I think that throughout this era there was a definite tendency for the government to enforce change to somehow make the nation better. This, however, wasn't always the case as it sometimes led to a great downfall, but with the great risk of changing something that isn't necessarily "broke" came some great advancement in our country. However, it was impossible to address all the issues our country was experiencing so there's bias whether a good era during our country's history really is good or not. At the era in which these events were taking place, our government was conducting a huge "experiment" in which they were trying different techniques to make our society and country a more harmonious place by addressing social and economic issues, to name a few.
[...] The Gilded Age is most famous for the creation of a modern industrial economy in which a national transportation and communication network was created transforming business operations forever. Because of this, per capita income and industrial production in the United States led the world by the beginning of the 20th century. This led to the rise of a couple of super-rich industrialists such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller. Heavy industry like factories, railroads, and coal mining were abundant during the Gilded Age. [...]
[...] This great change may have not been as positive as the government anticipated as many problems arose. For instance, as immigration and population in the cities began grow, poverty grew as well. Another big negative during the Gilded Age was politics was incredibly corrupt as there were many scandalous acts going on such as corrupt state governments, massive fraud in cities controlled by political machines, and political payoffs to secure government contracts to name a few. Despite the problems arising nationally since the Reconstruction era ended, our country still was in a developmental stage in that we still were ever changing. [...]
[...] Many issues were disregarded such as the case in which the AFL didn't support unskilled labor workers while supported those skilled laborers, but for the most part, our government attacked those issues that seemed more relevant to the overall well being of our country. Nobody or nothing is perfect so solving all the issues the country was experiencing during this or any time period in general would have been impossible. Just like today's government, the government back then faced constant criticism and skepticism no matter what path they took in addressing an issue, and there will always be some issue in the world that [...]
[...] Led by Samuel Gompers, he would turn the labor movement away from the socialist views labor leaders had promoted in the past. Despite not addressing unskilled labor workers, the AFL eventually would become a well-respected organization in the United States. However the, fact that non-skilled laborers were not getting any attention in this sense led to many labor conflicts. Several were rather violent leading to many deaths and even more injuries. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) also formed during this time in an attempt to fight for better working conditions in the West's mining industry later gaining many supporters in the process. [...]
[...] Obviously, there was a lot of action taking place during the Reconstruction in order to “reconstruct” American exactly as the name says, and in order to do this, the United States government adopted three key amendments that would certainly spark a change in our country. These steps taken not only changed our country but changed it for the good, and yet, our country still was on its toes to reform when a situation surfaced. Another time of great reform was the Gilded Age. [...]
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