gilded age era essay

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 13, 2023 | Original: February 13, 2018

“The Gilded Age” is the term used to describe the tumultuous years between the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century. The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today was a famous satirical novel by Mark Twain set in the late 1800s, and was its namesake. During this era, America became more prosperous and saw unprecedented growth in industry and technology. But the Gilded Age had a more sinister side: It was a period where greedy, corrupt industrialists, bankers and politicians enjoyed extraordinary wealth and opulence at the expense of the working class. In fact, it was wealthy tycoons, not politicians, who inconspicuously held the most political power during the Gilded Age.

Transcontinental Railroad

Before the Civil War , rail travel was dangerous and difficult, but after the war, George Westinghouse invented the air brake, which made braking systems more dependable and safe.

Soon, the development of Pullman sleeping cars and dining cars made rail travel comfortable and more enjoyable for passengers. It wasn’t long before trains overtook other forms of long-distance travel such as the stagecoach and riding horseback.

In 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was finished and led to rapid settlement of the western United States. It also made it much easier to transport goods over long distances from one part of the country to another.

This enormous railroad expansion resulted in rail companies and their executives receiving lavish amounts of money and land—up to 200 million acres, by some estimates—from the United States government. In many cases, politicians cut shady backroom deals and helped create railroad and shipping tycoons such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould . Meanwhile, thousands of African American—many of them former slaves—were hired as Pullman porters and paid a pittance to cater to riders’ every need.

Robber Barons

Railroad tycoons were just one of many types of so-called robber barons that emerged in the Gilded Age.

These men used union busting, fraud, intimidation, violence and their extensive political connections to gain an advantage over any competitors. Robber barons were relentless in their efforts to amass wealth while exploiting workers and ignoring standard business rules—and in many cases, the law itself.

They soon accumulated vast amounts of money and dominated every major industry including the railroad, oil, banking, timber, sugar, liquor, meatpacking, steel, mining, tobacco and textile industries.

Some wealthy entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie , John D. Rockefeller and Henry Frick are often referred to as robber barons but may not exactly fit the mold. While it’s true they built huge monopolies, often by crushing any small business or competitor in their way, they were also generous philanthropists who didn’t always rely on political ploys to build their empires.

Some tried to improve life for their employees, donated millions to charities and nonprofits and supported their communities by providing funding for everything from libraries and hospitals to universities, public parks and zoos.

Industrial Revolution

The Gilded Age was in many ways the culmination of the Industrial Revolution , when America and much of Europe shifted from an agricultural society to an industrial one.

Millions of immigrants and struggling farmers arrived in cities such as New York , Boston , Philadelphia, St. Louis and Chicago , looking for work and hastening the urbanization of America. By 1900, about 40 percent of Americans lived in major cities.

Most cities were unprepared for rapid population growth. Housing was limited, and tenements and slums sprung up nationwide. Heating, lighting, sanitation and medical care were poor or nonexistent, and millions died from preventable disease.

Many immigrants were unskilled and willing to work long hours for little pay. Gilded Age plutocrats considered them the perfect employees for their sweatshops, where working conditions were dangerous and workers endured long periods of unemployment, wage cuts and no benefits.

Gilded Age Homes

Homes of the Gilded Age elite were nothing short of spectacular. The wealthy considered themselves America’s royalty and settled for nothing less than estates worthy of that distinction. Some of America’s most famous mansions were built during the Gilded Age such as:

Biltmore , located in Asheville, North Carolina , was the family estate of George and Edith Vanderbilt. Construction started on the 250-room chateau in 1889, prior to the couple’s marriage, and continued for six years. The home had 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, a dairy, a horse barn and beautiful formal and informal gardens.

The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island , is another Vanderbilt mansion. It was the summer home of railroad mogul Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Italian-Renaissance style home has 70 rooms, a stable and a carriage house.

Rosecliff , also in Newport, was completed in 1902. The oceanfront home was contracted by Theresa Fair Oelrichs and built to resemble the Grand Trianon of Versailles. Today, it’s best known as the backdrop for movie scenes in The Great Gatsby , High Society , 27 Dresses and True Lies .

Whitehall , located in Palm Beach, Florida , was the neoclassical winter retreat of oil tycoon Henry Flagler and his wife Mary. The 100,000 square foot, 75-room mansion was completed in 1902 and is now a popular museum.

Income Inequality in the Gilded Age

The industrialists of the Gilded Age lived high on the hog, but most of the working class lived below poverty level. As time went on, the income inequality between wealthy and poor became more and more glaring.

While the wealthy lived in opulent homes, dined on succulent food and showered their children with gifts, the poor were crammed into filthy tenement apartments, struggled to put a loaf of bread on the table and often accompanied their children to a sweatshop each morning where they faced a 12-hour (or longer) workday.

Some moguls used Social Darwinism to justify the inequality between the classes. The theory presumes that the fittest humans are the most successful and poor people are destitute because they’re weak and lack the skills to be prosperous.

Muckrakers is a term used to describe reporters who exposed corruption among politicians and the elite. They used investigative journalism and the print revolution to dig through “the muck” of the Gilded Age and report scandal and injustice.

In 1890, reporter and photographer Jacob Riis brought the horrors of New York slum life to light in his book, How the Other Half Lives , prompting New York politicians to pass legislation to improve tenement conditions.

In 1902, McClure Magazine journalist Lincoln Steffens took on city corruption when he penned the article, “Tweed Days in St. Louis.” The article, which is widely considered the first muckracking magazine article, exposed how city officials deceitfully made deals with crooked businessmen to maintain power.

Another journalist, Ida Tarbell , spent years investigating the underhanded rise of oilman John D. Rockefeller. Her 19-part series, also published in McClure in 1902, led to the breakup of Rockefeller’s monopoly, the Standard Oil Company.

In 1906, activist journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose horrendous working conditions in the meatpacking industry. The book and ensuing public outcry led to the passing of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Labor Unions Rise

It soon became obvious that the huge disparity between the wealthy and poor couldn’t last, and the working class would have to organize to improve their working and living conditions. It was also obvious this wouldn’t happen without some degree of violence.

Much of the violence, however, was between the workers themselves as they struggled to agree on what they were fighting for. Some simply wanted increased wages and a better working environment, while others also wanted to keep women, immigrants and blacks out of the workforce.

Although the first labor unions occurred around the turn of the nineteenth century, they gained momentum during the Gilded Age, thanks to the increased number of unskilled and unsatisfied factory workers.

Railroad Strikes

On July 16, 1877, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company announced a 10-percent pay cut on its railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia , the second cut in less than eight months.

Infuriated and fed up, the workers—with the support of the locals—announced they’d prevent all trains from leaving the roundhouse until their pay was restored.

The mayor, the police and even the National Guard couldn’t stop the strike. It wasn’t until Federal troops arrived that one train finally left the station.

The strike spread among other railroads, sparking violence across America between the working class and local and federal authorities. At its peak, over 100,000 railroad workers were on strike. Many of the Robber Barons feared an aggressive, all-out revolution against their way of life.

Instead, the strike—later known as the Great Upheaval—ended abruptly and was labeled a dismal failure. Yet it showed America’s tycoons there was strength in numbers and that organized labor had the potential to shut down entire industries and inflict major economic and political damage.

As the working class continued to use strikes and boycotts to fight for higher wages and improved working conditions, their bosses staged lock-outs and brought in replacement workers known as scabs.

They also created blacklists to prevent active union workers from becoming employed elsewhere. Even so, the working class continued to unite and press their cause and often won at least some of their demands.

Gilded Age Cities

Innovations of the Gilded Age helped usher in modern America. Urbanization and technological creativity led to many engineering advances such as bridges and canals, elevators and skyscrapers, trolley lines and subways.

The invention of electricity brought illumination to homes and businesses and created an unprecedented, thriving night life. Art and literature flourished, and the rich filled their lavish homes with expensive works of art and elaborate décor.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and made the world a much smaller place for both individuals and businesses. Advances in sanitation and housing, and the availability of better quality food and material goods, improved quality of life for the middle  class.

But while the middle and upper classes enjoyed the allure of city life, little changed for the poor. Most still faced horrific living conditions, high crime rates and a pitiable existence.

Many escaped their drudgery by watching a vaudeville show or a spectator sport such as boxing, baseball or football, all of which enjoyed a surge during the Gilded Age.

Women in the Gilded Age

Upper-class women of the Gilded Age have been compared to dolls on display dressed in resplendent finery. They flaunted their wealth and endeavored to improve their status in society while poor and middle-class women both envied and mimicked them.

Some wealthy Gilded Age women were much more than eye candy, though, and often traded domestic life for social activism and charitable work. They felt a new degree of empowerment and fought for equality, including the right to vote through women’s suffrage groups.

Some created homes for destitute immigrants while others pushed a temperance agenda, believing the source of poverty and most family troubles was alcohol. Wealthy women philanthropists of the Gilded Age include:

Louise Whitfield Carnegie , wife of Andrew Carnegie, who created Carnegie Hall and donated to the Red Cross, the Y.W.C.A., and other charities.

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller , wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who helped create hotels for women and solicited funds to create the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Margaret Olivia Sage , wife of Russell Sage, who after the death of her miserly husband gave away $45 million of her $75 million inheritance to support women’s causes, educational institutions and the creation of the Russell Sage Foundation for Social Betterment, which directly helped poor people.

Many women during the Gilded Age sought higher education. Others postponed marriage and took jobs such as typists or telephone switchboard operators.

Thanks to a print revolution and the accessibility of newspapers, magazines and books, women became increasingly knowledgeable, cultured, well-informed and a political force to be reckoned with.

Jane Addams

Jane Addams is arguably the best-known philanthropist of the Gilded Age. In 1889, she and Ellen Gates Star established a secular settlement house in Chicago known as Hull-House .

The neighborhood was a melting pot of struggling immigrants, and Hull-House provided everything from midwife services and basic medical care to kindergarten, day care and housing for abused women. It also offered English and citizenship classes. Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Carrie Nation

Temperance leader Carrie Nation gained notoriety during the Gilded Age for smashing up saloons with a hatchet to bring attention to her sobriety agenda. She was also a strong voice for the suffrage movement.

Nation’s belief that alcohol was the root of all evil was partially due to her difficult first marriage to an alcoholic, and her work with women and children displaced or abused by over-imbibing husbands.

Convinced God had instructed her to use whatever means necessary to close bars throughout Kansas , she was often beaten, mocked and jailed but ultimately helped pave the way for the 18th Amendment (prohibiting the sale of alcohol) and the 19th Amendment (giving women the right to vote).

Limits to Power

Many other pivotal events happened during the Gilded Age which changed America’s course and culture. As muckrakers exposed corrupt robber barons and politicians, labor unions and reformist politicians enacted laws to limit their power.

The western frontier saw violent conflicts between white settlers and the United States Army against Native Americans. The Native Americans were eventually forced off their land and onto reservations with often disastrous results. In 1890, the western frontier was declared closed.

Populist Party

As drought and depression struck rural America, farmers in the west—who vilified railroad tycoons and wanted a political voice—organized and played a key role in forming the Populist Party.

The Populists had a democratic agenda that aimed to give power back to the people and paved the way for the progressive movement, which still fights to close the gap between the wealthy and poor and champion the needy and disenfranchised.

End of the Gilded Age

In 1893, both the overextended Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the National Cordage Company failed, which set off an economic depression unlike any seen before in America.

Banks and other businesses folded, and the stock market plunged, leaving millions unemployed, homeless and hungry. In some states, unemployment rose to almost 50 percent.

The Panic of 1893 lasted four years and left lower and even middle-class Americans fed up with political corruption and social inequality. Their frustration gave rise to the Progressive Movement which took hold when President Theodore Roosevelt took office in 1901.

Although Roosevelt supported corporate America, he also felt there should be federal controls in place to keep excessive corporate greed in check and prevent individuals from making obscene amounts of money off the backs of immigrants and the lower class.

Helped by the muckrackers and the White House , the Progressive Era ushered in many reforms that helped shift away power from robber barons, such as:

• trust busting
• labor reform
• women’s suffrage
• birth control
• formation of trade unions
• increased conservation efforts
• food and medicine regulations
• civil rights
• election reform
• fair labor standards

By 1916, America’s cities were cleaner and healthier, factories safer, governments less corrupt and many people had better housing, working hours and wages. Fewer monopolies meant more people could pursue the American Dream and start their own businesses.

When America entered World War I in 1917, the Progressive Era and any remnants of the Gilded Age effectively ended as the country’s focus shifted to the realities of war. Most robber barons and their families, however, remained wealthy for generations.

Even so, many bequeathed much of their wealth, land and homes to charity and historical societies. And progressives continued their mission to close the gap between the wealthy and poor and champion the needy and disenfranchised.

HISTORY Vault: The Astors

A look at five generations of the colorful and wealthy family. Follows their story from its 18th-century beginnings, when fur trader John Jacob Astor became the richest man in the world.

Chicago Workers During the Long Gilded Age. The Newberry. Gilded Age Reform. University of Virginia. The Doll House: Wealth and Women in the Gilded Age. Journeys Into the Past: An Online Journal of Miami University’s History Department . The Gilded Age. Scholastic. About Jane Addams. Jane Addams Hull-House Museum . Carrie A. Nation (1846-1911). The State Historical Society of Missouri: Historic Missourians . Lincoln Steffens Exposes “Tweed Days in St. Louis.” History Matters . The Breakers. The Preservation Society of Newport County . The Progressive Era (1890-1920). The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project . Biltmore Estate History. Biltmore . Margaret Olivia Sage. Philanthropy Roundtable .

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A period of technological progress, growing wealth, and social activism, the Gilded Age was also an era of widespread inequality and injustice.

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With more than half a million patents granted, the end of the nineteenth century was an era of invention and innovation. People saw skyscrapers begin to tower over city streets while suspension bridges, electric street cars, and elevators facilitated movement through them. Telephones allowed communication across miles. All of these new systems were driven by cooperation between investors, inventors, and city leaders. Part of Edison’s genius was navigating that system, but no less significant was his recognition of the emerging consumer culture that swept America from the nineteenth century into the twentieth.

This time period earned the term the Gilded Age for seemingly beautiful and ambitious advances that masked corruption and exploitation beneath the surface. Even as technology promised to connect people, the nation remained socially, economically, and racially divided.

“Taylorism,” a specialized system of labor introduced by an engineer named Frederick W. Taylor, advocated the study of worker productivity and developed a more efficient system of specialized tasks meant to speed production and increase profits. Unregulated businesses thrived, giving rise to a wealthy elite, that resulted in monopolies like John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company which controlled 90% of the industry in 1885.

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Industrialization and urbanization brought wealth to some, but left many behind. Workers organized in order to protest their conditions, hours, and wages through strikes and boycotts. Progressive reformers studied social problems and sought resolutions to safety and health in homes and factories. As a reporter and reformer, Jacob Riis saw first-hand the destitute living conditions of the urban poor. He used photography to share what he observed in tenement sweatshops, using the power of images to communicate the inequities of the thriving garment industry and the lives of laborers. Riis himself was an immigrant who had come from Denmark seeking opportunities promised by America’s industry and urbanization.

Liberty and destiny

Between 1877 and 1890 more than six million immigrants arrived in the U.S. Many found roads not as open as they had hoped. Anglo-Americans increasingly sought to maintain the nation as both white and Protestant and sought to restrict the right to vote by establishing literacy and residency requirements, poll taxes, and immigration restrictions. The arrival of Catholic and Jewish immigrants was seen as conflicting with mainstream values and the economic successes of Chinese immigrants in the West challenged the idea of Manifest Destiny .

John Gast, American progress , 1872, oil on canvas, 29.2 x 40 cm ( Autry Museum of the American West )

Many groups established towns or sections of cities where they could retain some of their native culture. Germans in the upper Midwest, for example, had strong communities and the language of instruction in schools was German.

In 1886, the dedication of the Statue of Liberty drew one million people. A powerful symbol of freedom and international cooperation, the statue was celebrated for its ideals. But the statue was almost a failure. While the French paid for the statue itself, the Americans were to provide its pedestal. Without the support of enough wealthy donors, funds ran dry. It was not until Pulitzer raised funds through his newspaper with ads calling upon individual citizens to donate small amounts that the statue found its footing. Its torch—illuminated by electric lamps—shone as a symbol of the power of the people.

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Reconstruction

In the South, industry and urbanization lagged in the decades after the Civil War (1861 – 65). Reconstruction policies attempted to foster equal opportunity but resentments boiled beneath the surface.

In the contested 1876 presidential election, Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican candidate, walked away the victor after an electoral committee decided the outcome. As a concession to the Democrats, Hayes ordered federal troops away from state houses throughout the South. When federal troops pulled out, bi-racial governments and the rights of former slaves deteriorated. Southern states enacted discrimination laws, collectively known as “Jim Crow”—a pejorative term derived from an early-nineteenth century song popularized by a blackface performer. Separation of blacks and whites pervaded spaces throughout the South from restaurants and parks to hospitals and prisons. Interracial marriage was outlawed. The end of Reconstruction marked the spread of legally-sanctioned segregation.

The Weekly Messenger , May 23, 1896 ( Chronicling America, Library of Congress )

While these laws did not go unchallenged, the federal government’s laissez faire policies enabled these restrictions to freedom. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that segregation was allowed, as long as some accommodations for both races existed. This “separate but equal” doctrine cemented segregation practices and laws. For freed blacks, these power structures limited opportunities. Those who sought to own and operate their own farms struggled with a system of tenant farming that trapped them in debt.

The end of the western frontier

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, so too did the western frontier. By 1893, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner’s analysis of census data led him to declare the era of expansion that had defined American individuality and ideas of progress, had ended. Turner announced his Frontier Thesis at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition where the nation was displaying the newest technologies alongside monumental buildings meant to demonstrate American greatness in an area known as the White City.

Advertisement for the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, c.1893 (photo: public domain )

By contrast, progress as it related to “others” was trivialized. Native Americans were essentially put on display on the fair’s Midway wearing traditional dress and surrounded by tipis and totem poles, while model schools at the Exposition showcased government programs to teach trades and establish boarding schools for their children.

This ambiguity between education and entertainment was also on display in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show (staged outside the Exposition) which recounted the famous battles that had driven Native American culture to near extinction. Be yond the battlefield, the Dawes Act of 1887 which established a land allotment system and boarding schools meant to erase native culture, language, and traditions, and advance assimilation, had adversely impacted Native American society. Intended as a measure to “civilize,” this act took away traditions of communal land ownership and undermined tribal authority and identity.

Frederic Remington, The Fall of the Cowboy , 1895, oil on canvas, 24 x 35-1/8 in ( Amon Carter Museum of American Art )

The western landscape, too, had changed dramatically. Cattle had replaced bison as the key bovine residents of the plains. The cattle boom reached a peak from 1880-1885, but by the middle of that decade, the ecosystem could not support increased grazing. Open range and cattle driving collapsed causing corporations to move in, build fences, and turn enterprising cowboys into hired hands. Railroads connected agricultural and ranching lands with major urban production centers, bringing technology to a place that had once symbolized its absence.

By the dawn of the twentieth century, technologies, such as electric lighting, first brought to the marketplace for practical uses, became increasingly common, illuminating not just offices and homes, but even trivial items such as Christmas trees. In the new social atmosphere of amusement parks like Coney Island , technology provided distraction and thrills rather than progress and industry. Such places also offered a space where Americans of different classes could mix outside the segregation of urban centers. Leisure, escape, and entertainment increasingly connected Americans with a sense of common identity in the absence of its earlier myth of manifest destiny, which had lost its unifying concept as the American population became more diverse and its social problems more complex.

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Encyclopedia of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2005) - these three print volumes include list of contributors, thematic essays, illustrations, documents, chronology, bibliography, general index, bibliographical index, etc. 

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: A student companion (2006) - eBook; an alphabetical encyclopedia including articles on overall trends (immigration, education, music, sports), social movements (anarchism, child labor movement, consumer movement, conservation movement), terms (armistice, chain store, chautauqua), organizations (American Expeditionary Force, Knights of Labor, Republican party), issues (gender relations, race relations), events (Haymarket Square massacre, Palmer raids, Pullman strike), legal cases (Lochner v. New York), laws (Chinese Exclusion Act, Meat Inspection Act, Selective Service Act), ethnic groups (Mexicans, Chinese), economic issues (trusts, scientific management), and biographies. The articles are cross-referenced and have sources for specific further reading. 

Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History (2010) - (7 print volumes) - Volume 4,  From the Gilded Age through Age of Reform, 1878 to 1920 )

United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918

United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918

United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-  

United States -- Intellectual life -- 1865-1918  

United States -- Economic Conditions -- 1865-1918

Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era - published quarterly by the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, this journal provides original essays, including online projects, and reviews scholarly books on all aspects of U.S. history for the time period from 1865 through 1920. WashU has access to all issues from the first (Jan. 2002) to the most recent indexed in...

America: History & Life (1964-)  contains only journals related history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. 

JSTOR  - multidisciplinary, a lot of full text articles, but subject headings are too broad

Historical American Newspapers (ProQuest)  includes The Atlanta Constitution , Boston Globe , Chicago Tribune , Hartford Courant , Los Angeles Times , The New York Times , San Francisco Chronicle , St. Louis Post-Dispatch , The Wall Street Journal , and The Washington Post

African American Newspapers (ProQuest)  includes Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Defender (1909-1975), Cleveland Call & Post (1934-1991), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), Norfolk Journal & Guide (1916-2003), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), and Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002).

Chronicling America  - begun in 2005, this website provides access to historic newspapers and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LoC). Its coverage period ranges from 1789 to 1963 and includes over 1000 newspaper titles available from 46 states & Puerto Rico.

Atlantic Monthly - 1862  to  01/31/1905  in  Literature Online (LION)

The Crisis (NAACP, NYC) 11/01/1910 to 12/31/1922 in  Modernist Journals Project

Harper's Weekly - 01/03/1857 to 1912 available through multiple sources  

The Masses - 01/01/1911  to  09/30/1915  in  Modernist Journals Project ; 1913-1917 in Special Collections  

The Nation - 07/06/1865 to 12/27/1877 available electronically through  AAS Historical Periodicals Collection ; all issues in print at West Campus library

School & Society - 1915 to 1972 available in print

The Survey - (WUSTL has Apr. 1909-Dec. 1937) "the primary publication vehicle by which settlement-house residents, professional social workers, amateur reformers, and academic social scientists communicated with one another and exchanged ideas and programs during the Progressive Era." - John D. Buenker

Primary Source Subheadings sources     biographies     maps      periodicals     newspapers     diaries     speeches     pictorial works

personal narratives     directories     interviews     sermons     anecdotes     caricatures and cartoons    fiction 

General (under  United States -- History -- 1865-1921 -- sources ):

America's Gilded Age: An eyewitness history (1992)

The Gilded Age and After; Selected readings in American history (1972)

The American Studies Anthology

Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt through Coolidge, 1901-1929: Debating the issues in pro and con primary documents

Reading the Twentieth Century: Documents in American history

Robber Barons and Radicals  

The American Nation: Primary sources 

The Diplomacy of World Power: The United States, 1889-1920

American Economic Development since 1860

Lifetimes: The Great War to the Stock Market Crash: American history through biography and primary documents

African Americans

Proceedings of the Black National and State Conventions, 1865-1900

T he Booker T. Washington papers , 1860-1915

The papers of A. Philip Randolph - there are a few items in this collection for the years 1909-1919

Reconstruction, the Negro, and the New South - primary source documents from 1866-1896 

Papers of the NAACP. Part 5, Campaign against residential segregation, 1914-1955  

Anarchist Voices: An oral history of anarchism in America  

The Debates of Liberty: An overview of individualist anarchism, 1881-1908

Emma Goldman: A documentary history of the American years (2003-2012) - print and eBook

Mother Earth - Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1906) - vol. 12, no. 6 (Aug. 1917); Mother Earth Bulletin - Vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 1917) - v. 1, no. 7 (Apr. 1918)

Anti-Asian Sentiment & Movements

China through American Eyes: Early depictions of the Chinese people and culture in the U.S. print media - caricature and cartoons

Racism, Dissent, and Asian Americans from 1850 to the Present: A documentary history

Yellow Peril!: An archive of anti-Asian fear

Anti-Catholicism -- United States -- Sources .

Anti-Imperialist League

The Anti-Imperialist Reader: A documentary history of anti-imperialism in the United States

Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-imperialist writings on the Philippine-American War

Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, 1899

Edmunds, George F. (George Franklin), 1828-1919.   The Insular Cases: The Supreme Court and the Dependencies (Boston: New England Anti-imperialist League, 1901)

López, Sixto.   The "wild tribes" and other Filipinos (Boston: Anti-Imperialist League, 1911)

Black Nationalism

Classical Black Nationalism: From the American Revolution to Marcus Garvey

Turner, Henry McNeal, 1834-1915.  Respect Black; the writings and speeches of Henry McNeal Turner

Native Americans

Indians of North America -- History -- Sources

From Fort Laramie to Wounded Knee: In the West that was 

Wounded Knee Massacre, S.D., 1890 -- Personal narratives

A Whirlwind Passed through our Country: Lakota voices of the ghost dance 

Encyclopedia of American Indian removal

Organized Labor

Labor History Documents - two volumes 

United States' Department of Justice  Documents Relating to the IWW, 1910-1916  

Industrial Workers of the World,  The One Big Union Monthly   Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1, 1919)-v. 3, no. 1 (Jan. 1921)

National Woman's Trade Union League of America, Life and Labor - 1911-1921

The Samuel Gompers Papers  1850-1918

Populism and the election of 1896 (1994)

Populism, its rise and fall (1992)

The Populist Mind (1967)

Pragmatism (sort by "Year")

Progressivism

Hofstadter, Richard. ed.  The Progressive Movement, 1900-1915

Southern Women in the Progressive Era: A reader  

The Reform Spirit in America: A documentation of the pattern of reform in the American republic

The 1912 Election and the Power of Progressivism: A brief history with documents

Progressivism and Postwar Disillusionment, 1898-1928 

Prohibition

Anti-Saloon League of America

Radicalism (broadly conceived)

The Radical Reader: A documentary history of the American radical tradition  - includes utopian visions, suffrage and feminism, land and labor, anarchism, socialism, communism, environmentalism, and the "New Negro"

The Haymarket Affair and the trial of the Chicago anarchists, 1886 : original manuscripts, letters, articles, and printed material of the anarchists and of the State prosecutor, Julius S. Grinnell

Department of Justice Investigative Files, Part I : The Industrial Workers of the World  

State Department Collection of Intelligence, 1915-1927

The Dawn of Religious Pluralism: Voices from the World's Parliament of Religions, 1893

Socialism & Socialist Party (U.S.) 

American Socialist party newspaper - Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 18, 1914)-v. 4, no. 8 (Sept. 8, 1917)

SPUSA Pamphlet collection  

Simons, A. M. (Algie Martin), 1870-1950. Pamphlets on Social Conditions , v.1/2 (1906-1912)

Women - Equal Rights, Feminism, and Suffrage

International Council of Women  

The papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony - microfilm

The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

Public Women, Public Words: A documentary history of American feminism   - volume 1, beginnings to 1900

Modern American Women: A documentary history - Pt. 1 Modern Women in the Making, 1890-1920

World War I

World War I (1914-1919) 

The Gilded Age - Spanning from 1865 to 1902, The Gilded Age provides insight into the key issues that shaped America in the late nineteenth century, including race and ethnicity, immigration, labor, women's rights, American Indians, political corruption, and monetary policy. These materials are frequently rare and hard-to-find, and include songs, letters, photographs, cartoons, government documents, and ephemera. In addition, the collection features numerous critical documentary essays that provide scholarly commentary and annotations to selected primary sources.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000  - this collection currently includes 124 projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools. 

Jewish Life in America, 1654-1954 - primary sources addressing key topics such as the immigration process and evolution of early Jewish Settlements, differing strands of Judaism in America, Jewish schools and charitable institutions, and civil rights and minority rights issues.

Indigenous Peoples of North America - includes manuscript collections, rare books and monographs, newspapers, periodicals, census records, legal documents, maps, drawings and sketches, oral histories, and photos 

Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 -  historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that concentrate heavily on the 19th century immigration to the US. By incorporating books, pamphlets, serials, diaries, biographies, and other writings capturing diverse experiences, the collected material provides a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants.

Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League (records from 1901-1928) - Booker T. Washington established the League with the support of Andrew Carnegie n 1900 "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro," and headed it until his death. It eventually included 320 chapters across the United States. The League included small African American business owners, doctors, farmers, craftsmen, and other professionals. Its goal was to allow business to put economic development at the forefront of getting African-American equality in America. Affiliated professional organizations included the National Negro Bankers Association, the National Negro Press Association, the National Association of Negro Funeral Directors, the National Negro Bar Association, the National Association of Negro Insurance Men, the National Negro Retail Merchants’ Association, the National Association of Negro Real Estate Dealers, and the National Negro Finance Corporation. 

Electing the President: Proceedings of the Democratic National Conventions, 1832-1988 - This collection includes the proceedings of the 1832-1988 Democratic National Conventions, providing gavel to gavel coverage, including speeches, debates, votes, and party platforms. Also included are lists of names of convention delegates and alternates. Records of the earliest proceedings are based in part on contemporary newspaper accounts. A similar database is also available for the Republican National Conventions, 1856-1988 . 

Revolution in Honduras and American Business: The Quintessential “Banana Republic” (1910-1930) -  In 1899, the first boatload of bananas was shipped from Honduras to the United States. The fruit found a ready market, and the trade grew rapidly. The American-based banana companies constructed railroad lines and roads to serve the expanding banana production. Perhaps even more significant, Honduras began to attract the attention of the U.S. government. This collection contains the largest single group of records relates to Honduran political affairs; pertaining chiefly to the turbulent political situation and almost continuous revolutionary activity in Honduras. It details both the political and financial machinations of the fruit companies, but also the graft and corruption of the national government, the American banking community’s loans, the U.S. government’s response and the various aborted popular/revolutionary uprisings. 

Trade Literature and the Merchandizing of Industry (1820-1926) (a within Smithsonian Collections Online) is comprised of items selected from the National Museum of American History, and contains about one million pages of primary source content. This digital collection allows researchers to: determine the history of companies/industries; discern styles from furniture to machinery; analyze marketing and management techniques, and examine illustrations of the items Americans used at home and in business. Key research areas covered include: railroads and railway equipment; agricultural machinery; transportation equipment; power generation; building and construction; iron and steel; mines and mining equipment, and motorized vehicles.

Sunday School Movement and Its Curriculum (1884-1920) - Early in the 19th century various denominations and non-denominational organizations began to create Sunday schools in an effort to educate the illiterate, particularly children. By mid-century, the Sunday school movement had become extremely popular and Sunday school attendance was a near universal aspect of childhood. Working-class families were grateful for this opportunity to receive an education. Religious education was, of course, always also a core component.

Union Label and the Needle Trades: Records of the United Garment Workers of America (1899-1994) - This collection consists of two full series and one partial series from the Records of the United Garment Workers of America—Series I: Time and Motion Studies; Series III: Office Files, 1899-1994—Meeting Minutes of the General Executive Board subseries; and, Series VIII: Index Card Files for plants and/or locals in. The Time and Motion Studies are made up of time study/ time and motion research files for the garment industry, as well as files relating to industry research and information from the first half of the twentieth century. The minutes from the early period cover issues such as immigration, sick benefits, and nine-hour work days. The overwhelming majority of the Series VIII index card files comprise information on various plants and union locals. These are in alphabetical order by city (with a few exceptions) and contain information about the locals, manufacturers, wages, garments, and efforts to organize locals in those cities.

First World War  - drawn from archival collections around the world, this collection provides an intimate glimpse into daily life in the army and auxiliary services, battles, trench warfare, weapons and equipment, and thoughts on the enemy, as seen through the eyes of the men and women who served in the First World War.  Rather than official publications or newspaper accounts, this collection includes diaries, letters, scrapbooks, sketches, and photographs.  Key features include interactive maps, 360° views of personal items and objects, and a virtual trench experience. 

Women, War, and Society, 1914-1918 women's essential contribution to the war in Europe is fully documented in this definitive collection of primary source materials brought together in the Imperial War Museum, London. These unique documents - charity and international relief reports, pamphlets, photographs, press cuttings, magazines, posters, correspondence, minutes, records, diaries, memoranda, statistics, circulars, regulations and invitations - are published here for the first time in fully-searchable form.

Digital Public Library of America offers a single point of access to millions of items including photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Their featured collections include subjects such as aviation, baseball, food, immigration since 1840, photography, and women in science.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries (colonial - 1950) includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters carefully chosen using leading bibliographies plus 7,000 pages of previously unpublished materials

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Course: US history   >   Unit 6

• Introduction to the Gilded Age
• The Gilded Age and the Second Industrial Revolution
• What was the Gilded Age?
• Social Darwinism in the Gilded Age
• Misunderstanding evolution: a biologist's perspective on Social Darwinism
• Misunderstanding evolution: a historian's perspective on Social Darwinism
• America moves to the city
• Development of the middle class

Politics in the Gilded Age

• Gilded Age politics: patronage
• Laissez-faire policies in the Gilded Age
• The Knights of Labor
• Labor battles in the Gilded Age
• The Populists
• Immigration and migration in the Gilded Age
• Continuity and change in the Gilded Age
• The Gilded Age
• Politics in the Gilded Age were characterized by scandal and corruption, but voter turnout reached an all-time high.
• The Republican Party supported business and industry with a protective tariff and hard money policies.
• The Democratic Party opposed the tariff and eventually adopted the free silver platform.
• The People's (Populist) Party emerged in the 1890s to champion the interests of farmers. The party endorsed the coinage of silver to improve the financial situation of debtors.

Comparing political parties in the Gilded Age

The republican party, the democratic party, the people’s party (the populists), what do you think, want to join the conversation.

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• Curriculum Development Team
• Content Contributors
• Getting Started: Baseline Assessments
• Getting Started: Resources to Enhance Instruction
• Getting Started: Instructional Routines
• Unit 9.1: Global 1 Introduction
• Unit 9.2: The First Civilizations
• Unit 9.3: Classical Civilizations
• Unit 9.4: Political Powers and Achievements
• Unit 9.5: Social and Cultural Growth and Conflict
• Unit 9.6: Ottoman and Ming Pre-1600
• Unit 9.7: Transformation of Western Europe and Russia
• Unit 9.8: Africa and the Americas Pre-1600
• Unit 9.9: Interactions and Disruptions
• Unit 10.0: Global 2 Introduction
• Unit 10.1: The World in 1750 C.E.
• Unit 10.2: Enlightenment, Revolution, and Nationalism
• Unit 10.3: Industrial Revolution
• Unit 10.4: Imperialism
• Unit 10.5: World Wars
• Unit 10.6: Cold War Era
• Unit 10.7: Decolonization and Nationalism
• Unit 10.8: Cultural Traditions and Modernization
• Unit 10.9: Globalization and the Changing Environment
• Unit 10.10: Human Rights Violations
• Unit 11.0: US History Introduction
• Unit 11.1: Colonial Foundations
• Unit 11.2: American Revolution
• Unit 11.3A: Building a Nation
• Unit 11.03B: Sectionalism & the Civil War
• Unit 11.4: Reconstruction

Unit 11.5: Gilded Age and Progressive Era

• Unit 11.6: Rise of American Power
• Unit 11.7: Prosperity and Depression
• Unit 11.8: World War II
• Unit 11.9: Cold War
• Unit 11.10: Domestic Change
• Resources: Regents Prep: Global 2 Exam
• Regents Prep: Framework USH Exam: Regents Prep: US Exam
• Find Resources

Gilded Age and Progressive Era

The United States was transformed from an agrarian to an increasingly industrial and urbanized society.  Although this transformation created new economic opportunities , it also created societal problems that were addressed by a variety of reform efforts .

Unit 5 - Gilded Age and Progressive Era - Unit Plan

Unit outline, framework aligned unit assessment bank developed in partnership with cuny debating us history see 5 items hide 5 items.

Framework aligned regents preparation materials including: 

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• Part 3 Civic Literacy Essay Tasks (Coming in December 2019) 

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U.S. History

Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: Stimulus Based Multiple Choice - Unit 5

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Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: Teacher Materials Unit 5 Stimulus Based MC

Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: Unit 11.5 Part 2 Question Bank

Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: Stimulus Bank

Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: 11.5 Civic Literacy Document Based Essay Task

End of Unit Assessments See 3 items Hide 3 items

Our units are developed through a backwards design process in which we start with the summative assessments and then create resources and formative assessments based on the content and skills students will need to be successful (See  Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe). We encourage teachers to start their planning by looking first at the end of unit assessments and then at specific resources.

End of Unit Assessments: Unit 5 Synthesis Task

Students will recall content learned in unit 5 and organize and align content according to the three unit themes (economic systems, reform movements, equality).  Students will then use this content as evidence to answer the unit 5 essential questions.

End of Unit Assessments: End of Unit Assessment- NYS Framework Aligned

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End of Unit Assessments: End of Unit Assessment- NYS Framework Aligned- Teacher Materials

Unit Vocabulary See 4 items Hide 4 items

These curricular resources introduce students to the concepts and vocabulary they will encounter in the unit.

Four introductory vocabulary routines to introduce content and concepts.  

Unit Vocabulary: Vocabulary Review Activity - Mad Libs

Students review vocabulary and content using a mad-libs style reading worksheet. 

Unit Vocabulary: Unit 5 Vocabulary Chart - Student

Teachers can use this chart to review relevant unit vocabulary while teaching the unit.

Unit Vocabulary: Unit 5 Vocabulary Chart - Teacher

Full Unit Chart with key terms

Building Context See 4 items Hide 4 items

Students will begin to build historical context for studying unit 5 content. 

Building Context: Unit 5 Essential Questions Introduction

Students will use a durable learning routine, images draw you in, to think conceptually about unit themes and essential questions.  

Building Context: Impact of Railroads

Students will compare and contrast three maps to analyze the impact of railroads on the United States after the Civil War.  

Building Context: Gilded Age Graphs

Students will examine graphs detailing various aspects of the Gilded Age to make claims about changes in American population and economy.  

Differentiated version of Gilded Age Graphs Curricular Resource 

Industrialization & the Gilded Age See 10 items Hide 10 items

These curricular resources explore the impact of the post-civil war industrial revolution as well as the birth of the Gilded Age.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Industrialization in the Gilded Age

Students will study how technology, natural resources, and transportation fueled the post-civil war industrial revolution by completing a graphic organizer and responding to a prompt.   

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Causes and Effects of Industrialization (1870 - 1910)

Students will examine the various causes and effects of industrialization between 1870 - 1910 through group work. 

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Labor Movement

Analysis: Students will compare and contrast  the Haymarket Riot, the Homestead Strike, the Pullman Strike, and the Ludlow Massacre.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Media Bias and Labor Unions

Students will compare and contrast newspaper accounts of the Haymarket Riot and Pullman Strike.  

Students will compare and contrast newspaper accounts of the Haymarket Riot and the Pullman Strike. 

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Immigration and Urbanization

Students will examine primary and secondary source documents to analyze the cause and effect relationship between immigration and urbanization in the gilded age.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Immigration: Arriving in America

Students will compare and contrast a primary (photograph) and secondary (poem) source to evaluate immigrant experiences upon arrival in America during the gilded age.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Robber barons or Captains of Industry?

Students will use the evidence gathered from the primary and secondary sources to draft an essay describing the Gilded Age businessman.

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Political Cartoons of the Gilded Age

Students will analyze various political cartoons from the gilded age, learning to use a cartoon analysis protocol that can be applied to any political cartoon or image.  

Industrialization & the Gilded Age: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Students will analyze a primary source document, view a video clip, and analyze a second primary source document to learn about causes of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.  

Reform Movements See 9 items Hide 9 items

These curricular resources explore Progressive Era reforms and associated social movements.  

Reform Movements: Progressive Era Reform Movements

Students will analyze social and federal reforms of the Progressive Era, focusing on cause and effect.  Students will complete a graphic organizer, answer reflection questions, and respond to a written task. 

Reform Movements: Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois

Students will analyze a secondary source (poem) and three primary sources (Souls of Black Folks, Talented Tenth, and the Atlanta Compromise).  This will help them understand the responses of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois to the Jim Crow era and Gilded Age.  

Reform Movements: Pure Food and Drugs Act

Students will analyze artifacts from the progressive era to learn about the causes and effects of the Pure Food and Drugs Act as well as the Meat Inspection Act.  

Reform Movements: Populist Party Platform

How did industrialization impact farmers? What reforms did the Populist Party propose?  

Reform Movements: Living Wage

What is a living wage? Why was it a suggested reform during the Gilded Age? Students will analyze a primary source document related to this topic and compare it to modern day living wage debates. 

Reform Movements: 19th Amendment

Students will use evidence from the documents to compare and contrast the National Woman's Party & the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Reform Movements: How the Other Half Lives

Students will analyze the historical context of the gilded age in order to study an important progressive era movement - muckraking journalism.  Students will read excerpts and review images from Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives. 

Reform Movements: DBQ: Women's Suffrage

Students will analyze various documents from the women's rights movement and analyze arguments for and against women's suffrage.

Students will use evidence from the documents to discuss the conditions that led Progressive Reformers to address their goal and the extent to which the goal was achieved.

Unit Synthesis Task See 1 item Hide 1 item

This curricular resource provides students with an opportunity to synthesize what they learned in the unit before completing the End of Unit Assessment.

The Gilded Age Essay

Gilded Age is a period between 1870 and 1890. This is a very complicated period in the life of American citizens as during these years corruption flourished, social life in the country was supported with constant scandals and the gap between poor and rich was extremely big.

This period is characterized by enormous wealth, however, the philanthropy was also on a high level. Democrats and Republicans were two major parties which fought for power, and having received it they tried to make sure that the more people are put on the leading positions in the local and national government. Reading different sources of information, it is possible to create a personal opinion about the Gilded Age and the political issues which were spread there.

There are different points of view about political system which was during the Gilded Age. Cash ruled human decisions, and therefore, the politics was based on those people who had more money (Flehinger 159). Such state of affairs is inappropriate. It is impossible to run the country without the desire to make it better.

Those who got power by means of money were sure to have the goal to get more money from people to return what they spent and to earn more. In this case politics for people becomes simple source of money, not the desire to improve human life and to change something for better.

Buder said that “the Gilded Age was, of course, the time when the United States experienced profound demographic and economic growth” (Buder 873). It is impossible to contradict this opinion, however, it is also impossible to agree that all people experiences economic growth.

The political contradiction and the division of power negatively affected simple people. The lower layers of population were not really satisfied with what was going on. I am sure that the economical growth of the country was a successful issue, however, the benefit from such growth was available just for rich and wealthy people while simple employees remained with their personal income.

Among various disadvantages and negative effect of the Gilded Age in the American politics, Gage points to the radical violence (Gage 107). The violent acts flew through the whole country. People suffered from those but the government could do nothing to protect them. The question whether they wanted to do it raise here. Moreover, it is essential to understand that the accidents of violence could be useful for the government who could satisfy their interests while people suffered from violent acts.

Giroux is sure that the Gilded Age was even more antidemocratic than the previous period even though democracy was proclaimed as the political regime in the country. Looking at the illegal actions of the powered people and their lack of desire to maintain order in the country, It is impossible to disagree with the author of the article as proclaiming democratic regime in the country, people did not have any rights to govern the country. Only money solved all the problems and was the source of the decisions in the USA (Giroux 587).

“The Gilded Age celebrated two kinds of virtues: those of the soldier and those of the entrepreneur” (“The Loss of Public Principles and Public in Interest” 147) and this phrase reflects the real estate of affairs during the Gilded Age. Simple people had nothing, neither the power to govern the country, nor the opportunities to change anything. Just leading the lives they had to survive. Of course, the economical growth of the country affected their well-being, however, it was not that great at the well-being of the powerful people.

White says that “Gilded Age financial corruption consisted of quotidian faults—lying, deception, and dishonesty—played out largely on paper and along telegraph lines, but on a national and international scale” (White 21).

Much has already been said about corruption, however, White tried to measure the affect of corrupted government on simple population. Dwelling upon the reasons of the corruption which was provoked by the decisions proclaimed by the government, White is sure that the situation could be changed and I agree with the statement.

Cherny’s review of the book From Bloody Shirt to Full Dinner Pail: The Transformation of Politics and Governance in the Gilded Age by Charles W. Calhoun is a great opportunity to consider the presidents and the would-be presidents of the country during the mentioned period.

Having considered the presidents, their thought and reforms it is possible to draw personal conclusions about the reasons of the high economic and low political development of the country during the Gilded Age. The author points to the highest level of human participation in politics, however, the reasons and the real mechanism of that participation is not covered which is a great limitation of that study (Cherny 215).

Reuter dwells upon the place of the business in politics. He is sure that those who got more money could control the legislation in the country during the Gilded Age. This is correct and money run business in America during that period (Reuter 55).

Considering the Gilded Age, I become more and more assured that the present situation in the USA is similar to that one which happened in America in 1870-1890s. However, during 1876 and 1892 none of the candidates managed to get the priority in votes, that is why the power was constantly shared between two parties, Democrats and Republicans (Miller 51).

Cashman’s work America in the Gilded Age is the fullest edition which presents the political situation in the country. Having read this piece of writing I understood that even though the economical situation improved, the political issues were distant from being called perfect.

Two parties managed to run the country without giving an opportunity for others to interfere into the political process, however, these two parties were too opposite to agree on the manner how the country should be governed. “Government’s primary role during the nineteenth century was to distribute resources and privileges to identifiable groups” (Miller 59) rather than consider the problems of people and solve them on the political level.

Therefore, it may be concluded that the Gilded Age was a very controversial age. Being economically flourishing, it just promoted rich people, however, the charity was also developed. The political system might be characterized by the Democratic-Republican duopoly, democratic regime and corruption.

It is impossible to say for sure whether that period was good or bad as it contained both positive and negative issues. As for me, the political regime of the Gilded Age should be characterized as the negative one due to the reasons discussed above.

Works Cited

Buder, Stanley. “James T. Wall. Wall Street and the Fruited Plain: Money, Expansion and Politics in the Gilded Age.” Enterprise & Society 10.4 (2009): 873-874. Print.

Cashman, Sean. America in the Gilded Age: Third Edition . New York University Press, 1993. Print.

Cherny, Robert W. “From Bloody Shirt to Full Dinner Pail: The Transformation of Politics and Governance in the Gilded Age.” Journal of American History 98.1 (2011): 214- 215. Print.

Flehinger, Brett. “Party Games: Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics.” Canadian Journal of History 41.1 (2006): 159-160. Print.

Gage, Beverly. “Why Violence Matters: Radicalism, Politics, and Class War in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.” Journal for the Study of Radicalism 1.1 (2007): 99-109. Print.

Giroux, Henry A. “Beyond the biopolitics of disposability: rethinking neoliberalism in the New Gilded Age.” Social Identities 14.5 (2008): 587-620. Print.

Miller, Worth Robert. “The Lost World of Gilded Age Politics.” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 1.1 (2002): 49-67. Print.

Reuter, William C. “Business journals and Gilded Age politics.” Historian 56.1 (1993): 55. Print.

“The Loss of Public Principles and Public in Interest: Gilded Age Rhetoric, 1872-1896.” Language of Democracy: Political Rhetoric in the United States & Britain, 1790-1900 , (2005): 146-163. Print.

White, Richard. “Information, Markets, and Corruption: Transcontinental Railroads in the Gilded Age.” Journal of American History 90.1 (2003): 19-43. Print.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, May 25). The Gilded Age. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gilded-age/

"The Gilded Age." IvyPanda , 25 May 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/the-gilded-age/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'The Gilded Age'. 25 May.

IvyPanda . 2019. "The Gilded Age." May 25, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gilded-age/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Gilded Age." May 25, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gilded-age/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Gilded Age." May 25, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gilded-age/.

• US History Since 1877
• The Gilded Age as an Important Political Turning Point in American History
• The Origin of the Term "The Gilded Age" and the Appropriateness of the Metaphor for the United States in the Late 1800s
• The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Warner
• Empire and Homogenization in Gilded Age
• The Rise of Mass Society
• "The United States: A Brief Narrative History" by L. Hullar and S. Nelson
• “The Freedom of the Streets: Work, Citizenship, and Sexuality in a Gilded Age City” by Sharon Wood
• How the Federal Bureaucracy Expanded During WWI?
• Gilded Age and Progressive Era Freedom Challenges
• Lynching in America between 1890 and 1930
• Compare and contrast the Virginia and New Jersey plans presented at the Constitutional Convention
• The Vision of America: Hamilton v. Jefferson
• Reforms in the Gilded Age
• Critical Analysis of Document 28-1 President Lyndon B. Johnson Describes the Great Society and Document 30-4 President Ronald Reagan Defends American Morality

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Period 6: 1865-1898 (AP US History)

Period 6: 1865-1898.

The transformation of the United States from an agricultural to an increasingly industrialized and urbanized society brought about significant economic, political, diplomatic, social, environmental, and cultural changes. Topics may include:

• The Settlement of the West 

The "New South"

The rise of industrial capitalism, immigration and migration, reform movements, debates about the role of government.

Image Source : A detail from Across the Continent: “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way,” a lithograph by Frances Flora Bond Palmer, published in New York by Currier & Ives, 1868. (National Gallery of Art)

10-17% Exam Weighting

Resources by Period:

• Period 1: 1491–1607
• Period 2: 1607–1754
• Period 3: 1754–1800
• Period 4: 1800–1848
• Period 5: 1844–1877
• Period 6: 1865–1898
• Period 7: 1890–1945
• Period 8: 1945–1980
• Period 9: 1980–Present

Key Concepts

6.1 : Technological advances, large-scale production methods, and the opening of new markets encouraged the rise of industrial capitalism in the United States.

6.2 : The migrations that accompanied industrialization transformed both urban and rural areas of the United States and caused dramatic social and cultural change.

6.3 : The Gilded Age produced new cultural and intellectual movements, public reform efforts, and political debates over economic and social policies.

The Settlement of the West

Financing the Transcontinental Railroad

By maury klein.

Understand the funding and building of the railroads.

Native Networks and the Ghost Dance

By justin gage.

Watch a discussion about a spiritual dance performed to combat US expansion into the West.

The Development of the West

By ned blackhawk.

Gain an understanding of how the idea of the West played a role in the US emerging as a global power.

Indian Wars: The Battle of Washita

Report by General Custer describing conditions during the Indian Wars

• Primary Source

American Indians and the Transcontinental Railroad

By elliott west.

Learn about the impact of the railroads on Indigenous peoples in the West.

Official photograph from the “Golden Spike” Ceremony

The completion of the first transcontinental railroad lines at Promontory Summit, Utah.

Horace Greeley: “Go West”

Editor of the New York Tribune encourages young men to pursue westward expansion.

William T. Sherman on the western railroads

Letter recognizing the railroad’s value to the military

An Introduction to the History of Women and Gender Roles in Indigenous Societies

By k. tsianina lomawaima.

Learn about the social changes and continuities in Indigenous communities. 

The "New South"

Citizenship in the Reconstruction South

By susanna lee.

Read about the active role freed men and women played in the struggle to define the contours of a biracial democracy. 

The Effects of the Civil War on the South

By edward l. ayers.

Watch a discussion contextualizing the economic and social impacts of the war.

Campaigning for the African American vote in Georgia

Broadside aimed at winning the Black vote in Georgia

Reconstruction and the South

Charles Sumner's claim that President Johnson was jeopardizing the North's victory.

Sharecropper contract

1867 contract agreeing to the terms for sharecropping

The War Ruined Me

Letter describing the economic struggles of an Alabama farmer and preacher

Frederick Douglass on Disenfranchisement

Letter by Frederick Douglass protesting the disenfranchisement of Black southern voters following Reconstruction

The Grange Movement

Lithograph promoting the needs of farmers

Labor Day: From Protest to Picnics

By joshua b. freeman.

Learn about the development of the labor movement and labor unions in the age of industrialization.

Anti-corporate cartoons

Cartoons expressing hostility toward corporate capitalism

The struggle for married women’s rights, circa 1880s

John Brown's daughter on the "struggle for a married woman’s rights"

Assassinating President Garfield

Assassin Charles Julius Guiteau pleads innocence through poetry

The Persistence of Ida B. Wells

By kristina durocher.

Read about Wells’s long struggle for racial justice and suffrage as well as the resistance she faced along the way.

The Haymarket Affair

Publication claiming that the accused in the Haymarket Affair were victims of anti-labor advocates

William Jennings Bryan on the Declaration

William Jennings Bryan draws on the ideals of Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson

Rethinking Huck

By steven mintz.

Gain an understanding the evolving critiques of Twain's Huckleberry Finn over time.

William Cullen Bryant opposes the protective tariff

An argument against tarriffs

Populism and Agrarian Discontent

By michael kazin.

Examine the Populist response to industrialization and the development of the People's Party.

People’s Party campaign poster

Image promoting Populist goals of "Equal Rights to All; Special Privileges to None"

The United States and the Caribbean

By jason colby.

Read about the role of private enterprise and US influence in the Caribbean.

The History of US Immigration Law

By jane hong.

Read about regional and national restrictions on immigration.

by Hasia Diner

Learn about push and pull factors and their relationship to the Industrial Revolution.

Workingmen's Party Pamphlet

Anti-Chinese and anti-immigration rhetoric from California

Expelling the Poor: Antebellum Origins

By hidetaka hirota.

Learn about the discrimination against poor immigrants from Ireland and China.

The Gilded Age

By t. jackson lears.

Learn about key moments and ideas that gave rise to the industrial era.

Building Carnegie Hall

Letter by Andrew Carnegie seeking assistance in the building of the Music Hall in New York City

Entrepreneurs and Bankers

By robert w. cherny.

Examine the rise of big business and captains of industry.

The Rise of Industrial America

By richard white.

Gain a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution.

American History Timeline: 1865-1898

Image citations.

Listed in order of appearance in the sections above

• Swain & Lewis, The World's Railroad Scene. Chicago, 1882. Chromolithograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Remington, Frederic. "The Ghost Dance by the Ogallala Sioux at Pine Ridge Agency. Dakota." Harper's Weekly, December 6, 1890. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Moran, Thomas. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. 1893-1901. Oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of George D. Pratt, 1928.7.1.
• Custer, George Armstrong. Report to Lt. Schuyler Crosby, Dept. of the Missouri, on the Battle of Washita, December 22, 1868. Manuscript. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04606.
• Currier & Ives, James Merritt Ives, and F. F. Palmer. Across the Continent, "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way." New York, 1868. Lithograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Russell, Andrew J. Joining of the Rails at Promontory Point [Russell #227], May 10, 1869. Photograph. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04481.01.
• Greeley, Horace. Letter to R. L. Sanderson, November 15, 1871. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00608.
• Sherman, William T. Letter to David Douty Colton, September 26, 1878. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05095.
• Joan Hill (Muskogee Creek and Cherokee), Women’s Voices at the Council, 1990. Acrylic on canvas. Gift of the artist on behalf of the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women. Oklahoma State Art Collection. Courtesy of the Oklahoma Arts Council.
• Nast, Thomas. “Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction and How It Works.” Harper's Weekly, September 1, 1866. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01733.08.
• Beard, James Carter. The Fifteenth Amendment. Celebrated May 19th, 1870. New York: Thomas Kelly , 1870. The Richard Gilder Personal Collection, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC10030.
• Democratic Party (Ga.). Colored Voters Read. 1894. Broadside. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC09000.
• Sumner, Charles. "[One man power versus Congress] Address." ca. October 2, 1866. Manuscript. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00496.088.01.
• Bailey, Isham G. Contract between Isham G. Bailey and freedmen Cooper Hughs and Charles Roberts. Mississippi, January 1, 1867. Manuscript. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04522.11.
• Ramsey, Alexander. Letter to J. J. Wardlaw, January 3, 1867. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC09311.
• Douglass, Frederick. Letter to Robert Adams, December 4, 1888. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04997.
• J. Hale Powers & Co. Fraternity & Fine Art Publishers. Gift for the Grangers. Cincinnati: Strobridge & Co., 1873. Chromolithograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Hine, Lewis Wickes. Group of Oyster Shuckers in Barataria Canning Co. Biloxi, Mississippi, 1911. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Gillam, Bernhard. "The Protectors of Our Industries." Puck, February 7, 1883. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Adams, Anne Brown. Letter to Alexander M. Ross, January 16, 1886. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC03007.13.
• Guiteau, Charles. "My Case." June 6, 1882. Manuscript. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC06319.
• "Ida B. Wells." In I. Garland Penn, The Afro-American Press and Its Editors. Springfield, MA: Willey & Co., 1891. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Lum, Dyer D. A Concise History of the Great Trial of the Chicago Anarchists in 1886. Chicago: Socialistic Publishing Society, [1886]. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05640.
• Bryan, William Jennings. Letter to I. J. Dunn, January 4, 1895. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC07189.
• Bradley, A. F. Samuel Langhorne Clemens [Mark Twain]. 1907. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Bryant, William Cullen. Letter to Hamilton A. Hill, February 11, 1876. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02595.
• People's Party Paper (Atlanta, GA), April 28, 1892. Chronicling America. Library of Congress.
• People’s Party. Candidates for President and Vice President. Chicago: Chicago Sentinel Publishing Company, 1892. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Detroit Publishing Co. United Fruit Company banana conveyors, New Orleans, La. ca. 1910. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Hamilton, Grant E. "Where the Blame Lies." Judge, April 4, 1891. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Johnston, Frances Benjamin. Wooden Box Industry: Women in Work Room of Box Factory. ca. 1910. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Workingmen's Party of California. Chinatown Declared a Nuisance! San Francisco, 1880. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC06232.03.
• Nast, Thomas. "Which Color Is to Be Tabooed Next?" Harper's Weekly, March 25, 1882. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 
• Tou, Edmond. John D. Rockefeller. 1912. Photograph. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05148.
• Carnegie, Andrew. Letter to Heram Hitchcock, January 31, 1889. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02896.
• Unknown photographer. Henry Ford. ca. 1925. Photograph. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02684.
• Lee, Russell. Textile Mills. New Braunfels, Texas.1940. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 

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What Was the Gilded Age?

Economic and industrial developments, social stratification and inequality, economic impact and legacy, are there gilded age mansions left, what was the worst scandal of the gilded age, when did the gilded age start and end, the bottom line.

• Government & Policy

The Gilded Age Explained: An Era of Wealth and Inequality

Katie Miller is a consumer financial services expert. She worked for almost two decades as an executive, leading multi-billion dollar mortgage, credit card, and savings portfolios with operations worldwide and a unique focus on the consumer. Her mortgage expertise was honed post-2008 crisis as she implemented the significant changes resulting from Dodd-Frank required regulations.

Investopedia / Mira Norian

The Gilded Age, which roughly spanned the late 1870s to the early 1900s, was a time of rapid industrialization , economic growth, and prosperity for the wealthy. It was also a time of exploitation and extreme poverty for the working class.

Reconstruction preceded the Gilded Age, when factories built as part of the North’s Civil War effort were converted to domestic manufacturing . Agriculture, which had once dominated the economy, was replaced by industry. Ultimately, the Gilded Age was supplanted by early 20th-century progressivism after populism failed.

The term “gilded age” was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in a book titled The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today . Published in 1873, the book satirized the thin “gilding” of economic well-being that overlaid the widespread poverty, corruption, and labor exploitation that characterized the period.

Key Takeaways

• The Gilded Age lasted from the late 1800s to the early 1900s and was characterized by economic growth for the wealthy and extreme poverty for the working classes.
• A societal shift from agriculture to industry resulted in a movement to the cities for some and westward migration for others.
• The beginning of organized labor, investigative journalism, and progressive ideologies began to spell the end of the Gilded Age and its rigid class structure.
• The Gilded Age marked the beginning of industrialization in America—a time of innovation, transportation growth, and full employment. It was also a time of economic devastation and dangerous working conditions for labor.

As the United States began to shift from agriculture to industry as a means of economic growth, people began to move from farms to urban areas. Railroads expanded, industry began to mechanize, communication improved, and corruption became widespread.

Railroad Expansion

Railroads expanded dramatically in the U.S. in the 1870s. From 1871 to 1900, 170,000 miles of track were laid in the United States, most of it for constructing the transcontinental railway system. It began with the passage of the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 , which authorized the first of five transcontinental railroads.

Mechanization of Industries

The late 19th century saw an unprecedented expansion of industry and production, much of it by machines. Machines replaced skilled workers, reducing labor costs and the ultimate selling price of goods and services. Instead of skilled workers seeing a product through from start to finish, jobs were often limited to one task repeated endlessly. The pace of work increased, with many laborers forced to work longer hours.

Communications Networks

Technological advancements, including the phonograph and the telephone, came into existence during the Gilded Age. So did the advent of mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. Professional entertainers quickly adopted these new forms of communication, making listening and reading news new leisure activities.

Monopolies and Robber Barons

During the Gilded Age, many businessmen became wealthy by gaining control of entire industries. Controlling an entire sector of the economy is known as having a monopoly . The most prominent figures with monopolies were J.P. Morgan (banking), John D. Rockefeller (oil), Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads), and Andrew Carnegie (steel).

Because of the way they exploited workers with low wages, long hours, and dangerous working conditions, these wealthy tycoons were often referred to as robber barons , a pejorative term used to describe the accumulation of wealth through that exploitation.

Rural Life and Urban Life—Gilded Age Homes

Homes during the Gilded Age reflected the lifestyle and wealth of the homeowner. While the wealthy built magnificent mansions with stately names like Vanderbilt Mansion, Peacock Point, and Castle Rock, many of the less fortunate lived in tenement buildings in cities, where they flocked for jobs, or in the West, in claim shanties—small shacks built to fulfill Homestead Act regulations.

The Gilded Age saw rapid growth in the economic disparities between workers and business owners. The wealthy lived lavishly, while the working class endured low wages and horrid conditions.

Real Wage Increases

The technological changes brought about by industrialization are thought to be largely responsible for the fact that real wages of unskilled labor grew 1.43% per year during the Gilded Age vs. 0.56% per year during the Progressive Era and just 0.44% per year from 1990 to 2005.

By those measures and comparisons, the Gilded Age would seem to be a success. In 1880, for example, the average earnings of an American worker were $347 per year. That grew to $445 in 1890, an increase of more than 28%.

Abject Poverty

“While the rich wore diamonds, many wore rags.” This summarizes the income and lifestyle disparity that characterized the Gilded Age. In 1890, 11 million of the nation’s 12 million families (92%) lived below the poverty line. Tenements teemed with an unlikely combination of rural families and immigrants who came into urban areas, took low-paying jobs, and lived in abject poverty.

Though wages rose during the Gilded Age, they were deficient initially. As noted above, in 1880, the average wages of an American worker were $347 per year ($10,399 today, as of this writing) but had risen to $445 by 1890 ($14,949 in today’s dollars). Given today’s federal poverty level (FPL) , which is $30,000 for a family of four, most Gilded Age Americans were excessively poor despite the impressive wage growth of the time.

Labor Unions

The rise of labor unions was neither sudden nor without struggle. Business owners used intimidation and violence to suppress workers, even though they had a right to organize. By 1866, there were nearly 200,000 workers in local unions across the United States. William Sylvis took advantage of these numbers to establish the first nationwide labor organization, named the National Labor Union (NLU).

Unfortunately, Sylvis and the NLU tried to represent too many constituencies, causing the group to disband following the Panic of 1873 when it couldn’t serve all those competing groups. The NLU was replaced by the Knights of Labor, started by Uriah Stephens in 1869. Stephens admitted all wage earners, including women and Black people.

The Knights of Labor lost members and eventually dissolved for two reasons. First, Stephens, an old-style industrial capitalist, refused to adjust to the changing needs of workers. Second, a bomb thrown into a crowd at a rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886, was blamed on the union, driving even more members away.

By December 1886, labor leader Samuel Gompers took advantage of the vacuum left by the demise of the Knights and created a new union based on the simple premise that American workers wanted just two things: higher wages and better working conditions. Thus was born the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

Corruption and Scandals—Muckrakers

Another product of the Gilded Age was investigative journalism. Reporters who exposed corruption among politicians in the wealthy class were known as muckrakers for their ability to dig through the “muck” of the Gilded Age to uncover scandal and thievery.

Notable muckrakers included Jacob Rils, who in 1890 exposed the horrors of New York City slum life. In 1902, Lincoln Steffens brought city corruption to light with a magazine article titled “Tweed Days in St. Louis.” Ida Tarbell put her energy into exposing the antics of John D. Rockefeller; her reporting led to the breakup of Standard Oil Co. In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose conditions in the meatpacking industry. This led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Immigration

Many immigrants came to North America during the Gilded Age, with 11.7 million of them landing in the United States. Of those, 10.6 million came from Europe, making up 90% of the immigrant population. Immigrants made it possible for the U.S. economy to grow since they were willing to take jobs that native-born Americans wouldn’t .

While factory owners welcomed these newcomers, who were willing to accept low wages and dangerous working conditions, not all Americans did. So-called nativists lobbied to restrict certain immigrant populations, and in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act passed Congress. But millions came despite the obstacles. The Statue of Liberty beckoned, and the “huddled masses” responded. The children of immigrants began to assimilate, despite their parents’ objections. Another hallmark of the Gilded Age was born, as America became a true melting pot.

Women in the Workforce

Industrialization created jobs outside the home for women. By 1900, one in seven women were employed. The typical female worker was young, urban, single, and either an immigrant or the daughter of immigrants. Her work was temporary—just until she married. The job she was most likely to hold was that of a domestic servant.

The Gilded Age also saw an increase in college-educated women. Colleges, including Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, and Mount Holyoke, opened their doors to women in the post-bellum years. This did not happen without some incredible chauvinism. Scientists of the era warned that women’s brains were too small to handle college work without compromising their reproductive systems. Many, it turned out, took that risk. The predominant fields held by female college graduates were nursing and teaching.

The Black Experience

As reconstruction ended on a state-by-state basis, Black people could migrate away from plantations and into cities in search of economic opportunity, or to move west or south in search of land that they could work for themselves. From 1870 to 1900, the South’s Black population went from 4.4 million to 7.9 million. People found jobs in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, working on railroads and in mines, lumber, factories, and farms. For some, however, sharecropping replaced slavery, keeping Black workers tied to the land without ownership.

For a small set of others, this period led to the foundation of what’s known as the Black elite or “the colored aristocracy,” as was noted by Willard B. Gatewood in Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880–1920 . Among this group were members such as Blanche Bruce, a Republican senator from Mississippi; Josephine Beall Willson Bruce, a women’s rights activist in Washington, D.C., and the wife of Blanche Bruce; and Timothy Thomas Fortune, economist and editor of The New York Age , the nation’s leading Black newspaper at the time.

The Gilded Age saw the transformation of the American economy from agrarian to industrial. It saw the development of a national transportation and communication network. Women began to enter the workforce as never before. Millions of immigrants took root in a new land. Enterprising industrialists became titans and wealthy beyond measure.

Production and per capita income rose sharply, albeit with great disparity among wealth classes. Earlier legislation, like the Homestead Act, motivated the movement westward of millions of people to lay claim to land that would give them a new start and a chance at the American dream. As America became more prosperous, some of its citizens fell victim to greed, corruption, and political vice. This combination of extraordinary wealth and unimaginable poverty was the ultimate juxtaposition of capitalism and government intervention. The debate continues today.

You can still see and even visit some of the most opulent examples of Gilded Age domicile excess today. In New York City, for example, you can drive past the Vanderbilts’ Plant House, the Carnegie Mansion, the Morgan House, and others, if you know where to look.

The Gilded Age gave birth to enough scandals to create competition for the worst of the lot, but many historians agree that the transcontinental railroad scandal was the cream of the crop, so to speak.

The federal government, in deciding to underwrite a transcontinental railroad, created an opportunity for corruption that it did not anticipate. As builder of the railroad, the Union Pacific company engaged in price fixing and bribery that affected members of the Ulysses S. Grant presidential administration. The corruption was uncovered by investigators, bringing the scheme to an end.

The Gilded Age in America refers to the period from the end of Reconstruction to the turn of the century (1870 to 1901). Some extend the period into the early 1900s, but most agree that the beginning of the Progressive Era in the early 1900s is the ultimate ending point.

The Gilded Age was critical to the growth of the United States by introducing industrialization and technological advances. It was also a time of political turmoil, greed, and extreme income inequality. The U.S. became the most economically powerful country in the world due to the era. It was a time of unprecedented progress and unimaginable poverty.

The wealth gap between the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Morgans, and Vanderbilts and the rest of the country was palpable. With wealth came greed. With innovation came corruption. Muckrakers, the first investigative journalists, helped uncover the graft, and unions helped labor even the playing field. Ultimately, this “best and worst” of times became another important chapter in the American saga.

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ The Gilded Age .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ The Growth of Populism .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ Progressivism Sweeps the Nation .”

History. “ Gilded Age .”

Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, via Google Books. “ The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today .” Penguin Publishing Group, 2001 (originally published in 1873).

Library of Congress. “ Railroads in the Late 19th Century .”

Library of Congress. “ Work in the Late 19th Century .”

Digital History, University of Houston. “ An Age of Innovation .”

Dupont Castle. “ Castle Rock .”

Preservation Long Island, via ArcGIS StoryMaps. “ Peacock Point .”

South Dakota State University. “ South Dakota Claim Shanty .”

Hugh Rockoff, via National Bureau of Economic Research. “ Great Fortunes of the Gilded Age .” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 14555, December 2008, Page 32.

Clarence D. Long, via National Bureau of Economic Research. “ Wages and Earnings in the United States, 1860–1890: Chapter 3, Annual Earnings .” Princeton University Press, 1960, Page 41 (Page 4 of PDF).

PBS. “ American Experience: The Gilded Age .”

CPI Inflation Calculator. “ $347 in 1880 Is Worth $10,399.49 Today .”

CPI Inflation Calculator. “ $445 in 1890 Is Worth $14,948.63 Today .”

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. “ Federal Poverty Guidelines .”

Khan Academy. “ Labor Battles in the Gilded Age .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ Early National Organizations .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ American Federation of Labor .”

Washington State University Libraries, Digital Exhibits. “ Immigrant Factory Workers .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ The Rush of Immigrants .”

Stacy A. Cordery (editor: Charles William Calhoun), via Google Books. “ The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America ,” Chapter 6: Women in Industrializing America, Pages 119–121. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.

Leslie H. Fishel Jr. (editor: Charles William Calhoun, via Google Books. “ The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America ,” Chapter 7: The African-American Experience in the Gilded Age, Page 144. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.

Willard B. Gatewood, via Google Books. “ Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite 1880–1920 (p) .” University of Arkansas Press, 1990.

Town and Country. “ 10 Gilded Age Landmarks in New York City Still Standing Today .”

History. “ Crédit Mobilier .”

The History Junkie. “ The Gilded Age Facts and History .”

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Home — Essay Samples — Arts & Culture — American Culture — The Gilded Age of America

The Gilded Age of America

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Published: Dec 18, 2018

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Gilded Age and Progressive Era Introductory Essay

The decades after the American Civil War witnessed a vast array of social, economic,technological, cultural, and political changes in the American landscape. These changes transformed the United States from a largely local to a national society. This new society was characterized by a more integrated nation with large institutions and a broad, national outlook.

The economy experienced significant growth during the late nineteenth century that built on the beginnings of the industrial revolution that had begun before the Civil War. The rise of the factory system depended on technological change and new power sources that made the mass production of goods possible. The expansion of the railroad created a national distribution network for the goods. The modern business corporation grew as a response to managing the national production and distribution of goods. The practices of big business came under media and regulatory scrutiny as equal opportunity seemed to shrink.The great wealth of several industrialists was also scrutinized by those who feared their influence and were concerned about growing inequality.

American workers were the backbone of this new industrial economy as they worked with machines to secure the raw materials from the earth and used them to create a finished product. Millions of workers saw great changes in the nature of their work in the factory system.They earned higher wages and enjoyed greater standards of living but sometimes at a great cost due to dangerous, unhealthy conditions.Workers organized into labor unions to meet the growing power of big business. The labor unions gave workers a sense of solidarity and a greater bargaining position with employers. Waves of strikes and industrial violence convulsed the country, and led to an uncertain future for organized labor.

American farmers were caught between two competing trends in the new industrial economy. The future seemed bright as new western lands were brought under cultivation and new technology allowed farmers to achieve much greater production. However, banks and railroads offered mixed blessings as they often hurt the farmers’ economic position. Farmers organized into groups to protect their interests and participate in the growing prosperity of the rapidly industrializing American economy. At the same time, difficult times led many to give up on farming and find work in factories.

American cities became larger through out the period as the factory system drew millions of workers from the American country side and tens of millions of immigrants from other countries. The large cities created immense markets that demanded mass-produced goods and agricultural products from American farms.The cities were large, impersonal places for the new comers and were centers of diversity thanks to the mingling of many different cultures. The urban areas lacked basic services and were often run by corrupt bosses, but the period witnessed the growth of more effective urban government that offered basic services to improve life for millions of people.

The tens of millions of immigrants that came to the United States primarily settled in urban areas and worked in the factories. They came for the opportunities afforded by large, industrial economies and provided essential low-skill labor. The “new immigrants” were mostly from southeastern Europe, Asia, and Mexico. They had to adapt to a strange new world, and in turn brought with them new ethnicities, languages,religious practices, foods, and cultures. This tension over assimilation led to debates about American values and the Americanization of immigrants. Some native-born Americans wanted to restrict the number of immigrants coming into the country, while others defended the new comers.

The changes in the economy and society created opportunities and challenges for millions of other Americans. The status and equal rights of women experienced a general,long-term growth. Many women enjoyed new opportunities to become educated and work in society, though these opportunities were still limited when compared with men. The history of women during the late nineteenth century was not monolithic as white, middle-class women often had a very different experience than women who were poor, or from a minority or immigrant background. Because many women entered the workforce, a debate occurred over the kinds and amount of work that women performed, which led to legal protections. The women’s suffrage movement won the biggest success for equal rights in the period with the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote.

African Americans did not participate in the growing opportunities and prosperity that other groups in American society did. The long and bloody Civil War had ended with the freeing of African Americans from slavery. This was followed by further gains of constitutional and legal protections, however, many of these rights would soon evaporate. During the late nineteenth century, African Americans found in equality and racism in the segregation of the South, but they were also victimized by in equality and racism in northern cities in the early twentieth century as they moved there in increasing numbers. Black leaders debated the right path to full equality, civic participation,and economic opportunity in American life.

The changes that affected the American economy and society led to a growth in the federal government. The important issues of the nineteenth century were increasingly contested on the national rather than local levels. Businesses, organized labor, farmers,and interest groups turned to the national government to resolve their disputes. The executive branch saw an expansion of its role and influence as it increased its regulatory power over the many aspects of American life. A widespread reform movement called “progressivism” introduced many reforms that were intended to address the changes in society resulting from the modern industrial economy and society. This increased government’s responsiveness but also dramatically increased the size and powers of the federal government.The national government therefore began to supplant the local and state governments in the minds of many Americans and in the American constitutional system.

The late nineteenth century also us he red in great changes in how the United States interacted with the rest of the world. For the first century of its existence, the United State straded with other countries, acquired territory for continental expansion, and fought in a few major wars. However, the United States was generally neutral in world affairs and focused on its domestic situation. That changed as America entered the world stage as a major global power. This expansion in world affairs led to an internal debate over international powers and responsibilities. Americans also struggled over the character of its foreign affairs. Debates raged over the growth of American military power and whether Americans had a duty to spread democracy around the world.

The changes in the late nineteenth century were bewildering to most Americans who experienced them. Many debates took place to make sense of the changes and to consider howto respond to them. Americans rarely found easy answers and often conflicted with one another on the different solutions. The vast changes that occurred laid the foundation of modern America.The questions and challenges that they faced are still relevant and are debated by Americans today in the twenty-first century. Americans continue to discuss the power and regulation of banks and large corporations. Workers grapple with the globalization of the economy, stagnant wages, and changing technology. Farmers still struggle to make an income amid distant markets determining commodity prices while keeping up with changing consumer tastes about organic and locally-sourced food. Headlines are filled with news of African Americans suffering racism and police brutality. Issues related to the equality of women continue to be debated even as women run for president. Smartphones, social media, the internet, and other technologies change our lives,the culture, and the world economy every day.After more than a century since the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the fundamental challenges of the era still face us today.

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An Exquisite Biography of a Gilded Age Legend

In Natalie Dykstra’s hands, the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner is a tribute to the power of art.

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By Megan O’Grady

Megan O’Grady is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is working on a book about art and life.

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CHASING BEAUTY: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, by Natalie Dykstra

Bright, impetuous and obsessed with beautiful things, Isabella Stewart Gardner led a life out of a Gilded Age novel. Born into a wealthy New York family, she married into an even wealthier Boston one when she wed John Lowell Gardner in 1860, only to be ostracized by her adopted city’s more conservative denizens, who found her self-assurance and penchant for “jollification” a bit much.

Belle, as she was known, thought nothing of bringing home lion cubs from the zoo to show off at teatime, or of taking a younger lover. The necklines of her couture dresses were low; her trademark rope of pearls — a gift from her devoted (and long-suffering) husband — hung nearly to her knees. Society columnists struck a tone of derisive admiration: One 1894 profile marveled at Gardner’s magnetism, given that her face was “almost destitute of those lines of beauty” appreciated at the time.

Gardner cast a mold for ultrawealthy bohemianism, leaving behind the kind of legacy few Bostonians could match in Fenway Court (now known as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), the palazzo-inspired Gesamtkunstwerk she designed largely herself. She filled it with Old Masters, rare manuscripts and objets d’art. Inviting Boston’s elite to the 1903 opening reception, she greeted them like subjects, serving champagne and doughnuts to the strains of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

A portrait both of a lady and of a glittering era, Natalie Dykstra’s “Chasing Beauty” draws from Gardner’s travelogues, scrapbooks and few surviving letters to track her subject’s expanding sensibilities as an art collector. Dykstra, the author of an acclaimed biography of Clover Adams, astutely situates her subject within Gardner’s growing web of connections: expatriates, artists and scholars.

Privilege didn’t inure the Gardners to tragedy: In 1865, their toddler son, John III, died of pneumonia. Belle’s grief metastasized into severe depression when, following a miscarriage, she was told not to make further attempts to have children. When a doctor suggested she travel abroad, Belle was so frail that she had to be carried onto the boat on a cot. (Ten years later, they would take over guardianship of their three nephews after Jack’s brother, Joe, shot himself; his wife had died in childbirth.)

Among her longstanding friendships was one with Henry James, who may have based several characters on her, wrote her obsequious letters and gossiped about her behind her back — though he was socially generous, introducing her to John Singer Sargent.

Sargent painted two extraordinary portraits of Gardner, the first of which depicts her head-on, wasp-waisted and a little bosomy in a black dress — so risqué, in the context of puritanical Boston, that it was hung in Jack’s private office. After Fenway Court opened, Sargent became its first artist in residence.

Gardner became serious about collecting after attending the impassioned lectures of Charles Eliot Norton, Harvard’s first professor of art history. Norton took Gardner’s intellectual curiosities seriously, advising her to invest in art and rare manuscripts rather than couture and jewels. “He knew, as Belle was beginning to know, how beauty can meet loss, how aesthetic experience assuages,” Dykstra writes, noting that Norton was mourning the death of his wife.

At an 1892 Paris auction, Gardner made her first major acquisition: Vermeer’s 1664 painting “The Concert.” When Gardner brought the painting home, it was only the second Vermeer in the United States and the first in Boston. (Stolen in a notorious 1990 heist, it has never been recovered.)

With the help of Bernard Berenson, the Renaissance specialist, she procured her first Botticelli in 1894; two years later, Berenson helped her obtain Titian’s “The Rape of Europa,” which Rubens had called “the greatest painting in the world.”

After Jack’s 1898 death, Gardner focused her energy on Fenway Court’s construction, modeling the museum after Venice’s Palazzo Barbaro — though she and her architect, Willard T. Sears, placed the arches and balustrades around a central courtyard garden, effectively turning the palazzo inside out.

As Dykstra tells it, Gardner never lost her desire to know more; her growing interest in Impressionism led her to purchase portraits by Manet and Degas, and she badgered friends to introduce her to Monet. Eventually she obtained an early Matisse, the first in an American collection.

Like other wealthy American collectors, Gardner delighted in the thrill of the hunt — and part of the pleasure of this exquisitely detailed and perceptive biography is in imagining which Vermeer we might have bid on in Gardner’s bejeweled shoes, or where in our own homes we’d hang the Rembrandt.

But its deeper revelations have more to do with Gardner’s emerging attunement to the emotional affirmation to be found in art — its joys and consolations, the pleasures of sharing those experiences. And as Gardner (intentionally) left few written traces of her inner life, this is a real feat of biography.

What gives art real power, after all, isn’t its moneyed visionaries, but its ability to inspire impassioned encounters in all of us. And while Gardner, largely alone in her fortress of priceless objects in her later years, strikes a poignant figure, there’s a sense of invincibility, too. In her will, Gardner mandated that nothing could be rearranged in the museum’s galleries; in the end, no one else’s judgment mattered but her own.

CHASING BEAUTY : The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner | By Natalie Dykstra | Mariner | 502 pp. | $37.50

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The Gilded Age Makes a Mess of the Picket Line

L ooking back, labor unions were strangely central to a lot of the earliest hits of HBO’s prestige era. Corrupt union politics and all those “no show” construction jobs serve as an ambient background for many of The Sopranos ’ plotlines; The Wire devoted its entire second season to the Shakespearean tragedy of Frank Sobotka and the International Brotherhood of Stevedores; Deadwood ’s microcosmic American origin story was haunted, through its entire run, by the looming threat of brutal, strike-breaking Pinkertons, snuffing out the prospect of organized labor in its messy infancy. The antiheroes Brett Martin has called the “ difficult men ” of this TV era were all also, in vexed and complicated ways, union men.

This cluster of labor plots at the turn of the twenty-first century seems all the more unusual given how little unions have played into subsequent TV series. Workplace comedies have abounded, melodramas of obscene wealth litter the television landscape, and cop stories thrive in every genre, but rarely do these series choose to foreground the union politics that certainly exist, if off-screen, in their story-worlds. NBC’s beloved Superstore and HBO’s The Plot Against America featured union storylines, and Kendall Roy dispatched with Vaulter once its staff got organized in season 1, but these are largely exceptions to the rule. The Bear has yet to raise the specter of unionization in its family kitchen, and even Abbott Elementary, which goes out of its way to advocate for undervalued, underserved teachers, seldom invokes the teachers’ union as an ally in that campaign.

In a moment defined by the Writers Guild of America’s recent victory and the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA’s ongoing battle with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers , it’s conspicuous that so few series even try to represent labor struggles like those of the dues-paying, picketing union members that staff their writers’ rooms and fill their screens. Unions are fighting for screen artists behind the camera; in front of the camera, they’re all but invisible.

If you’ve been wishing for a change in this status quo, for a long-awaited return of the labor struggle to prestige TV screens, then you might want to reconsider whatever monkey’s paw you’ve been using, because unions are back on HBO, but it’s British bourgeois bard Julian Fellowes who’s granting your wish. This week, as the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA remain locked in tense negotiations, The Gilded Age —a show about the innate humanity and erotic magnetism of nineteenth-century robber barons—has decided it has a story to tell about organized labor.

When The Gilded Age debuted last year on HBO, it immediately invited comparisons to great works of turn-of-the-century realist fiction. The show’s plots—especially those focused on the rising and falling fortunes of naïve and ambitious women in Manhattan’s marriage markets—called to mind classic novels by Edith Wharton and Henry James. And the grand costumes, Beaux Arts architecture, and bare-knuckle social combat flooding every frame evoked great screen adaptations of those Gilded Age New York tales by Martin Scorsese and the late Terence Davies. But the comparisons ended there. Rather than a playfully anachronistic fan-fic treatment of those novels in the style of Bridgerton ’s Austen cosplay, The Gilded Age felt more like a boosterish bowdlerization. Nobody ever really falls, no secret desires ever remain tragically unspoken, everybody wins a bit, and nobody loses anything they can’t do without.

The first season of The Gilded Age, despite all this, was a moderate success. I was disappointed that the show didn’t lean into a Whartonian level of glamour and dread, but I think I’m among a minority of viewers whose frustration lasted more than a few episodes. The show, even at its worst, is compulsively watchable. Like The Good Wife before it, The Gilded Age is a veritable who’s who of great New York theater actors: Tony nominees in bustles and cravats as far as the eye can see. Every image is stuffed to bursting with voluptuous scenery and densely populated with stage and screen legends to chew it. There’s Christine Baranski doing her best American Maggie Smith impersonation as the widowed figurehead of an old-money Manhattan family; Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector as fearsome, ferociously sexy industrialist strivers; Cynthia Nixon as a meek spinster; Michael Cerveris as a valet with a scandalous secret; Audra McDonald as the middle-class mother of Denee Benton’s aspiring Black press journalist; Laura Benanti as a horny Newport widow; and even Nathan Lane, doing a baffling take on Foghorn Leghorn as the social consigliere to Mary Astor. You could do a whole lot worse than watching this cast of worthies preen their way through a series of low-stakes social snafus.

The show’s second season doesn’t just continue to coast on these hammy, occasionally moving performances. It’s also showing the self-awareness to transform itself a little. The first season centered around Louisa Jacobson’s Marian Brook—an impoverished Pennsylvania cousin of the illustrious Van Rijn family, who moves to New York to live with her wealthy, estranged aunts after the death of her father. Her need to be educated in the ways of high society provided a useful vehicle for long scenes of unobtrusive exposition. But, especially among towering screen presences like Baranski and Coon, Jacobson’s performance struggled to command the camera’s attention, and the focus on her relatively wan narrative often dissipated any energy the show managed to generate in its other plotlines.

The second season has corrected this by shifting to a much more egalitarian ensemble model with formidable socialite Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) as the gravitational center. Coon remains one of the great TV actors of her generation, and she manages to turn a frothy subplot—about the rivalry between the Academy of Music and the new Metropolitan Opera House—into genuinely gripping drama. The Gilded Age ’s investment in reconstructing “The Opera War” is part of a larger emphasis, this season, on the procedural. Many of the new season’s most compelling subplots share a focus on small-bore logistics, whether it’s the details of financing the Met, the process of applying for a federal patent for a new alarm clock, or even the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. If the second season has taken anything from realists like Wharton and James, it’s the idea that these stories live and breathe through their attention to detail. While the new season retains the original’s predilection for sloppy opulence and bland generality, there are enough finely tuned and observed subplots to make the whole thing run a little more smoothly this time.

Many of the realists whose novels are being interpolated by this show, though, were obsessed with the present. They insisted on describing, and thus stabilizing, a vision of the contemporary moment. James, for instance, writing to his peer Sarah Orne Jewett, said, “The ‘historic” novel is, for me, condemned … to a fatal cheapness.… You may multiply the little facts that can be got from pictures & documents, relics & prints, as much as you like—the real thing is almost impossible to do.” The irony of The Gilded Age, then, is of a series clothed in the stylistic garb of the realist novel, embarking upon a task that the Gilded Age high realists might have found fatally cheap.

And you can see their point! For every closet drama between cousins that unfolds on the show, we have a lurchingly awkward visit to the park where—did you know?—the torch of the Statue of Liberty was displayed during construction or a brief pop-in from an absolutely swag-less Oscar Wilde or a visit to the real architect—a LADY, if you can imagine!—of the Brooklyn Bridge. A subplot about a visit to Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute and an attempted lynching, for instance, represents an almost offensively laughable error. The specter of racial violence becomes window-dressing for a series that is, on principle, uninterested in the messier aspects of the history it represents. The show’s brief toe-dip into the Jim Crow South is rendered even more ridiculous when the story of a narrowly averted lynching is intercut with the story of the Russells’ butler narrowly averting a situation in which the Duke of Buckingham would be served a bowl of bad-tasting soup. The Gilded Age isn’t about the present, but it is surely presentist in its touristic interest in the historical highlights of the time. Nowhere is this clearer than in this season’s showdown between railway magnate George Russell (Morgan Spector) and the steelworkers’ union of Pittsburgh.

There’s almost no way that The Gilded Age could have anticipated that this new season would air shortly after the resolution of a major WGA strike and in the midst of ongoing negotiations to end the SAG-AFTRA strike. But the parallels between the show’s labor plotline and the labor plotline in which all of its cast members are currently embroiled are too neat to ignore. At the start of this new season, the Russells are dealing with two problems. The first is that Bertha Russell is leading the charge to establish, and legitimize, the Metropolitan Opera company in New York. The second is that George Russell is trying to resist the pressure of trade unionists organized at his mills in Western Pennsylvania. The Russells are both patrons of the arts and wealthy executives beset by labor actions. All that the protagonists of The Gilded Age want is to fund and produce prestige entertainment without being bothered by the annoyance of striking workers! When David Zaslav watched these screeners, he must have wondered if the show was a roman à clef .

Morgan Spector is one of the revelations of this show, at least in part because he somehow imbues a part that could credibly be played by the Monopoly Man with a discordant warmth and humanity to match his lethal guile. (Whether the show should give such a generous edit to such a character is a different question.) Russell represents a cartoon version of a Gilded Age robber baron, both in his laughably broad characterization and in his almost cuddly fatherly energy. While Russell is put at odds with Henderson (Darren Goldstein), the fiery and ethical union leader at his steel mill, the show has worked hard to train us to believe that Russell will resist the impulse of nearly every historical figure upon which he is based and do the right thing, or at least some approximate version of it. When Henderson asks Russell, “Do you believe that workers can win against capital?” you can tell that somewhere, some part of Russell is thinking, “Well, yeah, maybe!”

Andrew Carnegie would not have been so persuaded. In 1892, during the labor action The Gilded Age seems to be drawing on for inspiration, striking laborers at Homestead Steel Works in Pittsburgh fought and defeated Pinkerton agents employed by Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. Seven workers died, and, despite that victory, the strike was ultimately broken. Real-life magnates like Carnegie and Frick weren’t half as sympathetic as George Russell. But it should not be much of a spoiler to say that what ends up happening with Russell and his workers does not quite hew to that cruel historical line. In Fellowes’s alternate history, the bad guys whose badness is the defining feature of their era are, counterintuitively, counterfactually, not so bad once you get to know them.

The Gilded Age has never been trying to do too much. Two seasons in, it’s content being a bit of floofy, indulgent period drama fun. And, in that respect, it’s never been better. But the predicament is that The Gilded Age also insists on periodically picking up complex histories and treating them with the same lightness, frivolity, and blinkered optimism with which it treats the romantic prospects of the leads. As one of the only contemporary representations of a labor union to appear in TV’s season of solidarity, it feels odd that our favorite robber baron would be presented to viewers as a reasonable family man, wary of the markets but ultimately sensitive to the plight of their workers. TV writers and actors are not in the same dire straits as the steelworkers of Homestead, but network and studio executives have authorized the same starvation tactics and public smears their Gilded Age ancestors used to avoid paying too far above “the going rate.”

At one point in the new season, frustrated by a stymied negotiation with the union rep, Russell cries aloud, “Why must I be the villain in every story?” The irony, which may well be lost on Fellowes, is that George has never been the villain of this story. In fact, The Gilded Age has to send George to Pittsburgh to meet Henderson’s cute little family in their domestic squalor in order to generate some sympathy for the union itself. Sometime soon, Fran Drescher will return to negotiating with a conference table full of TV and film executives like David Zaslav. The Gilded Age doesn’t have a lot to tell us about how that might unfold or what the contemporary labor movement has to learn from the strikers at Homestead or why solidarity is even an important aim. It does want us to know, though, that all of those executives gathered together, those titans of industry and patrons of the arts, certainly don’t believe that they are the bad guys. And, ultimately, that’s good to know.

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Camp Is Having a Moment on Television

Shows like palm royale , feud: capote vs. the swans , and the gilded age share a core sensibility..

The more you watch of Palm Royale —the new Apple TV+ show starring Kristen Wiig as a wannabe socialite trying to make it into the upper crust of 1969 Palm Beach, Florida—the more it may feel as if a microdose of LSD is starting to kick in.

Though Wiig’s sunny caricature of a Southern accent won me over from the pilot, I knew I was onto something special when, midway through the miniseries, Allison Janney’s queen bee falls in love with a beached whale while a handsome man soon falls, quite literally, from outer space. In what other show, pray tell, would we get to hear Wiig utter the magnificent lines “Take me right here on this ethnic rug. Go get your trumpet. I want you to play ‘Edelweiss’ in me real slow”? That’s right. I’ll wait.

Thanks to a sense of self-awareness and a commitment to not taking itself too seriously, Palm Royale is a fast, fun, and occasionally quite funny series that charts the efforts of Maxine (a brilliant Wiig, whose ditzy charm has rarely been better deployed) to break into high society at the eponymous Palm Royale beach club. Her chief rival is Evelyn (Janney), who is perpetually dressed in a series of stunning silk caftans while she sits atop the social milieu in the absence of Maxine’s ailing aunt-in-law Norma (comedy icon Carol Burnett, who proves she can still make us laugh with very few lines of discernible dialogue). The show begins to feel overstuffed in its later episodes, as Maxine and husband, Douglas (Josh Lucas), scramble to keep afloat in their new world, but it’s never boring.

In fact, Palm Royale shares a lot of its DNA with a certain other period series starring an ensemble of fabulous middle-aged women. I am talking, of course, about HBO’s The Gilded Age , albeit imbued with the pleasant lightheadedness of having downed a few poolside mai tais. Indeed, it seems that camp is having a moment on television: With the recent release of buzzy, star-studded shows like Palm Royale , FX’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans , and the latest season of The Gilded Age , we are positively drowning in shows about the glitzy world of the well-to-do that I can only—facetiously, of course—describe as being catnip for a gay man with a streaming subscription.

There are obvious similarities between the three series. The Gilded Age follows the battle between new money and old in 1880s New York, while this latest addition to the Feud anthology is based on the fallout between writer Truman Capote and his bevy of wealthy female friends following his lampooning them in a gossipy 1975 essay . In all these shows, we follow groups of elite, wealthy, and catty women who are fighting to maintain their grip on social power to the exclusion of all others. In all these shows, the extravagances and intricacies of this moneyed class are both venerated and vilified. And in all these shows, the wardrobe budget is the real star.

But the similarities go beyond the surface, touching on a slippery sensibility that has been famously defined by Susan Sontag in her landmark 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp.’ ” First, Palm Royale and its ilk revel in the artifice, theatricality, and visual glamor of the rich worlds they inhabit—what Sontag referred to as “the spirit of extravagance.” That glamor is on display not only in the subjects’ lives and storylines but also in the style through which they are depicted on screen. There is nothing natural about the homes in which these wealthy characters reside, whether they be seaside belle epoque estates in Rhode Island decked out with murals of the sky, or warm Mediterranean Revival palazzos that are drowning in stuffed birds and fern wallpaper.

When we watch these shows, we’re tuning in as much for the over-the-top costumes and production design as for the plot. It’s what Sontag would call our “visual reward”—and boy are we rewarded. Indeed, the costumes in this season of Feud were so sumptuously camp that they were even highlighted in a New York Times style piece detailing how the show depicted Capote’s 1966 Black and White Ball and how designer Zac Posen re-created some of the gowns for New York’s high society ladies.

The very fact of the Times’ interest in a show like Feud (the brainchild of Ryan Murphy, the current king of TV melodrama, who prefers the word baroque over camp to describe his work) points to another element of camp in these series’ appeal: a unique blend of high-low culture. Contrast the chatter surrounding these shows with the reception of the long-running soap operas about the wealthy that were synonymous with the ’80s and ’90s, from Dynasty to The Young and the Restless to The Bold and the Beautiful . Those soaps were typically viewed as trash popular television, but this current slate of shows, while equally lavish, entertaining, and catty, are framed as prestige productions with big stars and bigger budgets. They take viewers into a high-culture world of exclusive balls, pricey art auctions, and martini luncheons, but through the historically low-culture medium of television. The stakes—box seats at the opera, beach club membership—are deadly serious for the characters, even as they are remarkably silly for us viewers. To cite Sontag, these shows are “serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious.”

However, there are different planes to camp. Sontag distinguished between “pure” or “naive” camp and “deliberate” camp, observing, “The pure examples of Camp are unintentional; they are dead serious.” Feud and Palm Royale fall more within the “deliberate” category, possessing some measure of fun and self-awareness (even if Murphy’s series does wallow in Capote’s addiction problems somewhat movingly, thanks mainly to a brilliant, preening performance by Tom Hollander). The Gilded Age , by contrast, must fall under peak camp by virtue of taking itself seriously. Although HBO’s period drama imagined itself to be sumptuous, important television, it failed spectacularly, particularly in its bloated, boring first season. But it was that failure—“the sensibility of failed seriousness,” per Sontag, in a production that had the “proper mixture of the exaggerated, the fantastic, the passionate, and the naive”—that also made it so wonderfully camp. In short, the perfect series for a large swath of cynical viewers who happily called it “the worst show on television ,” while still tuning in every week, addicted to hating it as much as they loved it.

There are plenty of other TV shows about the world of the wealthy and those trying to infiltrate it, but they don’t quite rest on the “innocence” that Sontag ascribed to camp. Netflix’s Ripley —the upcoming black-and-white adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley , starring Andrew Scott—is too dogged and dour; HBO’s Succession , while at times sardonic, had a jagged edge of seriousness; The White Lotus , although funny, was too consciously satirical to be camp. (I would argue, however, that Jennifer Coolidge’s award-winning turn as Tanya in both the first and second seasons was camp at its finest.)

There’s an ineffability to campiness, a special quality that you know when you see it. The best camp, just like the grasshopper cocktail that Wiig’s character sips throughout Palm Royale , may seem like a ridiculous order, but it goes down easy with just the right balance of alcohol and sugar. Just kick back, relax, and let the booze settle in.