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Big business in the gilded age dbq
Economic changes during the Gilded Age
Social gilded age
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Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to live in this world and country during the transition from a rural; agriculture society to an economic nation rise of an industrialized society? Well that is exactly what the people of the Gilded Age experienced. It was a time of a dramatic business and political practice. In order for the business’s to rise there soon became a great amount of separation towards the people and the country. This caused our society to experience a stressful time and made it very difficult for ideas and concepts to equal out. Throughout this specific document there are four sources that were written by different individuals. Each and every source has an explanation and an overview of the times in the Gilded Age.
While reading these documents it has shown and expressed to the audience that based off of a person’s position in society it will allow for their opinions and views of our world to be noticeably different. Each of the authors in this document all have somewhat different yet similar views and explanations of the times during 1870-1895. A lot of the views on the business production and the politics are highly differed based off ones role in society. A few of the authors of the sources such as, Andrew Carnegie and Jay Gould were each part of a higher class within the Gilded Age, their views on the business industry was that the government should not get involved with ones actions in the business world. Whereas another author within the source, Henry George, viewed that being poor and living in poverty is an act of other people within a selfish society, and that if we want change one must fix their actions to allow for a secure absolute community filled with equality.
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...l reformer who in 1885 gave a speech known as “An Analysis on the Crime of Poverty.” George explains that it is not a crime to be poor, but poverty is a crime. Meaning, those who are considered to be living in poverty is a victim of crime that either themselves or those around them are responsible for. George also explains how poverty is everywhere. It is something that all nations will be familiar with. It is a time of suffering because of unjust distribution and possession of land. Henry George makes it clear to society that individuals can own something that no man created. He provides a reasoning for those who are in poverty, and explains that man did not create land, therefore you can own it if your heart desires. His resolution on poverty was to put a stop to the unjust distribution of money from the land that man didn’t even create, so it can return equality.
The article “Testimony before a U.S. Senate Committee, 1885” is written by the U.S. Congress as a Report of the Senate Committee in 1885. This testimony takes place during the Gilded Age, an era marked by industrialization, corruption, and American greed. The testifier in this article Thomas O’Donnell, describes what it was like to be a worker during the Gilded Age. O’Donnell is a husband and a father of two children. He tells the senate that he is not very well educated since he had to start working when he was a young boy. During this time child labor was a very common thing. To be able to go to school and participate in the free education system was a luxury that many Americans could not afford. O’Donnell continues to testify how difficult
The era that marked the end of civil war and the beginning of the twentieth century in the united states of America was coupled with enormous economic and industrial developments that attracted diverse views and different arguments on what exactly acquisition of wealth implied on the social classes in the society. It was during this time that the Marxist and those who embraced his ideologies came out strongly to argue their position on what industrial revolution should imply in an economic world like America. In fact, there was a rapid rise in the gross national product of the United States between 1874 and 1883. This actually sparked remarkable consequences on the political, social and economic impacts. In fact, the social rejoinder to industrialization had extensive consequences on the American society. This led to the emergence of social reform movements to discourse on the needs of the industrialized society. Various theories were developed to rationalize the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Various reformers like Andrew Carnegie, Henry George and William Graham Sumner perceived the view on the obligation of the wealthy differently. This paper seeks to address on the different views held by these prominent people during this time of historical transformations.
Cashman, Sean. America in the Gilded Age : from the death of Lincoln to the rise of Theodore Roosevelt. New York : New York University Press, 1984.
The late 19th century and early 20th century, dubbed the Gilded Age by writer Mark Twain, was a time of great growth and change in every aspect of the United States, and even more so for big business. It was this age that gave birth to many of the important modern business practices we take for granted today, and those in charge of business at the time were considered revolutionaries, whether it was for the good of the people or the good of themselves.
5. Perry, Elisabeth Israels, and Karen Manners Smith. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: a student companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.
Wealth is something that all mankind wish to obtain in great amounts. Wealth has been aspired since the Gilded Age and has not yet failed to continue being the number one concept on an individual's minds. Not all, in fact very few reach the ladders of wealth in which one can live in ultimate comfort. Many are left to live in ghastly situations and life styles of living. Is it more beneficial to live in a world of two classes the rich and the poor or in a world where the wealth is spread amongst mankind? A man named Andrew Carnegie, which of whom had great wealth and power, explains his idea of the gospel of wealth as it pertains to the system of competition and survival of the fittest and its advantages and disadvantages towards this country.
The Gilded Age was characterized by rapid industrialization, reconstruction, ruthless pursuit of profit, government, corruption, and vulgarity (Cashman 1). After the Civil War, America was beginning to regroup as a nation. There were many other changes developing in the country. Industrialization was taking over the formerly agricultural country. The nation’s government was also in great conflict (Foner 20). Many changes occurred during the Gilded Age. These changes affected farmers, labor, business, and politics.
However, individuals such as Henry Comstock and Andrew Carnegie believed that individuals who had power should only care for the poor only when the rich felt like it was appropriate to step in and “save” the day. On the other hand, individuals
The progress of industrialization was a big transformation to the society between 1879, 1883 and 1889. Although it was agreed to and passed, this caused big gaps in social inequality. The process to create cheaper products weren’t able to be produced at cheaper prices. Labor men weren’t succeeding or benefiting from this change which they were told change would be good. Overall the people felt that the government wasn’t really helping or protecting them they couldn’t be happy nor have a chance to be anything in life. These three documents provide a perspective from a rich man vs a lower class man and a man just stating his opinion on how he sees the big picture on how society was affected.
The “Gilded Age” is a term used to describe the period in America from 1850 to 1890 as something of a false golden age. During this time period, America was making enormous leaps in the field of industry. Big businesses such as the railroads, oil refining, financing, steel, and meatpacking were driving America’s economy. A major problem with this; however, is that all the money big businesses generated was not dispersed very well. During the “Gilded Age,” income inequality was a large problem for Americans. Everyday people often had less income and less chance for advancement than specialists and professionals; these everyday people would come to be classified as the middle class. The middle class struggled during
Heller, Darryl “The Gilded Age” History of Modern America. University of Illinois at Chicago. 4 October. 2013. Lecture.
When the Civil War ended in April of 1865, so did agriculture being the prominent portion of the economy, the industry began to boom. With industry taking over a major part of the nation’s economy, the emergence of immigrants seeking work began to take place. Immigrants were coming from all over the world, but mostly it was individuals from Eastern Europe. Conditions leading to the Gilded Age Industrialization included: more forms of transportation becoming available, like trains, new cities emerging, developments of mass production, and demand for consumer goods.
Poverty to the majority of people of the Gilded Age was a way of life, working long shifts with little pay. When looking in to poverty from the outside there is a few ways to interpret the “why” people have fallen into the pit of scarcity. William Graham Sumner the author of “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other” makes the argument that lower class people basically are choosing to be poor by not trying their best to succeed and blaming their problems on the wealthy. On the other hand Philip S. Foner the author of “We the Other People” argues that the wealthy has taken the freedom of the poor by making them work for long hours for little to nothing. The underline of both sources is that, there is a type of mutualism between the rich and the
The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie is the most well-known essay of the famous industrialist turned philanthropist in which Carnegie stated what he saw as the problem in which the way wealth was administered in society. Although he did not loathe for a small portion of the population controlling most of the country’s money in reality Carnegie suggested it was needed for a wealth gap to be present while not everybody can have the fanciest things it’s important as it ensures that there is always progress being done to ensure a better quality of life for the lower class as the bar is constantly being raised to prevent a halt in the race of development. “This change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed as highly beneficial. It is well, nay, essential for the progress of the race, that the houses of some should be homes for all that is
The inability for the working class laborers to achieve a means of prosperity can be primary attributed to unusual structure of American Politics in the United States during the Gilded Age. This is seen through the discrepancies associated with the working class, labor unions, local and state politics, and national politics. This struggle was augmented by the mere notion that it was difficult to transcribe local labor interests into a national power. Often we see the competing fronts crash to produce ineffective and meaningful policy. Accounting for the diversified interests amalgamated into a water-down version of politics used to resolve inequality differences.