Essential Question:
• How did the “Second Industrial Revolution” transform the U.S. during the Gilded Age?
• How effective were politicians in meeting the needs of Americans during the Gilded
Age?
• How did problems in gov’t (patronage & coinage), the economy (depression of
1893), & agriculture (Populists) impact the politics of the Gilded Age?

• American Economy is growing at a rate of 4% per year
• In 1865, 4 th largest economy
• By 1900, largest economy in the world
• How?
• Metal ore development, timber, coal, oil
• Growth of Cities
• “Gilded Age”

• 1865 – 1900: mileage increases five times
• 35,000 to 193,000 miles of track
• Huntington, Stanford,
Vanderbilt, Gould
• Creation of Time Zones
• Creation of TRUSTS

• Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
• Invisible hand of market should guide business
• No government regulation
• Rise of Monopolies

nd

• 19th-century inventors led to an “Age of
Invention”:
– Cyrus Field’s telegraph cable
– Business typewriters, cash registers, adding machines
– High-speed textile spindles, auto looms, sewing machines
– George Eastman’s Kodak camera
– Alexander G. Bell’s telephone

• New technologies allowed for increased industrial production
– New machines were incorporated into the first assembly lines which allowed for continuous & faster production of goods
– The railroad linked every region of America & allowed for a mass consumption of goods

The Second Industrial
Revolution was fueled by 3 industries:
railroads, steel, & oil

• But, the railroad industry faced problems due to overbuilding in the 1870s & 1880s:
– Mass competition among RRs
– RR lines offered special rates & rebates (secret discounts) to lure passengers & freight on their lines
– Pooling & consolidation failed to help overspeculation

Revolutions in Technology and Transportation
• The post-Civil War era saw a tremendous boom in business and technology. Inventors like Alexander
Graham Bell and Thomas Edison brought new products to Americans.
– By 1900, Americans had produced over 4,000 cars.
– In 1903, the Wright Brothers pioneered airplane flight.
• Railroads stimulated development, creating a national market.
• Industry grew at a pace previously unimaginable.

• RR bosses asked bank financier J.P. Morgan to save their industry:
– Morgan created a traffic-sharing plan to end
wasteful competition
– “Morganization” fixed costs, cut debt, stabilized rates, issued new stock, & ended rebates
– Created a “board of trustees”
• By 1900, 7 giant (centralized & efficient) rail systems dominated

• Steel transformed world industry:
– Allowed for taller buildings, longer bridges, stronger railroad lines, & heavier machinery
– Andrew Carnegie’s company made more steel than England
– Carnegie converted his steel plants to the
Bessemer process & was able to out-produce his competition & offer lower prices

• Petroleum also changed industry
– New industrial machines needed kerosene for lighting & lubricants
– John D. Rockefeller monopolized the oil industry, lowered oil costs & improved the quality of oil
– By 1879, Standard Oil ruled 90% of all U.S. oil & sold to Asia, Africa, & South America

• During the Gilded Age, American businesses were transformed:
– Massive corporations replaced small, family businesses
– New technology, transportation, marketing, labor relations, & efficient mass-production
– By 1900, the U.S. was the most industrialized country in the world

• Thomas Edison, the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” created the 1 st research lab in New York
– Edison Illuminating Co was the to 1 st use electric light in 1882
– Tesla’s alternating current (AC) allowed electricity to travel over longer distances & to power streetcars & factories

• The second industrial revolution was based on the application of new technology to increase labor productivity and the volume of goods.
• By the early 20th century, the United States produced one-third of the world’s industrial goods.
• Continuous machine production characterized many industries.
• Coal provided the energy for this second industrial revolution.
• Assembly line production, beginning with meatpacking, spread throughout American industry.

• Business leaders tried to gain control over the economy and to enlarge the commercial empire.
• Periodic depressions wiped out weaker competitors and enabled the survivors to grow to unprecedented heights.
• Businesses employed:
– vertical integration to control every step of production
• you buy the cow, the dairy, the milkers, the pasteurizers, the homogenizers, the bottlers, and the delivery trucks.
– horizontal combination to control the market for a single product
• you buy all the delivery trucks

• 1890 – allowed the government to investigate and prosecute trusts
– Trusts – Invented by Standard Oil Company the year before to avoid state-monopoly laws
• Prevent monopolies and unfair market manipulation
• Hampered unionization instead, but did not prevent the continued consolidation of
American business until after 1907

• American business leaders saw their success as an indication of their own personal virtues.
• A “gospel of wealth” seemed to justify ruthless financial maneuvering by men like Jay Gould.
• More acceptable was the model presented by
Andrew Carnegie, a self-made multimillionaire who brought efficiency to the steel industry.
• Captains of industry seemed to fulfill the lessons of
Charles Darwin—survival of the fittest.

• New types of business organization were used to increase profits:
– “Trusts” & “holding companies” integrated various businesses under 1 board of directors
– Vertical & horizontal integration maximized corporate profits
– Frederick Taylor’s “scientific management” emphasized time efficiency & mid-level managers

• Business leaders used a variety of ideas to justify their wealth:
– The “Gospel of Wealth” argued that it is God's will that some men attained great wealth
– Social Darwinism taught that natural competition weeds out the weak & the strong survive
– Were monopolists “captains of industry” or
“robber barons”?

• Industrial work was hard:
– Laborers worked long hours & received low wages but had expensive living costs
– Industrial work was unskilled, dangerous, & monotonous
– Gender, religious, & racial biases led to different pay scales
• These conditions led to a small, but significant union movement

• The Eight Hour League demanded 8 hours for work, 8 hours for leisure, and 8 hours for sleep.
• Crumbled after deaths at the Haymarket Square
“Riot”
• In 1868, Knights of Labor formed to help all type of workers escape the “wage system”
• Lead by Terence V. Powderly

• The most successful union, the American
Federation of Labor (1886) led by Samuel
Gompers:
– Made up only of skilled labor & sought practical objectives (better pay, hours, conditions)
– Included 1 /
3 of all U.S. laborers

• Abandonment of Gold standard
– Labeled the “Crime of ’73” over 20 years later in
1896 Presidential race
• Black Friday (1869) and Flu Epidemic (My
Antonia)
• Jay Cook and Company went bankrupt virtually overnight
• 1876 – 14% unemployment
• Start of Long Depression

• During the Chicago Haymarket Strike (1886), unionists demanded an 8-hr day; led to mob violence & the death of the Knights of Labor
• The Great RR Strike of 1877 shut down railroads from WV to CA & resulted in hundreds of deaths
• The Homestead Strike (1892) resulted from a
20% pay cut at one of Carnegie’s steel plants

• Southerners like Henry Grady envisioned a “New South” that would take advantage of the region’s resources and become a manufacturing center.
• Northern investors bought up much of the South’s manufacturing and natural resources, often eliminating southern competition.
• Southern communities launched cotton mill campaigns to boost the textile industry.
• By the 1920s northern investors held much of the
South’s wealth, including the major textile mills.
• For the most part, southern industry produced raw materials for northern consumption and became the nation’s internal colony.

• Most southern factories were white-only or else rigidly segregated.
– African Americans were allowed low-paying jobs with railroads while African-American women typically worked as domestics.
• With the exception of the Knights of Labor, white workers generally protected their racial position.
• Wages were much lower for southerners than outside of the region, a situation that was worsened by widespread use of child and convict labor.

The Transformation of Piedmont Communities
• The Piedmont (the area from southern Virginia through northern Alabama) developed into a textile-producing center with dozens of small industrial towns.
• As cotton and tobacco prices fell, farmers sent their children into the mills to pay off debts.
• Gradually they moved into these company-dominated mill villages.
• Mill superintendents used teachers and clergy to inculcate the company’s work ethic in the community.
• Mill village residents developed their own cultures, reinforced by a sense of connection to one another.

• Immigration slowed down after 1850s
– No more Irish Potato famine
– Irish, Germans, Scandinavians – “Old Immigrants”
• Only 2.6 million Old Immigrants fled to US cities after 1860
• Pattern of staying in cities (Church and social networks)

• From 1880-1920, 23 million immigrants came looking for jobs:
– These “new” immigrants were from eastern & southern Europe; Catholics & Jews, not Protestant
• Many Jews came to escape the Pogroms in Eastern
Europe
– Kept their language & religion; created ethnic newspapers, schools, & social associations
– Led to a resurgence in Nativism & attempts to limit immigration

• “New Immigrants” came from Central and Southern
Europe and settled in primarily urban areas
• Made the US an urban nation
• From 1870 to 1900, American cities grew 700% due to new job opportunities in factories
• “New Immigrants” were from rural areas: both those of Europe and America
• Immigrants came because of economic opportunities.
• Like “Old Immigrants”, “New Immigrant” groups tended to live near their countrymen and to work in similar trades

“melting pot” (“salad bowl”?) national image

• ½ of NYC’s buildings were tenements which housed the poor working class
– “Dumbbell” tenements were popular but were cramped & plagued by firetraps
– Slums had poor sanitation, polluted water & air, tuberculosis
– Homicide, suicide, & alcoholism rates all increased in U.S. cities
• Several cities experienced devastating fires, allowing architects to transform the urban landscape as part of the City Beautiful movement.
• The extension of transportation allowed residential suburbs to emerge on the periphery of the cities
– In the 20 th century, suburbs are going to be increasingly middle class and white, while inner cities will be lower class and multi-cultural

Jacob Riis’ “How the Other Half Lives” (1890) exposed the poverty of the urban poor

By 1920, for the 1 st time in U.S. history, more than 50% of the American population lived in cities

• By the 1880s, steel allowed cities to build skyscrapers
• The Chicago fire of 1871 allowed for rebuilding with new designs:
– John Root & Louis Sullivan were the “fathers of modern urban architecture”
– New York & other cities used Chicago as their model

• Cities developed distinct zones:
– Central business district with working- & upperclass residents
– Middle-class in the suburbs
• Electric & elevated rapid transit made travel easy

• Despite technological innovations, pollution continued to be an unsolved problem.
• Overcrowding and inadequate sanitation bred a variety of diseases.
• Attempts to clean up city water supplies and eliminate waste often led to:
– polluting rivers
– building sewage treatment plants
– creating garbage dumps on nearby rural lands
• Progressive reformer are going to start tackling these issues in the 1890s

• Urban “political machines” were loose networks of party precinct captains led by a
“boss”
– Tammany Hall was the most famous machine;
Boss Tweed led the corrupt “Tweed Ring”
– Political machines were not all corrupt (“honest graft”); helped the urban poor & built public works like the Brooklyn Bridge

Tweed Courthouse— NY County Courthouse was

• The growth of consumer goods and services led to sweeping changes in American behavior and beliefs.
• The upper classes created a style of “ conspicuous consumption “ in order to display their wealth to the world around them.
– They patronized the arts by funding the galleries and symphonies of their cities.
– They built vast mansions and engaged in new elite sports.
– Mansions and wealthy hotels had great open windows so that people passing by could marvel at the wealth displayed within the building.
– Women adorned themselves with jewels and furs.

• New techniques for marketing and merchandising distributed the growing volume of goods.
– Rural free delivery enabled Sears and Montgomery Ward to thrive and required that these companies set up sophisticated ways of reaching their customers.
– Chain stores developed in other retail areas, frequently specializing in specific consumer goods.
– Department stores captured the urban market.
– Advertising firms helped companies reach customers.

More regional specialization made mass production & mass consumption possible

• Marketing became a “science”:
– Advertising firms boomed
– Department stores like Macy’s & Marshall Field’s allowed customers to browse & buy
– Chain stores like A&P Grocery & Woolworth’s
“Five & Ten”
– Mail-order catalogues, like Montgomery Ward sold to all parts of America

• A new “middle class” developed its own sense of gentility.
– Salaried employees were now part of the middle class.
• Aided by expanding transit systems, they moved into suburbs providing both space and privacy but a long commute to and from work.
• Middle-class women devoted their time to housework.
– New technologies simplified household work.
• The new middle class embraced “culture” and physical exercise for self-improvement and moral uplift.
– Middle-class youth found leisure a special aspect of their childhood.

• Many working-class people felt disenchanted amid the alien and commercial society. To allay the stress, they established close-knit ethnic communities.
– Chinese, Mexicans, and African Americans were prevented from living outside of certain ghettos.
– European ethnic groups chose to live in closely-knit communities.
• Many immigrants came without families and lived in boarding houses.
• For many immigrant families, home became a second workplace where the whole family engaged in productive labor.

• Despite their meager resources, many immigrant families:
– attempted to imitate middle-class customs of dress and consumption
– preserved Old World customs
• Immigrant cultures freely mixed with indigenous cultures to shape the emerging popular cultures of urban America.
• Promoters found that young people were attracted to ragtime and other African-American music.
• Promoters also found that amusement parks could attract a mass audience looking for wholesome fun.

• Urbanization changed society:
– The U.S. saw an increase in self-sufficient female workers
– Most states had compulsory education laws & kindergartens
– 150 new public & private colleges were formed
– Cities set aside land for parks & American workers found time for vaudeville & baseball

• Stimulated by business and civic leaders and the idea of universal free schooling, America’s school system grew rapidly at all levels.
– Only a small minority attended high school or college.
• Supported by federal land grants, state universities and colleges proliferated and developed their modern form, as did the elite liberal arts and professional schools.
– Professional education was an important growth area.
– Women benefited greatly by gaining greater access to colleges.
• Vocational education also experienced substantial expansion.

• African Americans founded their own colleges and vocational schools.
• Howard University, established for African Americans, had its own medical school.
• Educator Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee
Institute to press his call for African Americans to concentrate on vocational training.
– Washington encouraged African Americans to learn practical, moral, and industrial trades.
– Teachers and domestic servants were trained through these new schools.

• In large cities, varied needs led to the creation of park systems.
• The working class and middle class had different ideas on using public spaces.
– Park planners accommodated these needs by providing the middle-class areas with cultural activities and the working class with space for athletic contests.
– Regulations such as no walking on the grass, picnicking, or playing ball without permission were enforced in many parks.

• Frederick Law Olmstead’s design for Central
Park was completed in 1873, though he always considered Prospect Park in Brooklyn his greatest accomplishment

• Middle and working classes found common ground in a growing number of pastimes.
– Ragtime, vaudeville, and especially sports brought the two classes together in shared activities that helped to provide a national identity.
• After the Civil War, baseball emerged as the
“national pastime” as professional teams and league play stimulated fan interest.
– Baseball initially reflected its working-class fans both in style of play and in organization but soon became tied to the business economy.
• By the 1880s, baseball had become segregated, leading to the creation of the Negro Leagues in the
1920s.

• Benefits of rapid industrialization:
– The U.S. became the world’s #1 industrial power
– Per capita wealth doubled
– Improving standard of living
• Human cost of industrialization:
– Exploitation of workers; growing gap between rich
& poor
– Rise of giant monopolies