Gilded Age vs. Progressive Age

Toshiba |

The Role of Government in the Gilded and Progressive Ages |

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3/13/2012 |

Explain the role of government in the ongoing disputes between labor and business during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Age. |

America was founded on basic principles. Our forefathers wanted a land where we could exercise our freedoms. During the Gilded Age, no idea was more influential to commerce than the idea of laissez-faire. The phrase laissez-faire is French and it stands for a hands-off approach by government. Businesses could now operate without the worry of wages, tariffs and regulations. Business owners grew fat and the working man grew thin. The most competitive corporations would take over lesser rivals and dominate their fields. Eventually the rampage of monopolies and labor disputes forced the United States government to get in the way. As a result, the end of the Gilded Age brought forth the beginning of the Progressive Age. New mandates and regulations would shackle the guns of big business and attempt to correct the troubles that had come to pass during the Gilded Age. This new attitude from government would work to combat corruption and monopolies but also protect the rights of workers and immigrants.

The term “gilded age” was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. They observed uncontrolled greed and corruption of politics in which they felt was masked by a thin coating of gold. This age roughly started at the end of the Civil War when America was in the process of reconstruction. The country was in a frenzy to heal itself from the destruction and setbacks of the Civil War. Unbeknownst to Americans, a modern industrial economy was emerging from a nation previously made up of small farmers and craftsmen.

This modern industrial economy based itself upon efficiency, production, and profits. It had everything you could ask for, including corruption. Urban politics were dominated by powerful groups that...