Essentials

Essential Questions:
 -Explain how Gilded Age politics were intimately tied to big business.
 -In what ways did Gilded Age politicians deal with economic issues such as tariffs, currency, corporate expansion, and laissez-faire economic policy. How did these actions engender numerous calls for reform?
 -Analyze the ways the rise of big business in the United States encouraged massive migrations and urbanization, sparked government and popular efforts to reshape the U.S. economy and environment, and renewed debates over U.S. national identity.
 -Explain how leaders of big business were challenged in different ways by demographic issues, regional differences, and labor movements as they and their allies in government aimed to create a unified industrialized nation.
 -Analyze the impact of Westward migration, new systems of farming and transportation, and economic instability on political, economic, and social norms within the United States.
 -In what ways and to what extent did transcontinental railroads impact American Indians, migration patterns within North America, and the Western environment.
 -Evaluate the success of American society in adjusting to the changes stemming from international and internal migrations which increased both urban and rural populations.
 -Identify the ways gender, racial, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic inequalities abounded during the Gilded Age, inspiring some reformers to attempt to address these inequities.

Essential Themes and Main Ideas: 
-The “Gilded Age” witnessed new cultural and intellectual movements in tandem with political debates over economic and social policies.
-The transformation of the United States from an agricultural to an increasingly industrialized and urbanized society brought about significant economic, political, diplomatic, social, environmental, and cultural changes.
 -The emergence of an industrial culture in the United States led to both greater opportunities for, and restrictions on, immigrants, minorities, and women.