America's Gilded Age, roughly between 1877 and 1890, was a period of expansion. Besides the Gilded Age, there was the Second Industrial Revolution, and during this period America endured "one of the most rapid and profound economic revolutions any country has ever known" ( Foner, 2012, pp. 586). Many people were affected during this time, especially the working class, but the industrial revolution brought many technologies and innovations that propelled a transition to a new economy (Atkeson and Kehoe, 2001, pp. 2). Economic growth has been distributed very unevenly. Eighty percent of the population belonged to the working class and only a minority of these workers enjoyed new freedoms (Foner, 2012, pp. 594). Technical skill was now a factor rather than who owned what (Foner, 2012, p. 594). For the rest of the working class, their economic situation remained a constant burden on their shoulders. Working sixty hours a week, workers in the industry had no pension, no compensation for injuries incurred, and the possibility of becoming unemployed at any time (Foner, 2012, pp. 595). With new machines and inventions incorporated into daily life, workers whose talent could not compete with these lost their jobs, like handloom weavers (Effects of the Industrial Revolution). The conditions in which these workers worked were difficult and the situations very dangerous. For example, “the process of purifying iron…required workers to work at temperatures as high as 130 degrees in the coolest part of the ironworks” (Effects of the Industrial Revolution cited. Rosen 155). Not having compensation for the injuries and these dangerous situations were tragic. While a minority of the working class had fr......middle of paper...allied to the people. Thanks to all the developments/improvements in transportation, mass production of goods transported all over the world has been possible. Laws and regulations have arisen because of all the machine injuries, which have improved people's living and working conditions. A middle class was emerging because of the extent to which these innovations improved the economy. Although the difficulties the working class faced are worth mentioning, the innovations created during this period outweigh all of this. It goes beyond all of this to the simple fact that these inventions were created in an attempt to reduce the difficulties that many people were facing. All of this led to improvements in transportation, communications and agriculture. These are three things America needed to succeed against other countries..