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Power Of Big Business During The Gilded Age

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From 1865 to 1900, the Gilded Age was a period of vivid reform and an era of corruption, and unfettered capitalism. During this era, the United States turned from an agrarian society of small producers into an urban society dominated by industrial corporations. Big businesses would monopolize industries and have influence in the US economy as giant corporations dominate banking, manufacturing, railroads and steel, benefiting the rich by giving them the power to make more money and have more clout. As the power of big businesses and the federal government would only benefit the upper-class, laboring class Americans attempted to better their lives by demanding better working hours, wages, using labor unions, and going on strikes. During the Gilded

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