Gilded Age Gospels, Essay Example

Using Zinn and Nasaw’s “Gilded Age Gospels” (from Ruling America), describe the evolution of industrial capitalism in the U.S. after the Civil War. How did business argue for their interests, and how did the emerging labor union movement argue for their interests?

The different parties involved in the emerging social development in the society after the Civil War included both the business owners and the laborers who are aiming to work further for the development of a more extensive process of aiding the American nation towards economic improvement that specifically insistence on the utilization of the available resources and making them accessible for public use.

Noticeably, the US Civil War has caused the American society to lose its control on how the people or the residents of the nation actually use the different resources that are made available for them to have access to. It could be observed that somehow, it is the creation of a hierarchical system that basically allows people and institutions to coexist with each other. The hierarchical arrangement has been guided through the definite insistence of what is understood as the consequential process of defining what is needed by the people through a guided presentation that is handled by institutions existing in the community.

Capitalism was an ideal process by which people are allowed to utilize their capacities in order to become an asset towards promoting a more extensive approach that basically allows those who are fortunate enough to have the right resources to establish institutions that are to provide the community with the work they need in order to survive the challenge of putting themselves under the control of a specific administrative system. This aspect of governance allows the residents to know how they are supposed to handle the situation, giving them a chance to realize how they are supposed to handle the pressures of utilizing the limited resources that are made available for them to embrace.

Noticeably, the concept of capitalism introduced the need to balance pricing with the real value of product that the business institutions ought to offer. It is with such control of the resources that the business owners [no matter how small or how large they are in scale] were given the chance to have authority over the others who are less fortunate to establish their own profiting organizations. The people who have been subjected to such matter of administrational governance include the laborers who stand as the manpower behind these institutions.

Laborers’ value was basically founded upon the consideration of development that basic families were grounded upon; the ideal process of surviving everyday conditions that most often than not pressure them to embrace a more distinct approach towards putting themselves on the line, sacrificing both time and effort in order to gain meager earnings in the end. On the other end, the institutions established by capitalists were grounded on the valuing of profit; a matter that served as the reason for their existence. Relatively, it could be understood that when it comes to improving the condition of correlation that these parties have, it is expected that the values specifically aimed to be embraced by both ends of the system ought to be given attention to especially in relation to how resources are distributed for public appreciation and use.

The system was supposed to be constructive especially in relation to the desire of restructuring the condition of modern America’s social foundation. However, when it came to the point of realizing the values that both parties recognized as somewhat important, the capitalists, being the powerful ones in the hierarchy, were understood to have caused a massive distinction of social separation that allows them to realize more the concept of strength they have over the social systems that are existing under their control, especially that of the realization of the value of life and role that the laborers play in the society during that time.