Progressive Era and Gilded Age

During the Gilded Age, the time after the Civil War, large corporations and trusts controlled much of the economy and most of the government. Monopolies sprouted from every corner of the U.S. economy including the Vanderbilts, Rockafellers, Carnagies, and etc. The Progressive Era, the response to the Gilded Age and its exploitation, was a widespread reform of economics and social and political aspects of America. The movements during the Progressive Era succeeded tremendously, in the categories of Presidential leadership, political reform, business and labor reform and urban and social r…