Notes on the Gilded Age Study Notes

Gilded Age Study Notes

Note on the transcript date reference: The transcript states that Twain and Warner’s book The Gilded Age was published in 1973, but the actual publication date is 1873. This notes section proceeds with the content as presented in the transcript, while flagging the date discrepancy where relevant.

• Origin and metaphor of the term “Gilded Age”

  • The term gilded age comes from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner and their book The Gilded Age (transcript states 1973; historically 1873).
  • The metaphor: something covered with a thin layer of gold, concealing underlying problems beneath a shiny exterior.
  • Twain and Warner used this to critique late 19th-century life and politics as materialistic and corrupt, a civilized veneer masking deeper social issues.
  • The era features increasing classism: a very small, extremely wealthy elite amid a much larger population of poorer Americans.

• Timeframe and dating of the Gilded Age

  • Historians debate the exact start and end dates; some arbitrariness in choosing boundaries.
  • For the class, the period is commonly placed around 1870 to 1890.
  • Other dates are suggested in different treatments; this is typical in historical periodization.

• The Second Industrial Revolution and the American economy

  • The Gilded Age marks the start and rapid growth of the Second Industrial Revolution in the U.S.
  • It follows the First Industrial Revolution (late eighteenth ext{ to } early ext{ nineteenth centuries}, roughly 1760 to 1800/1810) and represents a renewed, more American-driven industrial surge.
  • Government involvement expands to shape the South’s economy during Reconstruction, with emphasis on industrialization, diversification, and reducing dependence on traditional crops.
  • Tariffs on imports rise to protect American businesses; railroads expand to enable faster movement of people and goods.
  • A shifting labor base: more Americans work for wages rather than owning farms; a new working class emerges as people relocate to cities for wage employment.

• regional industrial focus and urban growth

  • Great Lakes region becomes a hub for manufacturing (iron, steel, machinery, chemicals, packaged goods).
  • Cities like Chicago rise as major rail hubs; western expansion accompanies manufacturing growth.
  • Railroads spur mass production, distribution, and marketing; miles of track triple across key periods (from 1860–1880, then again by 1920).
  • Time zones are standardized around 1883 due to railroad expansion; prior to standardization, there were many local time zones—up to 144 separate ones—creating scheduling hazards and train collisions.

• rise of mass production, branding, and national commerce

  • The era sees the birth of mass production, national brands, and widespread marketing.
  • Early national brands emerge (e.g.,
  • Ivory Soap, Quaker Oats) and national chain stores and mail-order companies (e.g., Sears, Roebuck & Co.).
  • Technology and communication advance: handheld camera, typewriter, telephone, and telegraphs enable rapid, broader communication and information flow.
  • Thomas Edison’s innovations: photograph, light bulb, motion pictures, and the electric grid; the motion picture camera is depicted as large and early in scope.

• industrial organization and the rise of big business

  • Economic volatility leads to the emergence of large, professionalized corporations.
  • With larger scale comes the need for formal bureaucracies and middle-class managerial professionals.
  • New organizational strategies emerge to curb competition while growing profits:
  • Trusts: groups of companies in a sector cooperate under a single director to control prices and wages, reducing competition among member firms; non-member competitors face increasing pressure.
  • Monopolies: a single company comes to dominate all or most of a particular industry by absorbing competitors.
  • Vertical integration vs. horizontal integration (key concepts):
  • Vertical integration: a company controls every stage of production from raw materials to distribution; example: Andrew Carnegie’s steel empire (which becomes U.S. Steel) controlled mining, processing, manufacturing, storage, and distribution.
  • Horizontal integration: a company buys competing firms at the same stage of production to consolidate market share; example: John D. Rockefeller’s control over refineries and other oil-related operations.
  • Rockefeller’s Standard Oil (late 1870s–1880s): by the 1880s, controlled around 90 ext{%} of the American oil industry, illustrating a powerful monopoly.
  • Carnegie and Rockefeller are described with dual labels: captains of industry or robber barons, depending on viewpoint; their ruthlessness and lack of regulatory checks raise concerns about democracy and economic power.

• labor, working conditions, and class structure

  • The period features a sharp wealth gap: the wealthiest 1 ext{%} control vast wealth; vast majority of people are much poorer, with limited protections.
  • The growth of a professional middle class (managers and professionals) accompanies growing wage labor and consumer capacity.
  • Working conditions: long hours (often 10–12 hour days), dangerous workplaces, scarce regulation.
  • Unskilled workers face severe risks and low wages; overall wages trend higher on average, enabling increased consumer power despite rising costs.
  • The wage-earner dynamic contributes to a mass-market economy, with some workers able to become consumers despite poverty at the bottom.

• social theories and moral reform movements

  • Social Darwinism (influenced by Herbert Spencer, not Darwin himself): applies biological evolution concepts like survival of the fittest to society and economy; argues that government should not interfere, and that poverty reflects individual character defects rather than structural exploitation.
  • Proponents of social Darwinism use the idea to justify reduced regulation of business and to resist redistribution.
  • The era also witnesses moral and social reform movements: focus on morality, censorship, and social ills.
  • Temperance movement emerges as a major reform path, culminating in organized efforts to regulate or ban alcohol; in particular, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded in 1874 and remains influential.
  • Other reform strains target gambling, narcotics, obscenity, prostitution, pornography, and censorship in books, theater, and later film.

• labor activism and major strikes

  • The period’s strikes reveal limited organization initially, but lay groundwork for later organized labor power.
  • Great Railroad Strike of 1877 (the “Great Railroad Strike”): a nationwide strike sparked by wage cuts by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for the second time in one year; rail workers nationwide refuse to work.
  • Key events:
    • July 16, 1877: Martinsburg, West Virginia – workers uncouple locomotives, demand reversal of wage cuts.
    • Local police fail to quell the strikes; Governor Henry A. Matthews of West Virginia deploys militia, which struggles due to sympathy for strikers.
    • Federal troops called in; strike expands to Pittsburgh, Cumberland, and elsewhere; by July 21, Philadelphia guardsmen join and a bayonet charge leads to riot with casualties.
    • Riots include attacks on rail lines and infrastructure; by late July, violence subsides but the strike spreads to other regions.
    • Casualties and arrests accumulate; estimates indicate that the strike involved over 100{,}000 people at its peak, halted more than half of the nation’s rail traffic, with around 1000 jailed and around 100 killed overall.
    • Outcome: strikes largely fail to achieve lasting reforms; organizational weaknesses hinder sustained impact; nonetheless, they spur a rethinking of worker coordination and the need for unions.
  • Knights of Labor (founded in the 1880s by Terence V. Powderly): inclusive of skilled and unskilled workers, regardless of gender or race, but historically excluding Asian immigrants; notable for broad inclusion.
  • 1886 major labor actions and events:
  • May 1, 1886: Knights of Labor-led strikes across the country push for an eight-hour workday.
  • May 3, 1886: Chicago’s McCormick Reaper Works—police attempt to break strike; violence erupts.
  • May 4, 1886: Haymarket Square rally in Chicago; an unknown person throws a bomb, killing a police officer; police shoot into the crowd, injuring many.
  • May 5–8, 1886: public backlash against labor movement; widespread raids on labor organizations by employers.
  • May 27, 1886: 31 men indicted in connection with the bombing and riot.
    • They include Albert Parsons, August Spies, Oscar Deed, Lewis Ling, George Engel, Adolf Fisher, Michael Schwab, and Samuel Fielden (names provided in transcript).
    • August 19, 1886: trial concludes; all eight are found guilty; seven sentenced to death and one to 15 years in prison.
    • September/November 1886: appeals lead to the Illinois Supreme Court upholding the verdict and the U.S. Supreme Court denying the appeal.
    • November 10, 1887: Lewis Ling (?) commits suicide in prison; the following day Parsons, Spies, Angle, and Fisher are hanged.
    • Later, in 1893, a pro-labor governor grants clemency or commutations to Fielden, Schwab, and others; some avoid execution.
  • The Haymarket affair becomes a touchstone event for public opinion about labor and the labor movement; it also contributes to a backlash against unions by portraying labor activists as violent radicals.
  • Overall pattern: early spontaneous and disorganized strikes motivate later efforts to organize and standardize labor action; public opinion and government response vary by region and incident.

• political economy and government regulation during the Gilded Age

  • The political landscape: closely contested elections between Democrats and Republicans; Democrats retain the South, Republicans hold the North; increasing voter participation narrows margins in elections.
  • Major economic policy debates center on tariffs, monetary policy, and debt debt management:
  • Republicans generally favor high tariffs to shield industry, reduce federal debt, and oppose greenbacks (paper currency issued during the Civil War).
  • Greenbacks (