Compare And Contrast The Transition From The Gilded Age To Progressive Era

Imagine working sixteen hours a day in an unsanitary, dangerous, place for a big business gaining two dollars. This is what laboring-class Americans had to go through during the Gilded age. Politically, the first largest American labor union was formed during the Gilded age and many other organizations formed as well as violent strikes. Socially, different ethnics joined together to share their thoughts and realize the evils of big business and of the federal government. Mentally, most we 're losing their personal life while some were financially stable and glad.

The reason the Gilded Age led to Progressive reform is because the bosses that ran the big corporations got to big headed and loved the money they wanted to be the only ones in business. They made all their competition go away. By them being the only corporation that is selling the things that the people want and jacking the prices up to what they want it to be corrupted the government officials. The Progressive reform started

The late 1800’s and early 1900’s was an era of industrialization and progressive reform. The Progressive era was a time where the people gathered and not only demanded change, but worked for it. There was a great amount of corruption between buisness and politics; and the working conditions for the common man were ghastly and for all intents and purposes inhumane. In the end progressives made huge strides in redefining the meaning of equality and improving the social, political and economic problems in American society.

These fixes came in way of individual and group actions, as the economy changed in America, the progressives were hard at work responding to the change in political system. A book titled “The Jungle” led to President Roosevelt’s creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. It wasn’t enough to have words that described the conditions in which people worked in, so a photographer name Louis Hines, began taking pictures. The photographs that Hines took, led to American being face to face with over two million children under 15 working in mines for wages. Workers began organizing unions to get corporations to raise their wages, ultimately leading to employers opening their eyes to the fact that a great way to mitigate the problems associated with industrialism is to pay their workers more (Mayhew, 1998).

The Progressive Era was a time for the United States society to fix the problems of government, living conditions, and trusts that were brought on by the Gilded Age. President Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson stepped up in hopes to correctly fix the evils of society. There are a variety of different plans that were discussed in order to properly satisfy American’s and work towards limiting problems during the Gilded Age such as child labor and assimilation. These two reformers first addressed these issues through working to eliminate bad trust, strengthen unions, improve poor living and working conditions, and control corruption in government. The Federal Government worked towards fixing the issues of prostitution, alcoholism, and gambling.

The progressives wanted to help relieve all these problems through a philosophy called progressivism. They managed to achieve some of their aims but not all of them. Since the industrial revolution brought many new job opportunities, communities wanted to get to

The Gilded Age lasted from 1870-1900 The Gilded Age, which spanned the final three decades of the nineteenth century, was one of the most dynamic, contentious, and volatile periods in American history. America's industrial economy exploded, generating unprecedented opportunities for individuals to build great fortunes but also leaving many farmers and workers struggling merely for survival. Overall national wealth increased more than fivefold, a staggering increase, but one that was accompanied by what many saw as an equally staggering disparity between the rich and the poor. Industrial giants like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller revolutionized business and ushered in the modern corporate economy, but also, ironically, sometimes destroyed

Politically, economically and socially the Gilded Age was truly a “Gilded Age”. Noteverything added to the “Gilded” effect of the time period. The “robber barons”, two major de-pressions and the labor unions (though not originally a bad thing) did add to the age. The Gilded Age saw the rise of Andrew Carnegie, John

The Progressive Era lasted from the 1890’s to the early 1920’s. It was centralized around socialism and political reform. One of the major changes that took place during this era, was the labor legislation. Many workers were working long shifts, for several days straight, making their work life just about unbearable, and unworkable conditions. The job environment had become to where it was unsafe, unsanitary, and unregulated conditions for very low wages.

The Gilded age was a period in the late 1800s (1865-1900) that showed tremendous increase of wealth caused by the industrial age. The lifestyle of the rich during this period hid the many problems of the time that eventually brought about the progressive era movement. This was a movement for reform between 1900-1920s. Progressives typically held that the irresponsible actions of the rich were corrupting both public and private life. Forces such as immigration, the Populist Party and industrialization that led to the progressive era also impacted the American government both in its activeness and its democracy.

The time period from when the Second Industrial Revolution was beginning, up until President McKinley’s assassination in 1901, is known as the Gilded Age. After the Civil War, many people headed out West to pursue agriculture, and many immigrants moved to urban areas to acquire jobs in industrial factories. It is in this context that farmers and industrial workers had to respond to industrialization. Two significant ways farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age, were creating the Populist Party and the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

During the Gilded Age, there was major changes happening in the US involving the society, politics and economy of nation. The economy grew at an astonishing rate, producing enormous amount of wealth. It was a time where the majority of the population were struggling to get through, causing classification between classes. Life was different between groups such as the rich and the poor. Some of the problems that occurred was child labor, immigration, and minorities.

The Gilded Age was an age of rapid economic growth. Railroads, factories, and mines were slowly popping up across the country, creating a variety of new opportunities for entrepreneurs and laborers alike. These new inventions and opportunities created “...an unprecedented accumulation of wealth” (GML, 601). But the transition of America from a small farming based nation to a powerful industrial one created a huge rift between social classes. Most people were either filthy rich or dirt poor, with workers being the latter.

What was the Gilded Age and why did Mark Twain refer to it as such? To help understand this question, one must know the meaning of the word gild. Per Merriam Webster, the term gild means to “to give an attractive but often deceptive appearance to” (Gild, n.d.). After the Civil War the American people had become tired of all the corruption and simply wanted to see an end to it and to have a stable economy. The Gilded Age was fashioned to be prosperous times for all Americans, promising wealth, and an end to past political corruption.

Progressivism is unquestionably hard to define. Nonetheless, many historians have endeavored to define and sought out how it embarked. Every person will have different perspectives, thus each of the historians will have different outlooks of how they view the findings and what they assume progressivism is. Therefore, this essay will work to exemplify what I think triggered the progressive movement in the United States. Gilded Age caused many problems to outbreak in its era, such as, outlandish fortunes and poverty, incongruous meat production, flux of foreign immigration, ecological demolition, etc.