Gilded Age: American Dream or American Disaster

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Gilded Age American Dream or American Disaster
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Completion of the transcontinental railroad, the
meeting of the Union Pacific and the Central
Pacific at Promontory Point, Utah 5/10/1869
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• Jay Gould, railroad magnate, sought profits by
  undercutting competitors and forcing them to buy
  him out rather than producing a superior product.

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Andrew Carnegie lived the American dream. He
started as a penniless immigrant and ended as one
of the richest and most powerful men in America.
He pioneered the system of vertical integration
to help him streamline production and cut costs
compared to competitors.
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Vertical Integration
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Iron ore is mined
It is transported in trucks and in ships on the
Great Lakes
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It is processed into steel at a plant and sold on
the market
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John D. Rockefeller
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J.P. Morgan, financier and founder of U.S. Steel
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This is a Senate of the Monopolists, by the
Monopolists, and for the Monopolists!
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In the hotly contested election of 1880,
Democrats attempted to woo Northern votes by
placing a Union war hero at the head of their
ticket.
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James A. Garfield, who had complained about the
access office-seekers had to the White House, was
shot in the back by Charles Guiteau, a
disappointed office seeker.
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Grover Cleveland became the first Democrat to
retake the white house since James Buchanan
before the Civil War. His campaign was marred by
personal attacks, especially the revelation of an
illegitimate child.
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The 1884 election was bitterly contested by both
parties. Cleveland edged out Blaine by only
29,214 popular votes and narrowly winning the
huge electoral prize of New York by fewer than
1200 votes.
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• The great railroad strike of 1877

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