A comprehensive examination of the Gilded Age through the lens of the four factors of production.

1. Why did the Gilded Age Emerge in
America After the Civil War?
DO NOW:
Define the word:
“GILDED”

2. gild·ed
ˈɡildəd/
adjective
1. covered thinly with gold leaf or gold paint.
2. "an elegant gilded birdcage"
○ wealthy and privileged.

3. The Gilded Age
A term coined by Mark Twain Used to describe the glitter of the time period
which hid the corruption of politics and government as well as the growing gap
between the rich and the poor

4. “WHERE THE
BUFFALO NO
LONGER
ROAMED…”
A pile of American bison
skulls in the mid-1870s.
Photo: Wikipedia
“MASS EXTINCTION”

9. Robber Baron
OR
Captain of
Industry?

10. Introduction to Economics
❏ What is “economics”?
❏ What basic problems in society does economics strive to
answer?
❏ What types of economies are there?

11. Economics is the study of how people and societies use limited
resources to satisfy unlimited wants. It is a social science that
studies the production, distribution and consumption of goods
and services. It seeks to resolve the problem of scarcity. The
basic problems that every economy seeks to answer are:
❏ What goods and services should be produced?
❏ How should these goods and services be produced?
❏ Who will consume these goods and services?

13. The Supply-Demand Curve
The law of supply states that the
quantity of a good supplied (i.e.,
the amount owners or producers
offer for sale) rises as the market
price rises, and falls as the price
falls. Conversely,
the law of demand says that the
quantity of a good demanded
falls as the price rises, and vice
versa.

14. Market Equilibrium
A situation in which the
supply of an item is
exactly equal to its
demand. Since there is
neither surplus nor
shortage in the market.

15. Adam Smith

16. Laissez-Faire
Hands Off!!!
❏Government will not interfere with the
economy

18. What types of Economic Systems are there?
1. Traditional Economic System:
❏ Subsistence, Agrarian, Small close-knit societies
2. Command Economic System:(Communism)
❏ Controlled by a centralized power(government)
❏ This type of economy was the core of the communist philosophy.
3. Market Economic System:(Capitalism)
❏ Is also known as capitalism
❏ Free Market capitalism (Laissez Faire)
4. Mixed Economic System:
❏ Is a cross between a market economy and command economy.
https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/types-of-economies/

19. What are the Four Factors of Production?
Labor
3. Capital 4. Entrepreneurship

20. ❏ All factors of Production
and Consumption are
interconnected
❏ The total wealth that an
economy generates: GDP
❏ The circular flow of
expenditures and incomes
that result from decision
makers’ choices and the
way those choices interact
to determine what, how, and
for whom goods and
services are produced.
The Circular Flow Model of Economics:

21. How did the Gilded Age Emerge in America After
the Civil War?
Land?
Labor?
Capital?

22. Land
Government Policies Granting Land:
❏ Land Grant Actof 1850 provided for 3.75 million acres of land to the
states to support railroad projects
❏ Homestead Acts: Federal laws that gave away land for free to
“Homesteaders” a.k.a. “Free-soilers”
❏ Homestead Actof 1862: Open to any settler who never took arms
against the Union
❏ Homestead Actof 1866: Open to any settler including
Freemen(rampant discrimination slowed blackgains.)
❏ Southern Homestead Act of1866: created to address land
ownership inequalities in the south during Reconstruction

23. Homestead Act

25. Federal Land Grants for Railroads

26. Federal Land Grants for Railroads

27. Federal Land Grants for Railroads

28. PRODUCTS
MANUFACTURED

29. 1890 US Census declared the American Frontier closed !

30. Pennsylvania Boys Working in Coal Mine, c. 1895

31. Fueling the Gilded Age: Railroads, Miners, and Disorder in Pennsylvania Coal
Country, by Andrew Arnold, New York University Press, 2014.

32. ➔ Whereare the major
industrial“hubs”?
➔ Whatpredictions can
be made about
populationsshifts?
➔ Whatis the
connection between
thesteel, coal,and
railroadindustries?
➔ Your
Question..

33. STEEL
PRODUCTION:

35. Labor
Industrial North:
❏ Largely skilled white-
immigrant labor base
❏ “New”Europeans
❏ African-Americans (migrant
from South)
❏ Race riots
South: (Agrarian)
❏ African-American[Sharecropping]
❏ Poor white
West:
❏ Whites, African-Americans,
Chinese*NativeAmericans: Interspersed
Poor Majority

38. "The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" was a gift of friendship
from the people of France to the United States and is recognized as a
universal symbol of freedom and democracy. Dedicated on October 28,
1886

39. EmmaLazarus

40. Social Issues During the Gilded Age
❏Unsafe Living Conditions of Immigrants:
❏Tenements
❏Food Safety in the Meatpacking Industry
❏Child Labor & Unsafe Working Conditions
❏Immigration:
❏Nativism: (Rejection of immigrants)

44. AN OYSTERPICKER

48. Anti Immigrant Sentiments & Policies
➢ NATIVISM: A policy of favoringnative-borninhabitants as opposed to
immigrants
➢ XENOPHOBIA:Fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of
anything that is strange or foreign
➢ JINGOISM: The feelings and beliefs of people whothink thattheir
country is alwaysrightand who are in favorof aggressive acts against
other countries
➢ First RED SCARE: a period during the early 20th-century history of the
United States marked by a widespread fear ofCommunism

50. Capital Entrepreneurship
● Bankers
● Investors
● Machines
● Factories
Captains
of
Industry
Robber
Barons

51. ● John D. Rockefeller:Oil
● Commodore CorneliusVanderbilt: Shippingand Railroads
● Andrew Carnegie: Railroads and Steel
● John Pierpont Morgan: Finance

53. MONOPOLIES & TRUSTS

57. Aim: Why did the Gilded Age Emerge
in America After the Civil War?

58. “America’s knowledge of its past is rooted deep in the soil of its popular
culture and nourished, like George Washington’s cherry tree, by
enterprising textbook publishers and movie producers. More importantly,
however, is the belief of most Americans that individualism and the
acquisition of property—the ontological underpinnings of the United
States Constitution—are the sole sources of liberty and the only
vehicles for human progress. Tragically, this myth of America as
wellspring of liberty reflects only the images of those fortunate
enough to be buoyed and carried by the main-stream of its mighty
current, and not by those poor dark souls caught in the undertow of
its economic expedience. The eyes of the more fortunate have been
blinded by the refracted light of America’s presumed glory, a shimmering
light that draws their attention from the faces at the bottom of the well.”
~Kenneth N. Addison

59. “ SELF-DETERMINATION IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHIN THE CAPITALIST SOCIAL
FRAMEWORK, BECAUSE THE ENDLESS PURSUIT OF PROFITS THAT DRIVES
THIS SYSTEM, ONLY EMPOWERS PRIVATE OWNERSHIP AND THE
INDIVIDUAL APPROPRIATION OF WEALTH BY DESIGN. THE END RESULT OF
THIS SYSTEM IS MASSIVE INEQUALITY AND INEQUITY”.
KALI AKUNO AND AJAMU NANGWAYA,
JACKSON RISING:THE STRUGGLE FOR ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY AND BLACK
SELF-DETERMINATION IN JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

60. The Paradox of Technological Advancement
During the Gilded Age, technology was supposed
to liberate us but, instead, it created a
counterculture that resulted in the marginalizing of
working class Americans.

61. Essential Questions Cont’d:
❏ How do people affect change in their society?
❏ Is there one American Experience?
❏ To what extent were the leading industrialists Robber Barons or
Captains of Industry

62. LEARNINGTARGETS
❏ Understand basicprinciples
of economics
❏ Identify key economic factors
thatledto thedevelopment
of the GildedAge
❏ Explaintheeffects of the rise
of bigbusiness on: American
society, government, and
economy.
SUCCESS CRITERIA
● Writea Regents Thematic
Essay discussing thecauses
and effects of the Gilded Age
● Answer an IB-HOTAPaper3
Essay question regarding
boom-bustcycles in America
andtheir impact on
American society.

63. The Gilded Age (1870 - 1920):
The United States was transformed from an agrarian, to an
increasingly industrial and urbanized society. Although this
transformation created new economic opportunities, it also created
societal problems that were addressed by a variety of reform efforts.
Essential Questions:
❏ How did rapid growth in industrialization and urbanization lead to
changes in American society?
❏ To what extent does the American economy shape the American
experience?
❏ To what extent did progressive era social, political, and economic
reforms shape American society?