Conclusion
Similarities
Many historians believe that the two eras of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era should be connected. Some similarities were found in the presidential quests to build domestic affairs. In all the presidencies there seemed to be a major focus on the domestic affairs, with the only outlier being Wilson as he had to deal with WW1. Another similarity noted among both eras was the education value. It was very easy to tell that both era of presidents valued a higher education and strove for greatness even if they were born into unfortunate circumstances. I even noticed that all of them contained a hard work ethic and that they all worked to earn their jobs and were not born into famous families that handed them higher-up jobs. An interesting factis that almost all of the presidents studied law and were apart of law firms. An even more interesting fact is that most of the presidents were born in Ohio, it makes you wonder what they are teaching them there that makes them strive for the presidency??
Differences
The main difference that I saw between the eras of presidents was military service. Almost all seven of the Gilded Age presidents served in the military during the Civil War and focused on a lot of self assertion in the military. All of them were volunteer enlisties and quickly rose in ranks. Another difference I saw was foreign policy. The Progressive Era Presidents had a deeper focus on foreign policy than the Gilded Age presidents and a lot of that has to do with the situation the U.S. found themselves in. Due to the U.S. ending the Civil War they focused heavily on reconstruction and trying to bring America into a new light far away from the Civil War to try and prevent another one from happening.
Conclusion
After looking back at my hypothesis and using the readings I have come to a conclusion that my hypothesis is incorrect and needs a lot of changing. While I thought that the Gilded Age Presidents would have a different type of presidency all together due to a tougher upbringing; the presidencies in the two eras were more similar than I thought. The only major difference that I saw was the military experience and devotion in the Gilded Age was way higher than the Progressive Era Presidents. But both eras really worked hard in all ways to get to the positions of power they were in. Most of the presidents in both studied law and went to law school. In both eras school was stressed and they all tried for a college education. And for some odd reason most of them came from the state of Ohio...which I thought to be very interesting. But in the end I would change my hypothesis to say that presidents in both the Gilded Age and Progressive Era had similar styles of presidencies despite leading in different eras.