The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age defines a period in American history of the last quarter of the 19th century. The satirical gilding of the period is not a compliment. Rather, the name is meant to characterize the thinly veiled downside accompanying a time of dominant industrial entrepreneurs, who became incredibly rich and influential while building their steel, oil, and transportation enterprises. Those business successes were accompanied by gross materialism, political corruption, and extreme separations in wealth from the top down. The name The Gilded Age was coined in the book that Mark Twain coauthored with Charles Dudley Warner, entitled “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today” (1873). The centerpiece scene of this satire is Washington, D.C. “The Gilded Age” is probably not the best known of Mark Twain…