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• America's Story from America's Library - Gilded Age
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What was the Gilded Age?

The Gilded Age was a period of flashy materialism and overt political corruption in the United States during the 1870s.

Who were some of the key figures of the Gilded Age?

Among the best known of the entrepreneurs who became known, pejoratively, as robber barons during the Gilded Age were John D. Rockefeller , Andrew Carnegie , Cornelius Vanderbilt , Leland Stanford , and J.P. Morgan .

Who coined the term Gilded Age?

The Gilded Age took its name from the novel The Gilded Age , written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner and published in 1873

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Gilded Age , period of gross materialism and blatant political corruption in U.S. history during the 1870s that gave rise to important novels of social and political criticism . The period takes its name from the earliest of these, The Gilded Age (1873), written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner. The novel gives a vivid and accurate description of Washington, D.C. , and is peopled with caricatures of many leading figures of the day, including greedy industrialists and corrupt politicians.

The great burst of industrial activity and corporate growth that characterized the Gilded Age was presided over by a collection of colourful and energetic entrepreneurs who became known alternatively as “captains of industry” and “ robber barons .” They grew rich through the monopolies they created in the steel, petroleum, and transportation industries. Among the best known of them were John D. Rockefeller , Andrew Carnegie , Cornelius Vanderbilt , Leland Stanford , and J.P. Morgan .

Twain’s satire was followed in 1880 by Democracy , a political novel published anonymously by the historian Henry Adams . Adams’s book deals with a dishonest Midwestern senator and suggests that the real source of corruption lies in the unprincipled attitudes of the wild and lawless West . An American Politician, by Francis Marion Crawford (1884), focuses upon the disputed election of Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, but its significance as a political novel is diluted by an overdose of popular romance.

The political novels of the Gilded Age represent the beginnings of a new strain in American literature , the novel as a vehicle of social protest, a trend that grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the works of the muckrakers and culminated in the proletarian novelists.

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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

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Gilded Age — Social Changes in the Gilded Age

Social Changes in The Gilded Age

• Categories: Gilded Age

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Published: Mar 6, 2024

Words: 716 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, the rise of consumer culture, the emergence of a new middle class, challenges faced by marginalized communities.

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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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Handout A: Background Essay: Women in the Gilded Age

Background Essay: Women in the Gilded Age

Directions: Read the background essay and answer the review questions.

The vast social changes caused by industrialization, immigration, and urbanization fundamentally altered life in the United States. In turn, those changes provoked responses in which women increased their political, economic, and civic participation in American public life. Moreover, women led various reform movements to ameliorate the harsh conditions that resulted from rapid social and economic change.

The expectations of the Victorian Era of the mid-to-late nineteenth century held that men and women functioned in equally important but “separate spheres.” Men entered public life in business and politics, which had many temptations for corruption and vice. Women cultivated virtuous homes for their husbands as homemakers and educators of their children. However, in the late nineteenth century, increasing numbers of women began to enter the workforce especially as marriage rates and fertility rates began a long-term decline. In addition, women took advantage of increasing educational opportunities in colleges.

By 1900, more than five million women (and approximately eight million a decade later) worked outside the home due to both the problems and opportunities caused by an industrializing economy. Many young, single women – especially of the working-class – worked in dangerous factories earning low wages and working between ten and twelve hours every day of the week before they married and left the workforce. The rampant low wages and frequent unemployment experienced by immigrant men meant that many of their wives also had to work in factories or as domestic servants in homes. Alternatively, they took on piecemeal work on garments and other products inside the home. However, African-American women usually were restricted to working as servants or in agriculture. Single, middle-class women increasingly worked as secretaries, store clerks, teachers, and nurses. A very small percentage of married, middle-class women worked outside the home. Even fewer women worked in the professions of law and medicine.

A socially acceptable means of women entering public life was to engage in social reform. Most of these reformers were white, middle-class, educated Protestants who wanted to promote an improved moral climate in society and politics. For example, in 1879 Frances Willard assumed the presidency of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). The WCTU’s primary mission was closing saloons and ending the consumption of alcohol because of the ill-effects of drunkenness on families, including wasted wages and domestic violence. The WCTU supported women’s suffrage as a means of achieving the prohibition of alcohol and other reforms.

In 1889, Jane Addams founded the Hull House in Chicago to provide immigrants with desperately-needed services in poor, ethnic neighborhoods of the city. Other women took the lead in establishing similar successful settlement houses in dozens of other cities. These community centers helped immigrants adapt to American society by teaching them English and civics, with the goal of “Americanizing” them.

Florence Kelley formed the National Consumers’ League in 1898 to pressure stores to pay female clerks better. The League also worked for protective legislation regulating the hours and conditions for women and children. Women were shut out of male-dominated unions such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL), partially because AFL leadership accepted the traditional belief that employed women were taking the jobs of men who were the main source of income for families. Lilian Wald and other women created the Women’s Trade Union League to help women organize their own labor unions to bargain for better working conditions and increased wages.

In 1909, women who worked in the garment industry formed a movement called the “uprising of the twenty thousand” and went on strike to protest poor wages, grueling hours, and dangerous working conditions. Met with violence and arrest, the striking women, led by Rose Schneiderman, formed their own union, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) to support the strike. By early 1910, the ILGWU won the strike with higher wages and a limit of 52 hours of work per week. However, the next year tragedy stuck when 146 workers, most of them young immigrant women, were killed in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, a garment manufacturer in New York City. Within half an hour, just before quitting time on March 25, 1911, a fire that started on the eighth floor had engulfed the building’s top three floors. The fire exits and stairwells were inadequate, the doors were kept locked, and the safety procedures were virtually nonexistent. Dozens of employees jumped out of windows to their deaths as the flames advanced, and many others were killed by the blaze. The Triangle Waist Company tragedy was one of the most shocking of the events that focused national attention on unsafe working conditions. New York and other states passed laws to improve public safety for workers.

The various reforming civic groups and unions established by powerful women during the Gilded Age reflected the organizational strength of women fighting for social and economic reform. While they struggled for those reforms, they developed a keen sense of the political inequality faced by women excluded from the ballot box. Women re-invigorated the women’s suffrage movement through the same organizational strategies they had implemented in the reform movements of the late nineteenth century.

In 1848, a group of reformers had met at Seneca Falls, New York, and issued a Declaration of Sentiments modeled after the Declaration of Independence. The Seneca Falls document, signed by 100 delegates including thirty-two men, listed the ways women had been deprived of equal rights, including “the inalienable right to the elective franchise.” The women’s suffrage movement split, however, in 1869 when the National Woman Suffrage Association led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony sought to win women’s suffrage through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The rival American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), led by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell, pursued a strategy of achieving women’s suffrage at the state level. Thus, the principled debate was between those who wanted to amend the Constitution and those who desired most closely to follow the principle of federalism.

In 1890, the movement united and formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The suffragettes argued for the right to vote on the grounds that women were the intellectual equal to men and capable of exercising an independent vote. Second, women argued that they were more virtuous and would help improve the moral character of politics through reform. Third, they made Social Darwinist arguments, asserting that if “inferior” black and immigrant men could vote, so should white, middle-class women. The NAWSA achieved notable successes in the more individualistic western states of Washington, California, Kansas, Oregon, and Arizona as they joined Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho in approving women’s suffrage in state and local elections.

Despite the successes, in 1913, radical suffragette Alice Paul broke with the NAWSA to form the Congressional Union (which later became the National Women’s Party). Paul disagreed with the state-by-state strategy and wanted a constitutional amendment. On March 3, 1913, the day before president-elect Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, five thousand women bravely marched down Pennsylvania Avenue while being jeered and pelted with objects by a hostile crowd. The demonstration was aimed at pressuring incoming President Woodrow Wilson to support women’s suffrage. After suffering the indignity of insults for marching for equality, hundreds were arrested and imprisoned. Alice Paul and others went on a hunger strike and were force-fed in prison.

In 1916, both Republicans and Democrats had a plan supporting women’s suffrage due to the efforts of thousands of women who showed up at the respective party conventions. Women’s patriotic contribution to the war effort at home, in factories, and near the front lines during World War I furthered the cause of suffrage. Still, President Wilson was lukewarm. Although a president’s signature is not necessary for a constitutional amendment, Wilson’s support would add the prestige of the office to the cause and help secure passage. Beginning in January 1917, suffragettes marched before the White House for six months to lobby the president. All of these efforts bore fruit when the House and Senate passed the amendment by the required two-thirds vote, and thirty-six states ratified it by August, 1920.

The women reformers of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era spearheaded a number of movements that profoundly reshaped women’s participation in American society and civic life. As a result, they would pave the way for other women to engage in politics, social reform, and the struggle for women’s equality during the course of the twentieth century.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

• What social and economic changes were occurring in the lives of women during the Gilded Age?
• What were the different experiences of women in the workforce?
• Compare and contrast the goals of the different social movements women joined.
• How did the goals and strategies of the women’s suffrage movement change over time?
• Why were women successful in achieving a constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage?

The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Warner Essay

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Introduction

The Gilded Age is the period in American history including the 1865-1901 years, during which the country experienced unprecedented economic growth. The name of the era was derived from the novel of the same name authored by Mark Twain and Charles Warner. The imagery of this era presented in the novel reflects many of the events and tendencies developing in that time inspired by the values of the Gilded Age.

I feel that one of the events introduced in that era illustrating the Twain’s imagery of the Gilded Age was the evolvement and fast spreading of the popularity of social Darwinism. Twain portrays the society of those times like the one that is highly materialistic and wealth-determined, and the popularization of social Darwinism directly reflects the spirit of acquisition that dominated American society of those times and was criticized by Twain and Warner. Such events as monopolization of oil industry by Rockefeller and steel industry by Carnegie and the concentration of enormous wealth in the hands of several people illustrate the spirit of acquisition of the Gilded Age and another feature of that era described by Twain – the corrupted partnership between businessmen and government.

The land speculation explored by Twain and Warner as one of the typical features of the Gilded Age can be illustrated by the Dawes Act, which had severe negative consequences for the Indian population of the U.S. While the Act was proclaimed to be determined to encouraging the assimilation of Native Americans and private native land ownership, it, in fact, served for satisfying the white settlers’ appetites for land (James, 2008). The government, encouraged by the “corrupt interplay of business and politics” described by Twain, did not only speculate on land to open it to white settlement by white Americans, but also significantly damaged the unity and culture of Indian people who were forced to abandon their tradition of communal holding of property (Roark, Johnson, Cohen, Stage, & Hartmann, 2012, p. 522).

Opportunities in mining and trade out West were greatly impacted by values of the Gilded Age relying on certain beliefs. As the values of that era were based on the assumption that wealth is a sign of virtue, and, therefore, wealthy people and nations are superior to others, such belief inspired millions of people to move to the West and become the part of the mining industry after the discovery of gold, silver, and other precious metals in that part of the country. The material ambitions converted the region into the source of mining and trade opportunities and “clashed with Native Americans ways” resulting in disaster for Indians (Roark et al., 2012, p. 505). The “crooked partnership of business and politics” described by Twain became the tool enabling businessmen eager to make a fortune on mining to ignore and abuse the rights of the native population of the West due to the support of the government (Roark et al., 2012, p. 521). This fact illustrates how the Gilded Age materialistic values and the interplay between business and politics influenced the development of mining and trade industries in the West.

The values dominating during the Gilded Age were directly interrelated with the Manifest of Destiny, which inspired Americans to believe that they had an obvious right to expand the nation to the West. The belief that wealth gives the right to consider someone superior to others encouraged many Americans to believe that as their nation is one of the wealthiest in the world, it has the right to remake the West. Besides, the land speculations, which were another typical feature of the Gilded Age, also directly impacted the Manifest of Destiny, as they enabled the population from the East to acquire the lands that had belonged to other nations.

The values of the Gilded Age described by Twain and Warner, materialism, and government corruption, in particular, were reflected in numerous tendencies and events that occurred in the U.S. during that era.

James, E. (2008). The allotment period on the Nez Perce reservation. In R. Nichols (Ed.), The American Indian: Past and present (pp. 227-241). Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.

Roark, J., Johnson, M., Cohen, P., Stage, S., & Hartmann, S. (2012). The American promise: A history of the United States (5th ed). Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

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IvyPanda. (2020, August 17). The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Warner. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gilded-age-by-mark-twain-and-charles-warner/

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IvyPanda . 2020. "The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Warner." August 17, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gilded-age-by-mark-twain-and-charles-warner/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Warner." August 17, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gilded-age-by-mark-twain-and-charles-warner/.

Bibliography

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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 .

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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

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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.  

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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.

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The gilded age : essays on the origins of modern America

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The Gilded Age

63 pages • 2 hours read

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Before You Read

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-11

Chapters 12-23

Chapters 24-37

Chapters 38-51

Chapters 52-63

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

The Gilded Age , by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, is a satirical work of fiction originally published in 1873. Notable for being the only novel Twain co-authored with a collaborator, The Gilded Age satirizes greed and corruption in America’s post–Civil War era. Mark Twain, best known for his celebrated classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , was a pioneer in American literary Realism and vernacular writing. Charles Dudley Warner was a writer, editor, and close friend of Twain.

Written in the wake of the Civil War, The Gilded Age lampoons the racism , sexism , and unchecked avarice of the Antebellum South alongside the corruption of the federal government in Washington, DC. The book’s title, a play on the idea of a golden age, refers to the process of gilding—covering non-precious metals or other materials with a thin, cosmetic layer of gold. This metaphor for the era’s illusory promise of wealth, disguising an economy of fraud and exploitation, gave the era its nickname. The historical period in the US from approximately 1870 to 1900 is now referred to as the Gilded Age.

This guide refers to an e-book edition of the text published in 2014 by Xist Publishing. Pagination may differ from print versions.

Content Warning: The source text features slurs and racial epithets.

Plot Summary

The Gilded Age begins in the mid-19th century in Tennessee. Silas Hawkins is the patriarch of a poor Southern family. Despite having followed his charismatic friend Beriah Sellers into numerous speculative ventures, each failing to produce the promised riches, Silas hasn’t lost confidence in his friend or in his family’s future prosperity. Silas’s purchase of 75,000 acres of land in Tennessee, which he assures his wife will someday make their children rich beyond measure, marks the narrative’s inciting incident. At Beriah’s encouragement, Silas moves to Missouri with his wife, Nancy Hawkins, and two children, Washington and Emily Hawkins. He adopts two orphaned children, Clay and Laura, along the way. In the ensuing twelve years, Silas endures several financial catastrophes. Each takes a toll, and Silas dies a broken man.

A second storyline follows Philip Sterling and Harry Brierly, two men living in New York City who decide to seek their fortune out west, accompanying a railroad surveying team to Missouri. There they meet and befriend Beriah, who inspires Harry to partner in his schemes. Philip dedicates himself to studying engineering and railroad science while hoping to win the heart of the woman he loves, Ruth Bolton . Ruth, who lives in Philadelphia, longs to leave her Quaker community and defy society’s gender norms by becoming a doctor. Laura Hawkins is betrayed by a confederate soldier named Colonel Selby, who marries then deserts her. After the war, Senator Dilworthy visits the Missouri town where the Hawkins family is living along with Beriah, Philip, and Harry. Senator Dilworthy takes Washington Hawkins back to DC as his personal secretary and invites Laura Hawkins to visit during Congress’s winter session.

Beriah and Harry’s plan to found a great city in rural Missouri goes awry when money allocated to the project by Congress doesn’t come and the unpaid workers revolt. Harry’s investigation into the matter reveals such profound corporate financial corruption that he and Beriah now owe thousands of dollars. Ruth’s father hires Philip to survey land he owns in Pennsylvania. Confident there’s an abundant coal vein on the land, he begins a costly mining operation. Senator Dilworthy develops a plan with Washington and Laura to sell their Tennessee land to the government, via an appropriations bill, as a location for a university open to all races. They use bribery, blackmail, and any other tactic necessary to get the bill passed.

Philip’s mining project runs out of money and has to be shut down. The Tennessee land bill passes in the House of Representatives. Laura runs into Col. Selby, who is in DC on business with his family. Her plans for revenge falter with his renewed declarations of love, and she insists he leave his wife. He agrees, but when he and his family abruptly leave town, Laura follows and kills Col. Selby with a gun belonging to her brother. She is arrested and charged with murder. Ruth continues studying medicine and finally declares her love for Philip. Harry gets over an infatuation with Laura and starts a new venture out west.

Amidst an epic bribery scandal, Senator Dilworthy loses his bid for re-election. The Tennessee land bill fails to pass in the Senate. Laura’s defense lawyer successfully portrays her in court as a victim of past traumas that led to insanity, and she’s acquitted. Newly freed, she accepts an offer to go on a lecture tour but is jeered off the stage at her first appearance. She’s found dead shortly after. Washington finally lets go of the Tennessee land and his financial expectations of it. He heads home to Missouri to marry his sweetheart. Beriah goes with him, scheming new ways to achieve fame and fortune. Philip reopens the coal mine with a loan from a family friend. After a great deal of disappointment, his perseverance pays off when he finds enough coal to make him quite rich. Ruth pulls through a grave illness, and the two happily start their lives together.

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