The Gilded Age

In the years following Reconstruction, America changed from a country of farms into a nation of growing businesses, factories, and cities. Despite these changes, the decades of the Gilded Age earned a reputation of widespread corruption in government and business, as well as the failure of the era's Presidents to resolve the persistent economic, social, and political problems facing the nation.
The rise of industry and business defined the period. New technologies revolutionized business, and the economy became increasingly composed of managers and shareholders. The United States built up a national marketplace connected by railways in which mass marketing and national product lines developed. Business operated largely under laissez-faire, or without government control. …