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Summary CIE A Level History Notes: The Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 1870s to 1920
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Part of the: American option: The history of the USA, 1820–1941
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Source paper – Gilded age and Progressive Era (1870’s-1920’s) Gilded age:
o A phrase coined by Mark Twain
o Scratch the surface and it’s not as perfect as it seems
Progressive era:
o Awareness that industrialization, poverty + capitalism means more government
intervention in people’s lives
Unprecedented level of change
o Technology makes this all possible
o Industrial revolution – most momentous event in modern history – changed the
dynamic of everything
Overall: Society coming to terms with this era
Can see this era in 3 ways:
1. The level of change
2. Many people not benefiting
3. Changing nature of the government’s role in the last quarter of the 19 th century
, 1. The level of change
Sheer level of industrialization – Railroads, technological advancement
Lots of Money being made
Railroads
A Technological development and driving force of this change:
o It spurred the industrialization of the post-Civil War years.
o Played a leading role in the great city- ward movement of the last decades of
the century.
Goods could now get from west to east – i.e., transcontinental railroad
o Rail opened up fresh markets for manufactured goods and sped raw materials
to factories.
Railroads owned by private companies – making a fortune (**)
The railroad was the maker of millionaires
o “Lords of the rail” replaced the other southern “lords of the lash”
o Colossal wealth was amassed by stock speculators and railroad wreckers
By 1900: up to over 192,000 miles of the railroad – most west of the Mississippi.
The Union Pacific Railroad:
o Commissioned by Congress in 1862 - Omaha, Nebraska
o The promoters made lots - gain of $23 M (**)
Central Pacific Railroad:
o California – Sacramento to and through the Sierra Nevada.
o The Big Four / The Associates: (**)
1. The famous and influential businessmen, philanthropists and
railroad tycoons who built the Central Pacific Railroad
2. Composed of Leland Stanford, (1824– 1893), Collis Potter
Huntington, (1821–1900), Mark Hopkins (1813–1878), and
Charles Crocker, (1822–1888).
o Bosses made money – those building did not
1. Built by ten thousand Chinese laborers as they were cheap,
efficient, and expendable.
The New York Central
o The success of the western lines was facilitated by welding together and
expanding the older eastern networks.
o Led by Cornelius Vanderbilt (very wealthy) – STEEL
o Vanderbilt replaced the old iron tracks of the New York Central with steel –
popularized it
o Steel was safer and more economical because it could bear a heavier load.
Scandal:
o The Credit Mobilier (1867-72) - the first of the games that the railroad
promoters learned to play.
o Methods soon became more refined; Jay Gould was the most adept at
rapacity. For nearly thirty years, he boomed and busted the stocks of the Erie,
the Kansas Pacific, the Union Pacific, and the Taxes and Pacific in an incredible
circus
o Railroad stock promoters grossly inflated their claims about a given line’s
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