Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Although these men seemed show glorious because of their money, they used ruthless business tactics to take out their competition and their workers lived brutal lives with some of the poorest working conditions in American history. One example of working conditions that led to tragedy is the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory of 1911. This disaster is Americas 2nd deadliest tragedy, second to 9/11, but this led to publicity, the media showed the faults in businesses and how poor working conditions really were. Overall, American problems were all concealed through the success of big businesses. A connection can be made to the novel “The Devil in The White City” by Erik Larson, which is a true story of Chicago in the late 1800’s. America was hosting the World’s Fair, in which they wanted to show just how marvelous and exceptional the country was. The architect who led the construction of the fair, Daniel Burnham; even treated his own workers with harsh tactics such as the trusts treated their workers. The Fair is overall an analogy for America during the age of progressivism, because all of its problems were concealed by the success of its businesses and were never dealt with by the government. Such as the fair concealed all of the evil, crime and poverty in Chicago which was all hidden by the prosperous fair. …show more content…
Ordinary people, journalists, and government officials all worked towards change in American standards, such as poor working conditions and inhume treatment of everyday citizens. People would express the issues in the country through personal experience in the form of novels, and also by a physical demand of strike by labor unions. Progressives took action in presidency by signing new laws and even amending the constitution to start a change in American society. Overall this time period was an important part in our nation’s history and help give liberties back to the people and returned power to the