TI he Gilded Age often fails to generate much enthusiasm among students as well as teachers. Several years ago a teacher of American history confessed that she covered the late nineteenth century in a twenty-minute lecture because not much happened during that period. Scholars of the Gilded Age would certainly disagree with that assessment. Indeed, the late nineteenth century was a period of intense change, which transformed the United States from a predominantly rural nation into a modern industrial society. Technological innovations led to the growing mechanization of the production process, generating a need for large numbers of unskilled workers. While industrial mass production created new jobs, it also transformed the nature of work, destroying traditional crafts and subordinating workers to repetitive and monotonous tasks. In an attempt to better their lot, some workers joined labor unions. The efforts of organized labor, however, were hampered by exclusion ary policies that barred most immigrant, black, and women workers from union membership, as well as the fierce and often violent opposition of factory owners. While the machine age contributed to the emergence of the working class, it also gave birth to corporate empires. Many entrepre neurs and skilled craftsmen, increasingly unable to compete with large-scale industrial production, were forced out of business, and a few industrialists accumulated the nation's capital. The unprecedented growth of industrial production during the Gilded Age also sparked demographic changes. Attracted by factory jobs, large numbers of rural migrants and immigrants flocked to the industrial centers of the Northeast. The resulting urbanization led to an increase in the number and size of American cities. The urban centers of the Gilded Age were larger, more densely populated, and ethnically more diverse than any previous urban settlements. While many urban residents migrated to the cities from rural areas in the United States, the majority of the newcomers were immigrants. The concentration of these new arrivals in select urban areas led to the emergence of distinct ethnic neighborhoods and fueled nativist fears. Many native-born white Americans, fearing job competition and race suicide, demanded immigration restriction in an attempt to limit the influx of non-Protestant immigrants. Their efforts culminated in the 1924 National Origins Quota Act, which severely limited the number of immigrants who were allowed to enter the country each year. As urban populations grew, rural populations declined. Many farmers were driven from their land by the steady drop in crop prices caused by increased land cultivation, mechanized farm machinery, and global competition. The financial plight of farmers was exacer bated by a sense of social isolation. Farmers tried to alleviate the loneliness of farm life by establishing a network of social organiza tions called granges. To address their economic concerns, they launched farmers' alliances, which initially functioned as coopera tives but soon moved into the political arena. Attacking unfair business practices of merchants and railroads, the farmers elected a number of officeholders sympathetic to their cause. In 1890, farmers formed the People's Party (whose members were called Populists) and called for government ownership of railroad and telegraph lines as well as unlimited coinage of silver. The Populists, however, failed to attract many voters, perhaps because a growing segment of the American population had moved to the cities and had no interest in supporting an agricultural platform. In addition to American cities, the trans-Mississippi West at tracted large numbers of new settlers in the late nineteenth century. Westward expansion was triggered by the 1862 Homestead Act, which granted free land to those willing to live on and cultivate it for