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
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this was a very common thing to do, democrats and republicans gave jobs as a reward sign towards people who helped them get elected. This system wouldn’t really help people since majority would support one specific ideal, there wouldn’t be debates on laws of whether it was it was actually beneficial for people.
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…
possible president assassinations. This was an improvement that strengthen the government since now only qualified people would receive the jobs and people that were qualified wouldn’t be fired because the president didn’t like them but due to political reasons. If Garfield wasn’t assassinated this improvement probably wouldn’t have happened during the gilded age but centuries after. Immigrants helped the U.S.A develop in many different aspects but also by doing so didn’t help U.S citizens.
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
wasn’t beneficial to have unlimited number of immigrants coming to the country and created the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, which limited immigration. This was a sign of progress since US citizens wouldn’t have to compete with a growing number of people who would accept jobs at very low wages, affecting others. Limiting the number of immigrants meant that there would be more jobs available for U.S citizens and the wages would stop to drop. Due to poverty, many people would be living in the same department, which was only meant for a few people. People then began building tenements, los-cost departments meant to be a home for as many people the owner could fit. Since tenements were low-cost apartments, there was no fire protection, fire was a great danger, and no ventilation. Tenements used to be very close so fire could easily go from one building to another. As a result, Chicago and Boston were damaged by fires and having a loss of $1 billion to $2 billion. Poor ventilation allowed diseases spread quickly and contaminated water would spread diseases such as cholera and typhoid. It was then that New York passes a law requiring the need of a window in every room and dumbbell tenements were created. The gilded age was a time of progress since they were fixing previous mistakes, even though it could take years for them to notice them, they were fixing them or at least trying to fix them.
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.
After the soaring ideals and tremendous sacrifices of the Civil War, the post-War era of the United States was generally one of political disillusionment. Even as the continent expanded and industrialized, political life in the Gilded Age was marked by ineptitude and stalemate as passive, rather than active, presidents merely served as figureheads to be manipulated rather than enduring strongholds. As politicians from both the White House to the courthouse were deeply entangled in corruption and scandal during the Gilded Age, the actual economic and social issues afflicting urbanizing America festered beneath the surface without being seriously addressed.
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 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.
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 life of an immigrant in the United States during the Gilded Age was a rough life. During this time period the U.S. went through a dramatic change in dealing with changing infrastructure and masses of people coming over from different countries for a chance at a better life. This time period was characterized by small wage jobs, poor working conditions and the struggle to survive. The Jungle embodies the themes of the Gilded Age with first hand experiences of an immigrant's hardships of life.
...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.
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.
From the period between the 1870’s through the 1890’s, it became an era known as the Gilded Age. The term was characterized by a famous American Literature author named Mark Twain. The writer tried to point out that the term means that while on the outside society may seem perfect and in order, underneath there is poverty, crime, corruption, and many other issues between American society’s rich and poor. This era’s gild is thicker than the cheaper material it’s covering. This can be shown through the countless numbers of achievements and advances America has made during the period of reconstruction and expansion, industrialization, and foreign affairs.
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
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
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.