Essays on Gilded Age

Gilded Age was a 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 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. By this name, Mark Twain meant that the period was glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath.

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.

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. These are namely he Gilded Age by Mark Twain, Democracy by Henry Adams, An American Politician by Francis Marion Crawford.

The Gilded Age was a period of economic growth as the United States jumped to the lead in industrialization ahead of Britain. The nation was rapidly expanding its economy into new areas, especially heavy industry like factories, railroads, and coal mining. During this era, America became more prosperous and saw unprecedented growth in industry and technology.

Although it was a period of economic rgowth, 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. Under the surface of prosperity lurked troubling issues, including poverty, unemployment, and corruption.

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.

c. 1871 - c. 1880

United States

Gilded Age was a 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 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. By this name, Mark Twain meant that the period was glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath.

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.

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. These are namely he Gilded Age by Mark Twain, Democracy by Henry Adams, An American Politician by Francis Marion Crawford.

The Gilded Age was a period of economic growth as the United States jumped to the lead in industrialization ahead of Britain. The nation was rapidly expanding its economy into new areas, especially heavy industry like factories, railroads, and coal mining. During this era, America became more prosperous and saw unprecedented growth in industry and technology.

Although it was a period of economic rgowth, 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. Under the surface of prosperity lurked troubling issues, including poverty, unemployment, and corruption.

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.