Essay On The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth, especially in the North and West. As American wages were much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants. The end of the civil war sets the stage for a new era in American History. The triumph of northern industrial capitalism over the rural agriculture of the south unleashed a period of economic growth, that would forever alter the way Americans lived and how they saw the world. Former enslaved people would then struggle for a foothold in a society still largely closed to them. Meanwhile the increasing number of immigrants exerted pressure on a nation that both welcomed and excluded the immigrants. American democracy

From the end of Reconstruction in 1877 to the disastrous panic of 1893, the American economy nearly doubled in size. New technologies and new ways of organizing business led a few individuals to the top. The competition was ruthless. Those who could not provide the best product at the cheapest price were simply driven into bankruptcy or were bought up by hungry, successful industrialists.The so-called captains of industry became household names: John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie Steel, and J. Pierpont Morgan, the powerful banker who controlled a great many industries. Their tactics were not always fair, but there were few laws regulating business conduct at that time. The United States had became the largest industrial nation in the world. However the prosperity did not reach everyone. Many manage to get by while many also struggled barely putting food on their family's table. American began to wrestle with this great question of how some struggled while others managed to be successful. Congress, the Presidents, and the Courts looked favorably on this new growth. But leadership was generally lacking on the political level. Corruption spread like a plague through the city, state, and national