There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold …
THE GILDED AGE OF AMERICAN HISTORY chapter 8 sections 1 & 2

When is the GILDED AGE ?
• End of the Civil War until end of century
– 1865-1900 GILDED AGE
– 1900-1917
– 1917-1918*
– 1920s
– 1930s
– 1941-1945*
– 1945-1989
Progressive Era
WWI
Roaring ’20s
Great Depression
WWII
Cold War

What is the GILDED AGE ?
• Time of growth in America
– 2 nd Industrial Revolution
– Cumulative wealth increases
• Visible only on the surface
• Beneath the surface
– Unstable economic infrastructure
– Immigration issues
• Poverty & crime
– Corruption

GILDED Economics
• Unhindered capitalism
– Social Darwinism
– Laissez-faire
• Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations
• Free marketplace
• Government involvement
– Subsidies for key industries
– Corruption
• Credit Mobilier scandal

Credit Mobilier Scandal
• Government loans given to Union
Pacific for TCRR
– Union Pac hires out Credit Mobilier company
• CM overcharges Union Pac, then bribes key congressmen to keep funds coming
– Not investigated until 1872

GILDED Politics
• Spoils system
– Rutherford B. Hayes bucks the trend
– James A. Garfield gets shot
– Pendleton Civil Service Act
• Other reform
– Railroad rebates
– I nterstate
C ommerce
C ommission

Economic Depression, 1893
• Part of business cycle
• Laissez-faire policies
• Coxey’s Army

chapter 8, section 2

Where did America’s workers come from during this time of unusual industrial growth?
• Former farmers moving to the cities to escape the poor working conditions in rural America, and…
• IMMIGRANTS!

Why did they come?
• PUSH
– Crop failures
– Land shortages
– Unemployment
– Rising taxes
– Political persecution
– Religious persecution
• 1890s pogroms against
Russian Jews
• PULL
– Free land
• Homestead Act
– Personal freedoms
– Educational opps
– Not forced to serve long years in Army
– Participation in democratic gov’t

Who was coming to America?
• 1865-1890
– 10 million from central & NW Europe
• 3 million from Germany
• 3 million from British Isles
– Looked white, mostly Protestant, blended well

Who was coming to America?
• 1890-1920
– 10 million from southern & eastern Europe
• 4 million Italians
• 3 million Jews (mostly Russia)
• Greeks, Slavs, Armenians
– Darker skin, different religions, did not blend in as well

Their Journey
• 1-3 weeks across Atlantic
– Steerage
• 70% came thru NYC
• Physical exams upon entrance
• Find families
– Ghettos
• Westward migration

Non-Europeans
• Chinese
– Mid-1800s recruitment to railroads
– Separate communities
– Lowered wages, conflict
– Chinese Exclusion Act
• 1882, 1892, 1902, permanent until 1943
• Japanese
• Mexican

Non-Europeans
• Chinese
• Japanese
– Later than Chinese
– 1894 treaty granting free entry
– 200,000 by 1920
• Mexican

Non-Europeans
• Chinese
• Japanese
• Mexican
– Early 20 th century
– New irrigation in SW, labor needed
– 1910 Mexican Revolution
– Immigration Restriction Act of 1921
• Did not apply to North Americans