 The term was first coined by Mark Twain in 1873 as the title of one of his books.  Twain used this term to describe the superficial luster that wealth applied to everyday life during the last years of the 19 th century.  Underneath this golden glow was one of America’s most corrupt eras.

 Industry and urbanization occurred nearly at the same time.  Cities provided both a supply of labor for factories and a large market to sell those manufactured goods  The move from rural to urban was obvious, by % of Americans lived in large cities.

 From , the U.S. population increased from about 23.2 million to 76.2 million, a huge jump in such a short period.  This population growth could be attributed in part to the 16.2 million immigrants that arrived in these years.  The immigrants could be classified in two categories, the new and the old  There are a variety of reasons that the immigrants left Europe and came to America.

0 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 4,000,000 5,000,000 6,000,000 7,000,000 8,000,000 9,000,

 “Pushes” out of Europe  Many farm workers were displaced by mechanization in Europe  Overcrowding and joblessness in urban Europe as a result of a huge population boom  Religious Persecution, such as the Jews in Russia  “Pulls” to settle in America  A reputation for political and religious freedom  Economic promise of settling on the Great Plains  An abundance of jobs created by the industrial revolution.  The introduction of steamships allowed for relatively cheap passage to America

 Old Immigrants  During the 1880’s the majority of immigrants were from western and northern Europe, Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia.  They were usually Protestant, but there were also large numbers of Irish and German Catholics.  They had high occupational skills and usually spoke English.  This allowed for relatively easy assimilation into the American Culture.  New Immigrants  In the 1890’s, a new type of immigrant came to America.  They were Italians, Greeks, Croats, Slovaks, Poles, and Russians.  They were usually from the lower class and illiterate.  They were largely Roman Catholic, Greek and Russian Orthodox, and Jewish.  Once in American, these “new” immigrants crowded into ethnic neighborhoods, creating subcultures in large cities.

 This period was characterized by weak, forgettable presidents.  Presidents were plagued by the spoils system, the Democrats and Republicans demanded party loyalty.  Presidents ignored many of the problems created by the expansion of industry and the urban environment.  The politicians believed in a “do-little” government, which relied heavily on laissez-faire and Social Darwinism.

 Famous Civil War General, he was an excellent commander, but unfortunately a not so good president.  Consistently used Congress as guidance for his decisions, he was seen as bewildered and lost.  People thought of him as an honest man even though he collected bribes from “admirers” and nearly got caught in the middle of a scandal that sought to corner the Gold Market.  Died in 1885 of throat cancer.

 One of the better presidents during the Gilded Age, his election was the most controversial up to that point in American History.  After months of uncertainty, the final electoral vote was  A hard working man, he advocated temperance and honesty  He promised he would only serve one term, so he retired in 1881  Died in 1893

 Another great civil war general, Garfield was the last of the “log cabin” presidents.  James Garfield worked hard against political corruption, and gained back much of the prestige that the president lost during the Reconstruction period.  Was assassinated by a bewildered lawyer named Charles Guiteau in  Guiteau used an early form of the “insanity defense,” but it failed.

 He was vice president to James Garfield, but became president when Garfield was assassinated in  The assassination forced politicians to rework the corrupt spoils system that had plagued the government for years.  Surprisingly, Chester Arthur was the main reformer of the spoils system.  Under his administration the Pendleton Act of 1883 was passed.  Enacted to curb the Spoils system  Also instituted a civil service exam

 He served 2 terms, one before and one after the Harrison administration  Cleveland was the only president from the period that did not serve in the civil war.  Won because the Republican party alienated the Irish-American voters in New York.  He was the first democrat in 28 years to take office.  A very solid supporter of Laissez-Faire, he once vetoed a bill that would have supplied aid to drought ravaged Texas.  Started using the spoils system again  Had many problems with the Grand Army of the Republic, he worked hard to try to stop the thousands of pension- grabbers  Turned to J.P. Morgan to bail the federal government out of a gold crisis.

 Served in the United States Senate, where he championed Indians. homesteaders, and Civil War veterans in the 1880’s.  Under his administration, the first peacetime Billion dollar budget was enacted.  The first president to try to slow down the trusts with the Sherman Antitrust act  The huge budget was created because of a huge surplus that was created through high tariffs.  However, the surplus was not bottomless and when the surplus disappeared so did much of the prosperity brought by it.

 Under the Harrison administration, Congress passed it’s first billion dollar budget  The billion dollar surplus was created by high protective tariffs during Cleveland’s first term.  The budget included a Civil War Pension plan, a bill to protect African Americans(which was defeated by the Senate anyways), the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the McKinley Tariff, which created a monstrous protective tariff.

 McKinley nearly always stayed with the majority opinion, his conservative and shy nature held him away from any major reform.  The tariff question that had plagued the country was finally settled with a huge 46.5% rate per person.  During the first part of McKinley’s term, prosperity began finally recovered, through the use of ultra high protective tariffs.  During his administration, Gold was firmly established as the basis for the treasury.

 By 1900, America was the leading industrial power in the world  It’s manufactured goods output was greater than its greatest competitors Britain, France, and Germany.  The nation’s first big business was the railroads, in the 35 years after the Civil War, the amount of track increased from 35,000 to 193,000.  The first transcontinental railroad was completed in  The Industrial Revolution laid the groundwork for many of the urban and industrial problems that plagued the Gilded Age.

 The huge boom in Industry created a new class of people, the millionaires.  These arrogant “new rich” were pushing over the long established patrician families in an insane scramble for power and prestige.  These included legendary men such as Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller; all of which could be considered the Bill Gates of their time.  The production was concentrated in steel, petroleum, electric power, and the industrial machinery to produce mass produced manufactured goods.

 Portrayed as lordly tycoons that took advantage of the lower classes to increase their own worldly wealth.  The Robber Barons controlled the large trusts that normally engulfed the smaller and weaker competitors, until a monopoly was formed  John D. Rockefeller exeplified this new class, as he mercilessly crushed smaller corporations and took advantage of railroads to advance his corporation.  The Sherman Antitrust act was created to try to curb the actions of the Robber Barons.

 Andrew Carnegie was the Sultan of Steel during his time.  He exemplified the American Dream, he was brought to America with out a penny in 1848 and worked from the very bottom to the top.  When he first came to America he was paid a measly $1.20 a week, but by 1900 he made over $25,000,000 a year.  By 1900 he was producing over 25% of the nations steel.  He sold his share of his steel company to J.P. Morgan for $400,000,000 in 1900

 The most influential banker of his day, J.P. Morgan was known as the “Banker’s Banker”  Successfully bailed the Federal Government out of a crisis by loaning millions of dollars in gold to the U.S. Treasury  He bought Carnegie’s share of American Steel and transformed it into America’s first billion dollar company.

 The organizer of Standard Oil, Rockefeller capitalized on the new and profitable oil business.  By 1877, Rockefeller controlled 95% of all the oil refineries in the country.  Rockefeller employed Social Darwinism in his business ethics, he did everything and anything he could to try to advance Standard Oil.  He was known to employ spies and extorting secret rebates from railroads to try to hinder his competitors  On the other hand, Rockefeller did supply a very superior product at cheap prices

 Much of the laissez-faire capitalism relied on survival of the fittest, it was largely accepted that “The millionaires are a product of natural selection.”  The fact that many of the millionaires clawed their way to the top gave them the attitude that if they could do it, then only a lazy man would remain poor.  Even clergy jumped in on this, saying things such as “Godliness is in the league with riches,” and “There is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own short comings.”  Such attitudes were strong road blocks against social reform

 The end of the Gilded Age truly came with the beginning of the Progressive Era in 1901  Began when the middle class became alarmed about the social unrest, excess of wealth, corruption in the government, and an obvious decline in morality.  Instead of believing in a Gospel of Wealth and social Darwinism, the Progressives believed that mankind can be improved and new programs such as Welfare.  The Progressives were also strong trustbusters, dismantling the behemoths that controlled industries.