Gilded Age A Brief Look at the Progressive Movement and the Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was a period of seemingly unbounded economic expansion in the United States that lasted roughly from the election of Ulysses S. Grant to the elevation of reformer Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency at the turn of the twentieth century. This period coincided with the expansion and emergence of the nation as the conquest of the west was completed and the country took the lead among other nations in industry and trade. The rapid transition from an agricultural and mercantile economy to industrialization presented unprecedented opportunities for speculators and entrepreneurs.

Mark Twin and Charles Dudley Warner were the first to call the years after the Civil War the "gilded age." They were satirizing a society where they perceived rampant greed and wild speculation in the market place fostered corruption in national and local politics. The inference was that these serious problems been veiled with a thin coating of gold.

Rapid economic growth during this time generated vast wealth and new products and technologies improved the quality of life for the middle class. However industrial workers and farmers did not share in this new found prosperity. They worked long hours in dangerous conditions for low pay. As the economy grew unprecedented levels of wealth were generated. Railroads and telephone lines stretched across the country creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs and cheaper goods for customers. These events resulted in a society that became increasingly divided between the haves and the have nots, many poor workers struggled just to survive while an emerging industrial and financial aristocracy lived in ornate homes and...

The governments of the period were dominated by corruption as politicians took bribes and rewarded supporters with posh government jobs. Most Americans wanted political and social reforms, but they disagreed strongly on what kind of reform.
Corruption was rampant, at the national level the Grant presidency was inundated with graft and unethical administrators. Succeeding administrations were less corrupt, but the influence of America's expanding wealth pushed many politicians to accept a governing philosophy based on the supposition that the economic elite should be allowed to pursue its endeavors with minimal government interference. At the local level this was the era of the political machine. Politics were run by powerful organizations that exchanged jobs and contracts for political loyalty. Graft was common, with such bosses as Tammany Hall in New York, Boss Ruef in San Francisco and Tom Dennison in Omaha.

In the meantime industrial workers struggled to survive bleak working conditions, low wages and long hours. These conditions lead to a budding labor movement were workers banded together to try to improve their lot. These efforts led to long strikes that shook the economy and raised the prospect of outright class warfare. Farmers suffered during this period, saturated markets and falling prices for their produce diminished their share of the national wealth.

At the turn of the century a shift in public consciences began to emerge. A growing belief surfaced that earlier confidence that industrial leaders would build a prosperous and equitable society may have been misplaced. While strikes multiplied and grew more violent and farmers bolted from the traditional political parties,…