what happened during the gilded age

The Gilded Age is a term coined by Mark Twain and used by some historians to refer roughly to the period between 1877 and 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Western United States, and the nation was rapidly expanding its economy into new areas, especially heavy industry like factories, railroads, and coal mining. However, the prosperity of America did not reach everyone, and amid the fabulous wealth of the new economic elite was tremendous poverty. The Gilded Age was also an era of intense partisanship and reform. The Civil Service Act sought to curb government corruption by requiring applicants for certain governmental jobs to take a competitive examination, the Interstate Commerce Act sought to end discrimination by railroads against small shippers, and the Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed business monopolies. However, corruption extended to the highest levels of government, and political machines provided more services to the poor than any city government before it, although far more money went into the politicians pockets. The Gilded Age was also a period of greed and guile, of rapacious Robber Barons, unscrupulous speculators, and corporate buccaneers, of shady business practices, scandal-plagued politics, and vulgar display. The Gilded Age marked a key moment in the rise of American racism—a transition from the relatively fluid race relations of the Reconstruction era to the rigid.