Politics, economics, and culture are all intractably linked, and few periods in American history demonstrate this better than the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age demonstrated how drastically the United States had changed since the days of the Early Republic. What began as an agricultural republic was now seeing an influx into cities ill-equipped for this population shift. Beforehand, most Americans were Protestant Christians and had been in the country for at least a generation or two. Now, immigrants from far-flung Eastern and Southern Europe arrived with customs and religions that struck many as strange.

When Republicans articulated their vision for America in the years preceding the Civil War, they championed the cause of free labor. The passage of just one generation showed how dramatically the terms of debate had shifted. Labor was indeed “free,” but often underpaid, unable to bargain collectively, and vulnerable to the boom-bust cycle of the industrial economy. For the independent farmer that politicians idealized, this era also presented its share of challenges. The spread of railroads and the overproduction of crops made these farmers feel beholden to distant powers on the Eastern seaboard that could not be held accountable.  Even the South, which romanticized its antebellum past, experienced a striking growth in its cities.

This was not a period of bold and ambitious leadership or legislation. A cursory glance of national leadership suggests that both parties were more interested in handing out favors to political supporters and defending the interests of captains of industry. Instead, much of the energy and impetus to change during the Gilded Age took place outside the corridors of power. Americans turned to farm cooperatives, labor unions, and untested third parties to address the growing maldistribution of wealth and untenable working conditions. Similarly, philosophers, artists, and writers proposed their own solutions. These solutions varied from Dewey’s concept of educating reformers to George’s proposal of a single tax to put all Americans on equal footing.