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The Gilded Age Introduction

Added Jan 20, 2019 •

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Introduction to the Gilded Age

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a vicious cold snap hit New York in the first week of February 1897 but nothing could slow the preparations for the impending Rebel the city's wealthiest citizens were readying themselves for one of the most anticipated balls in the nation's history an extravagant! On what would come to be known as the Gilded Age Gilded Age Americans feel quite certainly that they are the Vanguard of civilization and progress listen to Norma's. Of opportunity and possibility and Hope no group Shelton more comps what about the future that the guests who would gather for the party at the luxurious Waldorf Hotel the evenings total price tag according to newspaper reports was enough to feed nearly a thousand working class please proof pool heater Defenders noted that the ball stood to benefit the entire city critics beg to differ with all the people board one minister who have to lie awake nights contriving to spend their time and their money and all the others who lie awake wondering how they make it food there is danger in the air it was a fractious time in which a sense of desperation amidst growing wealth was emerging increasingly workers against a gift as a member of the society ability to pay my bills to feed my family that I am not a free citizen of a healthy Republic I'm something something else something to the founding fathers the magnitude of the late 19th the transformation of American society is hard to exaggerate it was as if you woke up in one country and you went to bed and another 30 years after the Civil War America had transformed into an economic Powerhouse but the transformation that created start divides in wealth standing and opportunity it's shocking for people to see a country developing before them that is increasingly clearly divided into the Haves and Have Nots it is not cold what's the sense of patina covering something else it's The Shining exterior and the rot underneath by the time New York's Elite gathered at the Waldorf Ballroom the richest for in the country less than 1% of all Americans had scooped up nearly as much treasure as the other 11.6 million families combined we are the rich 1 part we own America we got it God knows how but we intend to keep it if we can there is this fight over what is America's collected self-identity who are we are we two Nations the poor in the wealthy or are we one nation where everybody has a chance to succeed when the station comes out of the Civil War we are still a nation divided by regions there's very little National Market if you need a pair of shoes you don't get it from a factory a hundred miles away you get it from the local shoe maker lifeless much much more local much more what was going on right around you what your neighbors were doing what your friends were doing what your enemies were doing and how you were doing on a day-to-day basis America had been found its political system have been founded for a country of farmers but it was becoming a nation of industrialist becoming a nation of urban workers it was becoming a nation of cities railroads meet the entire country together in a way that hadn't existed before so now Merchants manufacturers industrious can think National you don't have to think simply in terms of your local market if you have a good idea you have a good procedure for producing something you can think of selling your goods all of the country by the early 1880s the nation's largest corporation the Pennsylvania Railroad carry more than 2 million tons of industrial and consumer goods every year Stihl left Mills in Pittsburgh for destinations around the country so too did refined oil from clothes factory made furniture from Cincinnati and Harvesters from Chicago railroads move coal from Wyoming Timber from Oregon silver from Nevada and Colorado and copper from Montana tens of thousands of young men and women from could hop on the train to go where the jobs were the newly industrializing cities former slaves and their children joined the urban migration Bound for new opportunities in Memphis Atlanta Richmond for as far north is Philadelphia and New York the hope is for equality and for first citizenship I need to be apart of what is happening in terms of progress and change we're trying to make the democracy and the country work for them progress is part of the American Credo and has been almost from the beginning of the nation Americans try to themselves on their inventiveness their Ingenuity their entrepreneurial get up and go progresses thought of his inimitable divinely-inspired there's a pastor who talked about these technological innovations as God's tools to make a more perfect Society and so it becomes almost a spiritual idea this industrial spirit what are the most Innovative entrepreneurs of the day was Andrew Carnegie the oldest table full of fine blooded horses and enjoyed taking long ride through Central Park in the spring of 1881 he was a man in the saddle and always having just Consolidated his grow manufacturing Enterprises under a single banner Carnegie Brothers & Company some days Carnegie would ride out of the park and head north on Upper Broadway other days he would ride all the way to the hybrid where traffic loosened and he could open up to a Gallop along the banks of the Harlem River in the few hours he was out riding through New York is blast furnaces 300 miles who last produced more than 60 tons of steel and earned him about as much as the average American made in a year this remarkable and novel fact made 45 year old Andrew Carnegie the emblem of a new kind of American Dream like John D Rockefeller in the oil refining business and Cornelius Vanderbilt and railroads Carnegie was riding a wave oven realization using new technology and mass production to secure a Norma's personal wealth what's important to realize is that these men they have visions Carnegie Rockefeller the railroad baron sale in their managers Carnegie is one of the few American millionaires of this hero or any other who can genuinely a self-made man he really does come from Humble Origins

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The Gilded Age Introduction

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