Gilded Age | Encyclopedia.com (2024)

GILDED AGE. Named after an 1873 social satire by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, the Gilded Age encompasses the years from the 1870s to 1900. Scholars tend to see the legacies of the Civil War and Reconstruction as important contributors to the transformations that took place in the last three decades of the nineteenth century.

Congressional laws helped lay the groundwork for change. Whereas the Homestead Act (1862) opened the West for settlement by individual farmers, other laws, such as the Railroad Enabling Act (1866), the Desert Land Grant Act (1877), and the Stone and Timber Land Act (1878), transferred millions of acres of land and the resources and raw materials below ground into the hands of cattlemen, railroads, and mining and land development companies. Railroad expansion in combination with government land policies and the breaking of Native American resistance on the Plains in the 1870s and 1880s opened up the trans-Mississippi West for settlement and economic usage.

Constitutional change, too, contributed to this process. Between 1875 and 1900 the Supreme Court removed many state laws restricting interstate commerce but also blocked federal attempts at regulation. The Interstate Commerce Commission was created in 1887, but its limited powers were further circumscribed by Court decisions. Legal change helped to create a political environment in which forces of social change could unfold.

Innovations in manufacturing and communication joined by demographic changes led to a fusion of population growth, urbanization, and industrialization. Technological changes, such as the introduction of the Bessemer converter in steelmaking; the telegraph and the telephone, the latter invented in 1875 by Alexander Graham Bell; the discovery of electricity as an energy source by Thomas A. Edison; and developments in transportation and mass transit made possible the concentration of manufacturing consumption in cities. After 1880, the socalled "new immigration" from southern and southeastern Europe along with rural-urban migration within the United States provided workers and consumers for burgeoning urban marketplaces. Mass marketing companies like I. M. Singer, mail-order houses like Sears, Roebuck, and department stores like Wanamaker's catered to American consumer needs. By 1900, participation in national and urban markets was no longer a matter of choice.

Rapidly advancing industrialization led to the emergence of economies of scale. In 1850, the average capital investment in a company amounted to $700,000. In 1900, average investment had risen to $1. 9 million. To remain competitive and to satisfy investors and shareholders, companies needed to increase the return on investments. Manufacturers began to replace craft techniques with routinized and segmented work processes aided by new production technologies. New technologies enabling manufacturers to produce goods and to provide services at an unprecedented scale accelerated the swings in the boom-and-bust cycle of the U. S. economy.

A cycle of global capitalist expansion begun in the 1820s came to a halt in the 1870s and crashed in the 1890s. In 1873, the Credit Mobilier scandal and the collapse of Jay Cooke's Northern Pacific Railroad resulted in a recession from which the country only recovered four years later in 1877. In May 1893, the collapse of the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad and of the National Cordage Company led to a stock market crash and a prolonged recession. Before the year was over, five hundred banks and sixteen thousand businesses had failed. At the height of the depression four million workers lost their jobs.

What had happened? New technologies of mass production and mass distribution had consistently driven down prices. Between 1873 and the late 1890s, commodity prices had dropped by 80 percent. At the same time, "sound money" politics had kept the currency supply tight, putting the squeeze on workers and farmers especially.

Banking and monetary policies contributed to this problem. The National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 introduced order into banking through a federally chartered banking system but also kept the money supply tight. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which enabled the government to buy silver in proportion to gold, was designed to increase the money supply, but it was repealed at the most inappropriate moment, the onset of the depression in 1893. The economic policies of the presidencies from Ulysses S. Grant to William McKinley were grounded in fiscal conservatism, economic individualism, and market liberalism, which neither anticipated such problems nor adequately solved them.

Workers and farmers met such policies with some resistance. Mostly unsuccessfully, workingmen challenged railroads and manufacturers in the Great Strike of 1877, the 1886 railroad strike, the 1892 Homestead Strike, and the 1894 Pullman Strike. Workers organized in the Knights of Labor and after 1889 in the newly founded American Federation of Labor, which advocated a more cautious business unionism. Agrarian resistance gained momentum with the People's, or Populist, Party, founded in 1890. The Populists experienced a meteoric rise in political fortunes at the ballot boxes in several southern and western states. Although the Populists were successful in several state and gubernatorial elections, their attempt to take control of the presidency through a "fusion ticket" with the Democrats failed in 1896, and the party disappeared thereafter.

Economic changes may have helped undermine support for such a third party as they aided in the recovery. In the late 1890s, poor European harvests increased demand for grain and cereals, and new gold discoveries in Alaska, Colorado, South Africa, and Australia created enough inflation to raise prices out of the doldrums.

This era that experienced social and economic change on a massive scale was marked by many contradictions. Along with the beginning of the modern American labor movement and a resurgence of the movement for women's rights, the age saw the implementation of rigid race segregation in the South through so-called Jim Crow laws, sanctioned by the Supreme Court's 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. The Gilded Age also witnessed the emergence of the United States as an imperialist foreign power. Desire for greatness on the seas, partially spawned by Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890), led the United States into war with Spain in 1898 and into a subsequent war in the Philippines from 1899 to 1902. The Gilded Age saw the birth pangs of the United States as a global power, an urban, industrial society, and a modern, liberal corporatist state. Many problems remained unsolved, however, for the Progressive Era and New Deal reform policies to address.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cashman, Sean Dennis. America in the Gilded Age: From the Death of Lincoln to the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. 3d ed. New York: New York University Press, 1993.

Cherny, Robert W. American Politics in the Gilded Age, 1868– 1900. Wheeling, Ill. : Harlan Davidson, 1997.

Faulkner, Harold Underwood. Politics, Reform, and Expansion, 1890–1900. New York: Harper, 1959.

Garraty, John A. The New Commonwealth, 1877–1890. New York: Harper and Row, 1968.

Summers, Mark Wahlgren. The Gilded Age, or, the Hazard of New Functions. Upper Saddle River, N. J. : Prentice Hall, 1997.

Trachtenberg, Alan. The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age. New York: Hill and Wang, 1982.

ThomasWinter

See alsoBusiness Cycles ; Land Policy ; Mass Production ; Populism ; Strikes ; Urbanization .

Gilded Age | Encyclopedia.com (2024)

FAQs

How much of the Gilded Age is historically accurate? ›

So while the plot in “The Gilded Age” Season 1 is fiction, it's heavily based on true events. Some characters are only based on real-life figures — such as Bertha Russell — but others are based on real people.

What was the Gilded Age answer? ›

During this era, America became more prosperous and saw unprecedented growth in industry and technology. But the Gilded Age had a more sinister side: It was a period where greedy, corrupt industrialists, bankers and politicians enjoyed extraordinary wealth and opulence at the expense of the working class.

What was the biggest problem of the Gilded Age? ›

During the Gilded Age, the large problem from which most other problems stemmed was the enormous disparity between the elite privileged class and the rest of society. The Gilded Age ended with the introduction of an income tax and labor laws that made the first steps toward an equalization between economic classes.

Who was the richest man in the Gilded Age? ›

Most sources agree that, adjusting for inflation, John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) was the richest man in the United States.

Is Peggy Scott based on a real person? ›

Julia C. Collins is widely credited with writing the first novel by an African American woman. Collins is one of the influences behind the fictional character Peggy Scott in "The Gilded Age." Collins' novel grappled with themes of racial identity and interracial marriage.

Are the Russells the Vanderbilts? ›

The Gilded Age's Russells are based, in part, on the Vanderbilts, a couple who came to prominence during the real-life Gilded Age. Bertha Russell is based on Alva Vanderbilt, who married into the Vanderbilt family before leaving her partner for his infidelity.

Who were the forgotten presidents of The Gilded Age? ›

Some historians have dubbed Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison the “forgotten presidents.” Indeed, it might be argued that the most notable event that occurred during the Gilded Age was the assassination of President Garfield in 1881.

What was most responsible for causing the depression of 1893? ›

The Panic of 1893 was a depression set off by the failure of two of the largest employers in the country: The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the National Cordage Company. The stock market plummeted as businesses that had borrowed heavily to invest in railroads went bankrupt.

What ended The Gilded Age? ›

A societal shift from agriculture to industry resulted in a movement to the cities for some and westward migration for others. The beginning of organized labor, investigative journalism, and progressive ideologies began to spell the end of the Gilded Age and its rigid class structure.

What was the worst part of the Gilded Age? ›

Political corruption ran amok during the Gilded Age as corporations bribed politicians to ensure government policies favored big businesses over workers.

What was the dark side of the Gilded Age? ›

The few wealthy controlled most of the wealth in the United States during this time. During the Gilded Age, the economic disparities between the workers and big business owners grew exponentially. Workers continued to endure low wages and dangerous working conditions in order to make a living.

What were 3 negatives of the Gilded Age? ›

These were turbulent years that saw labor violence, rising racial tension, militancy among farmers, and discontent among the unemployed.

Who was richer, Rockefeller or Vanderbilt? ›

In 1911, the Supreme Court-dissolved Standard Oil under antitrust laws, with Rockefeller already the first U.S. billionaire, possessing a fortune worth $306.4 billion in 2023 dollars. Cornelius Vanderbilt is one of only two Americans whose fortunes exceeded $200 billion in 2021 dollars.

Who were the most famous families in the Gilded Age? ›

Throughout the Gilded Age, several families amassed vast wealth and influence through their businesses, investments, and political connections. Many of these names are recognizable today – the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Carnegies, Astors, and Morgans, amongst others.

Is Bertha Russell based on a real person? ›

'The Gilded Age's Bertha Russell Has a Similar Journey to Alva Vanderbilt. Though the historical drama is mostly fictional, creator Julian Fellowes confirmed that Bertha Russell is based on Alva Vanderbilt. With that information, similarities can be found in every aspect of their lives.

Is Agnes van Rhijn a real person? ›

Much like Mrs. Astor, the fictional Mrs. van Rhijn has connections to the original Dutch settlers of NY, including the prominent Livingston family.

Is the Russell House in Gilded Age real? ›

The house's address is 1801, 5th Avenue, and it's located on the corner of the 5th Avenue and 61st street in Manhattan, New York. Across the street is The Brook House. The building is fictional, and the exterior is a set. The house is much newer and larger than the surrounding brownstone houses.

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