The Corruptness of the Gilded Age

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as philanthropy. Adding to all of these terrible problematic happenings, there was also a fair share of scandals which were occurring during the Gilded Age. “Examples of scandals include obtaining government contracts through bribery or collusion, using privileged information to gain a financial or competitive advantage, enforcing government regulation for the purpose of barring new businesses from entering a given market, and relaxing or eliminating government regulation for the purpose granting financial benefits to industries or banks.” ("Scandals Involving the U.S. Government and Big Business”). This age also contained political scandals along with all the rest of the major negative aspects. Most of the political scandals were seen mostly in urban centers. This is where the Industrial Revolution had its greatest impact.

To sum this all up, if you looked at the Gilded Age from the outside and did not look into it too closely, you might agree that what happened during this time period was actually beneficial. Yes, there were a various number of aspects that were good for America’s population. There were technological innovations, as well as a modern industrial economy which meant people could receive goods quickly and for way less money. The steel industry, basically ran by Andrew Carnegie, was booming and millions of immigrants were able to receive work due to this explosive need for steel, especially since railroad industries were also expanding faster than ever before. Every single one of these could be seen as positive, yet every single one of these events merely masked the extreme corruption that was going on behind the curtain per say. Millions of Americans were losing their jobs to big businesses, the living conditions were absolutely horrendous and devastating to families everywhere. Riots and strikes became a norm, races were discriminated against, there was no equality whatsoever.

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People were ruthless and did not care about anyone but themselves. Overall, the Gilded Age was glittering on the surface, but one you dig into what actually happened, you will find that the 19th century was full of foolish mistakes leading it to be one of the most corrupt periods of time in American history.

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Works Cited

"Gilded Age." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History: War. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Student Resources

in Context. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.

"Industrial Expansion and the Gilded Age, 1870–99 (Overview)." Gale Encyclopedia of

U.S. Economic History. Ed. Thomas Riggs. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Farmington Hills, MI:

Gale, 2015. 612-615. Student Resources in Context. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.

"Public Health Campaigns." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Ed. Thomas Riggs.

2nd ed. Vol. 2. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2015. 1070-1072. Student Resources

in Context. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.

"Scandals Involving the U.S. Government and Big Business." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic

History. Ed. Thomas Riggs. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2015. 1169-1172.

Student Resources in Context. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.

"The Emergence of Urban-Industrial America." World War I and the Jazz Age. Woodbridge, CT:

Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. Student Resources in Context. Web. 7

Apr. 2016.