Testimonials In The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age is recognized as an era of economic improvement. A period of time where great changes were made. From technology improvements to political corruption, to more job opportunities to unfair wages for immigrant laborers. There was an expansion of cities and new ways of transportation that were developed, for example the big railroad. These advances were meant to help people of all social levels, from business men to farmers. Unfortunately this era was far from being a better place for everyone, unlike wealthy people who had the power and control of the economy of the country. The era where new communities that immigrated to be part of the new America looking for acceptance, but ended segregated from that quality life they wanted. In this paper we will analyze a collection of testimonials of people who lived through that era, the good things that came with it and

Andrew Carnegie was the founder of the largest steel company. Carnegie grew in a poor community but then migrated to Western Pennsylvania just to completely make a change in his life and later on being recognized as one of the wealthiest people in that era. In Carnegie’s testimonial, The Gospel of Wealth, we can observe his way of thinking in regards of the benefits farmers got from the rich people. Carnegie said that “Today the world obtains commodities of excellent quality at prices which even the preceding generation would have deemed incredible…” (Carnegie). He explained that there is no reason for others to criticize the privileges rich people get in comparison to those farmers get being that, farmers and poor people have now better opportunities than they had before, “The poor enjoy what the rich could not before afford.”(Carnegie). Carnegie was a strong believer of America as a united nation, as a country of better opportunities for both the rich and poor