When something is considered to be gilded, it means that it is very attractive on the outside but unsatisfactory on the inside. Charles Dudley Warner and Mark Twain are the individuals behind the name Gilded Age. They came up with the term referring to the naming the period after the civil war. During these years, the American economy had grown at an extraordinary rate and an unprecedented level of wealth was generated. Telephone lines and railroads stretched across America, creating opportunities for business people and consumers of cheaper goods (Benton-Short, 2014). However, the society was composed of many poor workers who struggled to survive. By the time this was happening, members of the aristocracy stayed in the palatial homes. Some Americans lamented about the new wealth while other celebrated in it. Men and women who had come to this nation with the hope of being wealthy were only suffering, and their dreams were soon becoming a mere imagination. In addition, despite the fact that American politics were exciting, they were marred by corruption. During this era, urbanization and industrialization altered the American ways of looking after themselves and the society that led to the rise of new art, new forms of entertainment and new values.
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The image above is a representation of how children were exploited during the gilded age. The person behind them is their supervisor in the coal mines as they proceed with their mining tasks. It was a disgrace having the children risking their lives in such poor conditions. However, many of them did not have a choice because they had to help their parents to earn a livelihood. There were no laws regulating child labor, and the employers took advantage of that to employ children for low salaries.
Image from Encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com (2016)
The above image is a representation of the rich people during the era of the gilded age. They are seen enjoying themselves while the poor men, women, and children were working under poor conditions in various sectors.
During the period of the gilded age (1865-1900), the national communication and transportation network had been created. The dominant form of business organization was the corporation. The city governments were dominated by well-organized political parties. Because these political parties used to succeed in getting their members elected to the local offices, they were referred to as political machines and were managed by powerful political bosses. The political machines won their support from the bosses and precinct captains who would offer political favors, services and jobs to the local residents (Benton-Short, 2014). The local residents could vote for the selected candidate after being instructed to do so by the captains and the bosses. The political bosses also financed expanded sewer and water systems that meant that they could provide many jobs to the loyal supporters (Harris, 1996). By providing these services, political favors and the jobs, support from many working- class and poor city dweller would be won by the political machines.
In the presence of the political machines, business was marred by corruption. They could only distribute the city jobs to the loyal supporters even if their ability was not recommendable, the services, and the construction contracts were also only awarded to those who could offer the largest bribe. However, despite the tremendous power of the political parties, they were not able to prove successful due to the fact that they were concerning themselves with immediate successes and power, which made them fail to solve long-term problems of the urban, for example, the working conditions. This therefore clearly indicates that the period named gilded aged deserved the name. The period was marked by a lot of wealth but only less individual benefited from it.
References
Benton-Short, L. (2014). Cities of North America: Contemporary challenges in U.S. and Canadian cities. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield.
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Encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com,. (2016). Retrieved 19 February 2016, from https://encrypted-t bn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTY0eNT3svyCZU0hCe2- rL3mIeD2vzCqoUtUTEuk3n9p4BOxQD2
Harris, D. A. (1996). An election year primer. Lanham: University Press of America
