introduction for gilded age essay

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Course: US history   >   Unit 6

Introduction to the gilded age.

• The Gilded Age and the Second Industrial Revolution
• What was the Gilded Age?
• Social Darwinism in the Gilded Age
• Misunderstanding evolution: a biologist's perspective on Social Darwinism
• Misunderstanding evolution: a historian's perspective on Social Darwinism
• America moves to the city
• Development of the middle class
• Politics in the Gilded Age
• Gilded Age politics: patronage
• Laissez-faire policies in the Gilded Age
• The Knights of Labor
• Labor battles in the Gilded Age
• The Populists
• Immigration and migration in the Gilded Age
• Continuity and change in the Gilded Age
• The Gilded Age

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HIS 1110: Introduction to American History - 1865-Present

• Gilded Age (1877 - 1900)
• Types of Sources
• Reconstruction (1863 - 1877)
• Western Expansion
• Progressive Era (1896–1917)
• World War I (1917 - 1918)
• Roaring Twenties (1920 - 1929)
• Great Depression (1931 - 1933)
• Post-War Era (1945 - 1949)

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Gilded Age in Popular Culture

Important events of the gilded age.

• Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act is a notable example of discriminatory immigration policies in U.S. history. It reflects the prevailing anti-immigrant sentiment of the time and...
• Great Railroad Strike of 1877 The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was a widespread labor protest and strike that began on July 14, 1877, in the United States. It marked...
• Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was a severe economic depression that occurred in the United States, beginning in 1893 and lasting until 1897. It was one...
• << Previous: Reconstruction (1863 - 1877)
• Next: Western Expansion >>
• Last Updated: Mar 5, 2024 2:32 PM
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The gilded age : perspectives on the origins of modern America

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• Getting Started: Baseline Assessments
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• Unit 9.1: Global 1 Introduction
• Unit 9.2: The First Civilizations
• Unit 9.3: Classical Civilizations
• Unit 9.4: Political Powers and Achievements
• Unit 9.5: Social and Cultural Growth and Conflict
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• Unit 10.2: Enlightenment, Revolution, and Nationalism
• Unit 10.3: Industrial Revolution
• Unit 10.4: Imperialism
• Unit 10.5: World Wars
• Unit 10.6: Cold War Era
• Unit 10.7: Decolonization and Nationalism
• Unit 10.8: Cultural Traditions and Modernization
• Unit 10.9: Globalization and the Changing Environment
• Unit 10.10: Human Rights Violations
• Unit 11.0: US History Introduction
• Unit 11.1: Colonial Foundations
• Unit 11.2: American Revolution
• Unit 11.3A: Building a Nation
• Unit 11.03B: Sectionalism & the Civil War
• Unit 11.4: Reconstruction

Unit 11.5: Gilded Age and Progressive Era

• Unit 11.6: Rise of American Power
• Unit 11.7: Prosperity and Depression
• Unit 11.8: World War II
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Gilded Age and Progressive Era

The United States was transformed from an agrarian to an increasingly industrial and urbanized society.  Although this transformation created new economic opportunities , it also created societal problems that were addressed by a variety of reform efforts .

Unit 5 - Gilded Age and Progressive Era - Unit Plan

Unit outline, framework aligned unit assessment bank developed in partnership with cuny debating us history see 5 items hide 5 items.

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U.S. History

Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: Stimulus Based Multiple Choice - Unit 5

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Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: Stimulus Bank

Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: 11.5 Civic Literacy Document Based Essay Task

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End of Unit Assessments: Unit 5 Synthesis Task

Students will recall content learned in unit 5 and organize and align content according to the three unit themes (economic systems, reform movements, equality).  Students will then use this content as evidence to answer the unit 5 essential questions.

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Unit Vocabulary See 4 items Hide 4 items

These curricular resources introduce students to the concepts and vocabulary they will encounter in the unit.

Four introductory vocabulary routines to introduce content and concepts.  

Unit Vocabulary: Vocabulary Review Activity - Mad Libs

Students review vocabulary and content using a mad-libs style reading worksheet. 

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Unit Vocabulary: Unit 5 Vocabulary Chart - Teacher

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Building Context See 4 items Hide 4 items

Students will begin to build historical context for studying unit 5 content. 

Building Context: Unit 5 Essential Questions Introduction

Students will use a durable learning routine, images draw you in, to think conceptually about unit themes and essential questions.  

Building Context: Impact of Railroads

Students will compare and contrast three maps to analyze the impact of railroads on the United States after the Civil War.  

Building Context: Gilded Age Graphs

Students will examine graphs detailing various aspects of the Gilded Age to make claims about changes in American population and economy.  

Differentiated version of Gilded Age Graphs Curricular Resource 

Industrialization & the Gilded Age See 10 items Hide 10 items

These curricular resources explore the impact of the post-civil war industrial revolution as well as the birth of the Gilded Age.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Industrialization in the Gilded Age

Students will study how technology, natural resources, and transportation fueled the post-civil war industrial revolution by completing a graphic organizer and responding to a prompt.   

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Causes and Effects of Industrialization (1870 - 1910)

Students will examine the various causes and effects of industrialization between 1870 - 1910 through group work. 

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Labor Movement

Analysis: Students will compare and contrast  the Haymarket Riot, the Homestead Strike, the Pullman Strike, and the Ludlow Massacre.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Media Bias and Labor Unions

Students will compare and contrast newspaper accounts of the Haymarket Riot and Pullman Strike.  

Students will compare and contrast newspaper accounts of the Haymarket Riot and the Pullman Strike. 

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Immigration and Urbanization

Students will examine primary and secondary source documents to analyze the cause and effect relationship between immigration and urbanization in the gilded age.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Immigration: Arriving in America

Students will compare and contrast a primary (photograph) and secondary (poem) source to evaluate immigrant experiences upon arrival in America during the gilded age.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Robber barons or Captains of Industry?

Students will use the evidence gathered from the primary and secondary sources to draft an essay describing the Gilded Age businessman.

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Political Cartoons of the Gilded Age

Students will analyze various political cartoons from the gilded age, learning to use a cartoon analysis protocol that can be applied to any political cartoon or image.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Students will analyze a primary source document, view a video clip, and analyze a second primary source document to learn about causes of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.  

Reform Movements See 9 items Hide 9 items

These curricular resources explore Progressive Era reforms and associated social movements.  

Reform Movements: Progressive Era Reform Movements

Students will analyze social and federal reforms of the Progressive Era, focusing on cause and effect.  Students will complete a graphic organizer, answer reflection questions, and respond to a written task. 

Reform Movements: Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois

Students will analyze a secondary source (poem) and three primary sources (Souls of Black Folks, Talented Tenth, and the Atlanta Compromise).  This will help them understand the responses of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois to the Jim Crow era and Gilded Age.  

Reform Movements: Pure Food and Drugs Act

Students will analyze artifacts from the progressive era to learn about the causes and effects of the Pure Food and Drugs Act as well as the Meat Inspection Act.  

Reform Movements: Populist Party Platform

How did industrialization impact farmers? What reforms did the Populist Party propose?  

Reform Movements: Living Wage

What is a living wage? Why was it a suggested reform during the Gilded Age? Students will analyze a primary source document related to this topic and compare it to modern day living wage debates. 

Reform Movements: 19th Amendment

Students will use evidence from the documents to compare and contrast the National Woman's Party & the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Reform Movements: How the Other Half Lives

Students will analyze the historical context of the gilded age in order to study an important progressive era movement - muckraking journalism.  Students will read excerpts and review images from Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives. 

Reform Movements: DBQ: Women's Suffrage

Students will analyze various documents from the women's rights movement and analyze arguments for and against women's suffrage.

Students will use evidence from the documents to discuss the conditions that led Progressive Reformers to address their goal and the extent to which the goal was achieved.

Unit Synthesis Task See 1 item Hide 1 item

This curricular resource provides students with an opportunity to synthesize what they learned in the unit before completing the End of Unit Assessment.

Gilded Age and Progressive Era Introductory Essay

The decades after the American Civil War witnessed a vast array of social, economic,technological, cultural, and political changes in the American landscape. These changes transformed the United States from a largely local to a national society. This new society was characterized by a more integrated nation with large institutions and a broad, national outlook.

The economy experienced significant growth during the late nineteenth century that built on the beginnings of the industrial revolution that had begun before the Civil War. The rise of the factory system depended on technological change and new power sources that made the mass production of goods possible. The expansion of the railroad created a national distribution network for the goods. The modern business corporation grew as a response to managing the national production and distribution of goods. The practices of big business came under media and regulatory scrutiny as equal opportunity seemed to shrink.The great wealth of several industrialists was also scrutinized by those who feared their influence and were concerned about growing inequality.

American workers were the backbone of this new industrial economy as they worked with machines to secure the raw materials from the earth and used them to create a finished product. Millions of workers saw great changes in the nature of their work in the factory system.They earned higher wages and enjoyed greater standards of living but sometimes at a great cost due to dangerous, unhealthy conditions.Workers organized into labor unions to meet the growing power of big business. The labor unions gave workers a sense of solidarity and a greater bargaining position with employers. Waves of strikes and industrial violence convulsed the country, and led to an uncertain future for organized labor.

American farmers were caught between two competing trends in the new industrial economy. The future seemed bright as new western lands were brought under cultivation and new technology allowed farmers to achieve much greater production. However, banks and railroads offered mixed blessings as they often hurt the farmers’ economic position. Farmers organized into groups to protect their interests and participate in the growing prosperity of the rapidly industrializing American economy. At the same time, difficult times led many to give up on farming and find work in factories.

American cities became larger through out the period as the factory system drew millions of workers from the American country side and tens of millions of immigrants from other countries. The large cities created immense markets that demanded mass-produced goods and agricultural products from American farms.The cities were large, impersonal places for the new comers and were centers of diversity thanks to the mingling of many different cultures. The urban areas lacked basic services and were often run by corrupt bosses, but the period witnessed the growth of more effective urban government that offered basic services to improve life for millions of people.

The tens of millions of immigrants that came to the United States primarily settled in urban areas and worked in the factories. They came for the opportunities afforded by large, industrial economies and provided essential low-skill labor. The “new immigrants” were mostly from southeastern Europe, Asia, and Mexico. They had to adapt to a strange new world, and in turn brought with them new ethnicities, languages,religious practices, foods, and cultures. This tension over assimilation led to debates about American values and the Americanization of immigrants. Some native-born Americans wanted to restrict the number of immigrants coming into the country, while others defended the new comers.

The changes in the economy and society created opportunities and challenges for millions of other Americans. The status and equal rights of women experienced a general,long-term growth. Many women enjoyed new opportunities to become educated and work in society, though these opportunities were still limited when compared with men. The history of women during the late nineteenth century was not monolithic as white, middle-class women often had a very different experience than women who were poor, or from a minority or immigrant background. Because many women entered the workforce, a debate occurred over the kinds and amount of work that women performed, which led to legal protections. The women’s suffrage movement won the biggest success for equal rights in the period with the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote.

African Americans did not participate in the growing opportunities and prosperity that other groups in American society did. The long and bloody Civil War had ended with the freeing of African Americans from slavery. This was followed by further gains of constitutional and legal protections, however, many of these rights would soon evaporate. During the late nineteenth century, African Americans found in equality and racism in the segregation of the South, but they were also victimized by in equality and racism in northern cities in the early twentieth century as they moved there in increasing numbers. Black leaders debated the right path to full equality, civic participation,and economic opportunity in American life.

The changes that affected the American economy and society led to a growth in the federal government. The important issues of the nineteenth century were increasingly contested on the national rather than local levels. Businesses, organized labor, farmers,and interest groups turned to the national government to resolve their disputes. The executive branch saw an expansion of its role and influence as it increased its regulatory power over the many aspects of American life. A widespread reform movement called “progressivism” introduced many reforms that were intended to address the changes in society resulting from the modern industrial economy and society. This increased government’s responsiveness but also dramatically increased the size and powers of the federal government.The national government therefore began to supplant the local and state governments in the minds of many Americans and in the American constitutional system.

The late nineteenth century also us he red in great changes in how the United States interacted with the rest of the world. For the first century of its existence, the United State straded with other countries, acquired territory for continental expansion, and fought in a few major wars. However, the United States was generally neutral in world affairs and focused on its domestic situation. That changed as America entered the world stage as a major global power. This expansion in world affairs led to an internal debate over international powers and responsibilities. Americans also struggled over the character of its foreign affairs. Debates raged over the growth of American military power and whether Americans had a duty to spread democracy around the world.

The changes in the late nineteenth century were bewildering to most Americans who experienced them. Many debates took place to make sense of the changes and to consider howto respond to them. Americans rarely found easy answers and often conflicted with one another on the different solutions. The vast changes that occurred laid the foundation of modern America.The questions and challenges that they faced are still relevant and are debated by Americans today in the twenty-first century. Americans continue to discuss the power and regulation of banks and large corporations. Workers grapple with the globalization of the economy, stagnant wages, and changing technology. Farmers still struggle to make an income amid distant markets determining commodity prices while keeping up with changing consumer tastes about organic and locally-sourced food. Headlines are filled with news of African Americans suffering racism and police brutality. Issues related to the equality of women continue to be debated even as women run for president. Smartphones, social media, the internet, and other technologies change our lives,the culture, and the world economy every day.After more than a century since the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the fundamental challenges of the era still face us today.

Home — Essay Samples — History — Gilded Age — Social Changes in the Gilded Age

Social Changes in The Gilded Age

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Published: Mar 6, 2024

Words: 716 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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Introduction, the rise of consumer culture, the emergence of a new middle class, challenges faced by marginalized communities.

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Literary Gold From the Gilded Age, in Poster Form

For lovers of vintage books and periodicals, “The Art of the Literary Poster” celebrates a vibrant niche in late-19th-century advertising.

By Leah Greenblatt

Trends come and go; one era’s tulip fever is another’s Beanie Baby craze. The vogue for literary posters burned briefly, beginning in 1893 and lasting not much more than a decade. But the body of work it produced often hewed closer to fine art than advertisement, and slyly captured the zeitgeist of the times: a bellwether for the modern man or woman whose fondness for the intellectual enrichment of periodicals like Collier’s and Harper’s Magazine was matched only by an aggressive commitment to physical health and attractiveness. (See Charles Arthur Cox’s rendering of five lithe beauties on a tandem bicycle, leisurely perusing the latest copy of Bearings. Gibson Girls who read!)

Images like these, as Allison Rudnick writes in her introduction to “The Art of the Literary Poster” (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, $50) , “epitomized the vanguard in graphic design.” (Rudnick is an associate curator at the Met, where an exhibit featuring dozens of these artifacts runs through June 11). They also provided a rare platform for gifted female illustrators of the era like Florence Lundborg and Ethel Reed — even if those efforts were often damned with faint, feminizing praise in contrast to the output of their male counterparts.

Success in the field could indeed be arbitrary; an entry by a young Maxfield Parrish in a contest sponsored by a now-defunct monthly called The Century allegedly earned him only second prize because his submission required four colors rather than three to produce. Even in monochrome, though, these works would still dazzle: artifacts of a vanished world in which ads were objects of beauty, and reading — even on two wheels — was indelibly, indubitably chic.

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