What were the chief problems, and what new federal legislation was passed to meet those problems? What did these problems have to do with the rapid post-Civil War industrialization of the country? What roles did the American Civil War play in the emergence of the Gilded Age (1870-1890)? Why did the Gilded Age give rise to populism and wide-spread protests? And why did populism ultimately pass over into (1890-1920) progressivism? Does the sequence of reform legislation hold any possible lessons for contemporary politics? Who were the chief American populists and the leaders of the progressive movement? What did they accomplish and how did they do it?