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| | Slavery was no longer an issue from the end of Reconstruction through 1900. With the exception of one politician (Democrat Grover Cleveland, who looked like a Republican because he was from New York, favored the gold standard and opposed unions by sending in troops to put down the Pullman Strike in Chicago in 1894), Republicans controlled the White House. During the Gilded Age, there were business scandals and there were political scandals. But there was also tremendous prosperity. | | Slavery was no longer an issue from the end of Reconstruction through 1900. With the exception of one politician (Democrat Grover Cleveland, who looked like a Republican because he was from New York, favored the gold standard and opposed unions by sending in troops to put down the Pullman Strike in Chicago in 1894), Republicans controlled the White House. During the Gilded Age, there were business scandals and there were political scandals. But there was also tremendous prosperity. |
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| − | == Economics == | + | == Economics |
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| | + | This was the “Gilded Age,” a term coined by the extremely successful writer from Missouri, Mark Twain (his real name was Samuel Clemens). |
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| | + | The era was “gilded” because it appeared golden, but beneath the shiny surface was greed and corruption according to Mark Twain, who wrote a novel by that name in which Washington, D.C. was run by greedy businessmen and corrupt government officials. (Mark Twain wrote several other influential novels, including “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (a journey on a raft on the Mississippi and in life based on experiences)). The Gilded Age featured “robber barons,” who were people who became extremely wealthy through ruthless business practices. The worst “robber baron” was Jay Gould, a financier on Wall Street who committed rampant fraud by printing false stock certificates and even tried to corner the gold market in 1869. That led to a financial panic known as Black Friday, after Gould drove up the price of gold by hoarding it, President Grant learned of the scheme and started selling the government gold reserves on the market to cause the price to fall. The price of gold then fell sharply, and many lost everything they had. Gould, however, had sold out at the highest price! |
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| | + | In fact, this was the golden era of capitalism, when American business was phenomenally successful, huge fortunes were made, and government did not interfere. Businessmen like Andrew Carnegie, who immigrated from Scotland without any money and ended up with massive wealth from founding the Carnegie Steel Co. (later became U.S. Steel Co.), amassing a fortune that he then donated to build structures like Carnegie Hall, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the enormous New York Public Library (plus 2800 other public libraries). He wrote the “Gospel of Wealth” in 1900 to describe his vision of capitalism. |
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| | The Gilded Age was the golden era of the inventions, when freedom, capitalism and almost no government regulations unleashed fantastic inventions in a short period of time. In about ten years the United States produced these inventions: the telephone (1876), the record player (1877), the light bulb (1879), the electric power station (1882), and the motion picture camera (1889). | | The Gilded Age was the golden era of the inventions, when freedom, capitalism and almost no government regulations unleashed fantastic inventions in a short period of time. In about ten years the United States produced these inventions: the telephone (1876), the record player (1877), the light bulb (1879), the electric power station (1882), and the motion picture camera (1889). |