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Big business in the gilded age dbq
Economic changes during the 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. Firstly, one man who w... ... middle of paper ... ...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.
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.
Tocqueville’s analysis for the potential of an industrial aristocracy to grow in a democracy is useful in analyzing America prior to and during the Gilded Age. This time period in American history exhibits the growth of an industrial aristocracy that Tocqueville prophetically warned readers possibly happening in democracies. To fully understand how the growth of such an elite can develop, it’s necessary to first look at Tocqueville’s arguments on how the opportunity of political freedom can give a democracy two tendencies: that of the despot or the sovereign. Also, the Tocquevillian perspective of the economic animal in a democracy helps reinforce the inevitable notion of American’s transition from an agrarian society to an industrial empire. However, what came with the preference for the efficiency of industry over the equality of republican values was a select few reaping the benefits of the rest. The aristocratic class that grew in America during Gilded Age occurred for many reasons. The American-will, coupled with technological advancement and a large European immigrant labor supply, had changed the structure of labor. This division of labor made
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 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.
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 was a tough time for me and other families to have a life and prosper in. Long hours and low wages were common as owners could find low-cost workers. Without unions, I and the rest of the workers were exposed to extended hours during a time where paying someone overtime did not occur. With limited opportunities workers like me and families had jobs that we struggled with and no hope of getting far in life. During the Gilded Age, there were two social classes, the wealthy and the poor and, unfortunately I was in the poor social class. The Gilded Age had a meaning behind it and I had an idea of what it meant, “Gilded means covered with a layer of gold, but it also suggests that the glittering surface covers a core of little real value and is therefore deceptive” (Foner, 609). We laborers did what we had to do to make our city look good but inside we were miserable and struggling just so we can have something to eat and survive to live another day. Today is another day of hours of labored work, struggling, depressed and nothing to look forward to. Times were getting worse for me and my family. I am just an eight year old American girl struggling to make a living. I never imagined that at such a young age I would have to work so hard to make a living. My family and I were living in a crowded home, no space for us to even breathe. I had to do what I was told and obey orders from the wealthier people which were our owners. They were in control of me and I had no choice but to do as I was told. I had come to realize that the wealthier had more supplies, benefits, and better living conditions. The people, who were poor like me, had no supplies, no benefits or good living conditions. My life consist...
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
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 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
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
Heller, Darryl “The Gilded Age” History of Modern America. University of Illinois at Chicago. 4 October. 2013. Lecture.
After the Civil War and the Reconstruction era, rapid industrialization occured in the United States. This rapid industrialization, often referred to as the Gilded Age, was due to the discovery of extensive amounts of natural resources (coal, iron ore, copper, lead, timber, oil), a growing population of American families and immigrants, an abundant labor supply, an advanced transportation network, and the development of new technology, which all had a huge effect on American society. The Gilded Age led to the rise of industrial capitalism, and was characterized by corruption. Between 1865 and 1898, rapid industrialization shaped the political, social, and economic development of the US to a great extent. It profoundly impacted and reshaped
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 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.