. Many of them were facing the issue of ethnicity, discrimination, and the process of assimilation. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers and proscribed foreign-born Chinese from naturalized citizenship and the Asian Exclusion Act League in 1907 which limited the entry of Asian immigrants have reshaped the demographic of Asian immigrants in the U.S (Hing 45). With the rise of anti-Asian movements, many Asian immigrants were rejected from entering America or deported to their homeland. In the early history of immigration in America, the issue of deportation is an important part of the Asian American experience in the
...k advantage of this. The Gilded Age was not all fun and games, of course, with corrupt political machines and robber barons, but the growing upper and middle classes yearned to break free from their urban confines. America wanted to be amused, and it was more than ready to pay for some entertainment.
Millions of immigrants over the previous centuries have shaped the United States of America into what it is today. America is known as a “melting pot”, a multicultural country that welcomes and is home to an array of every ethnic and cultural background imaginable. We are a place of opportunity, offering homes and jobs and new economic gains to anyone who should want it. However, America was not always such a “come one, come all” kind of country. The large numbers of immigrants that came during the nineteenth century angered many of the American natives and lead to them to blame the lack of jobs and low wages on the immigrants, especially the Asian communities. This resentment lead to the discrimination and legal exclusion of immigrants, with the first and most important law passed being the Chinese Exclusion Act. However, the discrimination the Chinese immigrants so harshly received was not rightly justified or deserved. With all of their contributions and accomplishments in opening up the West, they were not so much harming our country but rather helping it.