1. Gilded Age

2. Gilded Age The Gilded Age lasted from around 1870 to around 1900.
It was named for a term from a novel by Mark Twain and Charles Warner.
It was a time of new inventions, industrial growth, and growing cities.
Something “gilded” is covered with gold only on the outside but made of cheap material on the inside
The writers meant that there was corruption, poverty, and crime beneath the Gilded Age’s shiny surface.

3. Individualism New ideas took hold at this time.
One of the strongest beliefs of the time was individualism, the idea that any person could succeed if he or she worked hard enough.

4. New Ideas
Another powerful idea of the time was Herbert Spencer’s Social Darwinism.
Spencer applied Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution to human society.
He claimed that human society evolved through competition and natural selection.
The laissez-faire doctrine opposed government interference in business.
Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth held that the wealthy should engage in philanthropy to help the society that made them rich.

5. Realism The nineteenth century was a time of great cultural change.
Realism in art and literature became popular.
This means artists and writers tried to portray the world more realistically.
Thomas Eakins painted people doing everyday activities such as swimming.
Realistic writers like Mark Twain tried to show the world as it was.
His novel the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn presented realistic characters, dialect, and setting.

6. Entertainment
At this time, industrialization provided people with more money for recreation and entertainment.
Families in the late 1800s enjoyed amusement parks.
Many people enjoyed watching professional sports such as baseball and football.
Some played tennis, gold, and basketball.
Vaudeville and Scott Joplin’s ragtime music also provided entertainment.

7. Spoils System
Under the Spoils System, elected politicians had the power of patronage.
This mean the winning party gave government jobs to those who had supported them.
When Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President in 1877, he appointed reformers to his cabinet.
His actions divided the Republican Party into two camps.
The Stalwarts supported patronage.
The Half-breeds, including Hayes, opposed patronage.

8. Civil Service System
In 1880, Garfield, a Half-breed, won the presidency.
His vice president was a Stalwart.
Garfield was assassinated by an unhappy job seeker.
The assassin thought he could get a job at the White House if a Stalwart were president.
Congress soon passed the Pendleton Act, which set up the civil service system.
People applying for jobs had to pass an exam.

9. Limiting Big Business
In 1884, Democrat Grover Cleveland won the presidency.
He faced many problems in office.
Americans were upset about railroad rates and the power of big business such as Standard Oil.
In 1887, Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce Act, which limited railroad rates.
Debate of tariff reduction was the major issue in the 1888 presidential election.
Republican Benjamin Harrison won.
In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act to curb the power of trusts like standard Oil.
The law was ineffective.

10. Challenging Ideas
The changes brought by industrialization led to debate over how to address society’s problems.
Henry George thought laissez-faire economics was making society worse, not better.
Lester Frank Ward challenged Social Darwinism, too.
He believed government regulations should replace wasteful competition.
His ideas were called Reform Darwinism.

11. Changing Society
A new style of writing called naturalism criticized industrial society.
It’s writers included Jack London and Stephen Crane
Jane Addams led the settlement house movement.
It provided medical care, classes, and recreation programs for the poor.
Increased public education furthered Americanization, in which immigrant children learned about American culture.

12. Populism
Populism was a movement to increase farmers’ political power to pass laws in their interest.
During the Civil War, the government issued greenbacks, paper money not backed by gold or silver.
This caused inflation, a decline in the value of money.
Prices of goods rose.
After the war, the government stopped printing greenbacks, paid off bonds, and stopped minting silver coins.
As the economy grew, deflation occurred. The value of money increased and prices fell.

13. The Grange Deflation hurt farmers.
Many had to borrow money for seeds and supplies.
Falling prices meant farmers sold their crops for less.
Many farmers joined the Grange.
It organized cooperatives that worked for the benefit off their members. The Grange pressured state legislatures to regulate railroad rates.
Cooperatives pooled crops and kept them off the market to force prices up.
Many Grange cooperatives failed because they were too small to affect prices.
Railroads and businessmen also refused to deal with them.
In the 1880’s, the farmers Alliance formed an organized larger cooperatives, which also failed.

14. Political Problems
Farmers’ Alliance members in the West formed the People’s Party, or the Populists.
They nominated candidates for Congress and state offices.
Alliance leaders in the South did not want a third party
They wanted to produce a list of demands and vote for candidates that supported them
Part of their strategy was the sub-treasury plan.

15. Sub-treasury Plan
It asked the government to set up warehouses to store crops and provide farmers with low interest loans.
Southern Alliance leaders also called for free coinage of silver, and railroads, and direct election of senators.
That year, the Populists in the West elected representatives.
Alliance members in the South elected Democrats,
Many Southern Democrats did not support the Alliance program once they took office.

16. Graduated Income Tax
In 1892, the People’s Party held a national convention in Omaha, Nebraska.
Its platform called for coinage of silver and a graduated income tax.
This taxes higher earnings more heavily.
The Democrats and Grover Cleveland won the election.