Gilded Age Research Paper

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Exploring the Gilded Age is like opening a jewelry box of great beauty and variety. Since it lasted about twenty years in the late 1800s, there was much opportunity for change. America was in for an extreme adjustment period, unknowingly going through an evolutionary shift. What is the “Gilded Age,” one may ask? In this essay, I will educate the audience on the importance of this transformation, and how it influenced the American economy, society, and politics. To begin, read the text from Give Me Liberty! An American History by Eric Foner et al., the Gilded Age can be defined as “the popular but derogatory name for the period from the end of the Civil War to the turn of the century, after the title of the 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles …show more content…
Furthermore, the economic shift during the Gilded Age was the most significant. It was considered a “huge boom” of inventions and adjustments. Specifically, the production of factories, mining, and railroad construction was extremely prominent. After being known for farming and agriculture, America transformed into an industrial civilization that focused on transforming businesses and cities. People started working for money and classism was extremely apparent during this time. The major cities were New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Grand Rapids. Each of these cities specialized in different items, whether that be furniture and stoves or machinery and railroads (Foner et al. 596). The. Additionally, railroads were constructed from 1860 to 1920 and created what people called the Second Industrial Revolution. They opened “vast new areas to commercial farming and creat[ed] a truly national market for manufactured goods” (Foner et al. 597). The. This is significant because it allowed for an expansive market to be formed with elements of production, distribution, and marketing of essential goods and …show more content…
599). The. Overall, the economic growth during the Gilded Age was easily the most significant aspect of change at the time and has affected life as we know it today. Moreover, societal change was the second most prominent during the Gilded Age. A big aspect of the social life in the 1800s was fashion. Fashion regularly changes over time, but during the Gilded Age, ready-made clothing became extremely popular and classism was determined by who wore what (Shrock 80). Businessmen in the middle and upper classes wore dark suits and detachable shirt collars, symbolizing their social distinction. The men in the working class, or lower class, wore mismatched trousers and jackets with pops of color. According to the book by Shrock, in 1853, Levi Strauss created durable, sturdy pants for miners, calling them Levi trousers. After these caught on throughout the mining industry, men started wearing them casually, and the name “Levi’s” became extremely popular. Clothing for the women in the upper and middle classes was “the most physically restricted dress for anyone in the Gilded Age” (Shrock
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