Gilded Age

In United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mark Twain's 1873 novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. It was a time of rapid economic and capital growth, especially in the North and West. As American wages grew much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, and industry demanded an increasingly skilled labor force, the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants. The rapid expansion of industrialization led to real wage growth of 40% from 1860 to 1890, spreading across the expanding labor force. The Gilded Age was also an era of visible poverty. Though some earned more, the purchasing power advantage for many workers was somewhat smaller than raw wage comparisons suggest, especially accounting for comparatively high rents. Immigrants typically settled in industrial centers, and many planned to return to Europe with their earnings. Spending was therefore kept to a minimum, leading many to crowd into unsanitary tenements. Americans had sewing machines, phonographs, skyscrapers, and even electric lights, yet many labored in the shadow of poverty especially in the South. Economic inequality grew as the concentration of wealth became more visible and contentious, with urban slums developing and growing during this era. Railroads were the major growth industry, with the factory system, oil, mining, and finance increasing in importance. Immigration from Europe and the Eastern United States, combined with hundreds of millions of acres of land given to settlers by the federal government for free through the Homestead Acts, led to the rapid growth of the West based on farming, ranching, and mining. Labor unions became increasingly important in the rapidly growing and industrializing cities. Two short nationwide depressions—the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893—briefly interrupted growth and caused violent labor strife. The South remained economically devastated after the American Civil War. The South's economy became increasingly tied to commodities like food and building materials, cotton for thread and fabrics, and tobacco production, all of which suffered from low prices. With the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the rise of Jim Crow laws, African American people in the South were stripped of political power and voting rights and were left severely economically disadvantaged. Nationally, African Americans endured the period as the nadir of American race relations. The political landscape was notable in that despite rampant corruption, election turnout was comparatively high among all classes (though the extent of the franchise was generally limited to men), and national elections featured two similarly sized parties. The dominant issues were cultural (especially regarding prohibition, education, and ethnic or racial groups) and economic (tariffs and money supply). Urban politics were tied to rapidly growing industrial cities, which increasingly fell under control of political machines. In business, powerful nationwide trusts formed in many major industries, stifling competition in the market and some even effectively creating monopolies. The consequential amassing of a huge portion of the nation's wealth by a few "robber barons" resulted in their correspondingly enormous influence in politics, government, economy and society in general. Unions crusaded for the eight-hour working day, workplace health and safety laws, and the abolition of child labor; middle-class reformers demanded civil service reform, food and drug purity and public health, prohibition of liquor and beer, and women's suffrage. Local governments across the North and West built public schools chiefly at the elementary level; public high schools started to emerge. The numerous religious denominations were growing in membership and wealth, with Catholicism becoming the largest. They all expanded their missionary activity to the world arena. Catholics, Lutherans, and Episcopalians set up religious schools, and the largest of those schools set up numerous colleges, hospitals, and charities. Many of the problems faced by society, especially the poor, gave rise to attempted reforms in the subsequent Progressive Era.