HIST 10613 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, Sherman Antitrust Act, Bimetallism
1/26 The Industrial Revolution
Friday, January 26, 2018
11:06 AM
"The Gilded Age"
• Wealth is unevenly distributed towards the upper class
• Gilded- covered in gold leaf
Robber Barons- collected interest, mortgages
Big businessmen are making their money off the backs of the common Americans
• Andrew Carnegie- steel
• John D Rockefeller- standard oil
• J.P Morgan- Financier, US steel
• James J Hill- great northern railway
o Conspicuous consumption- robber barons purchased expensive lavish lifestyle items to show
off their money
o Philanthropy- doing charitable things with your wealth
Rise of corporations
o Heinz
o Pillsbury
o Campbell's
o Procter & Gamble
• Advantages:
o Raise capital by selling shares
o Limited liability
o Outlives owners/stockholders
o Separation between ownership & managers
Tech advancements
• Thomas Edison-lightbulb
• Alexander Graham Bell- Telephone
• Nikola Tesla- alternating current (AC)
• Henry Ford- Ford automobile
Disadvantages:
o Extreme boom/bust cycles
o Pollution
o Unskilled/semi skilled jobs: long hours and dangerous conditions
Unions and Labor Unrest
• American Federal of Labor (AFL): still exists today
• Knights of Labor
• Molly Maguires
Advantages of the era
• US leadership in global economy
• Financial and structural growth
• Technological and business innovation
• 50% increase in Americans real wages
• 25% decrease in cost of living
• Total number of industrial jobs increase
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