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External Websites
- America's Story from America's Library - Gilded Age
- UCLA Department of Social Sciences - Social Issues of the Gilded Age: An Overview
- Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums - Hayes Historical Journal: The Gilded Age in American History
- The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - AP US History Study Guide - The Gilded Age
- American Heritage - The Gilded Age
- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - A New Gilded Age, and What It Means for Global Health
- Digital History - Overview of the Gilded Age
- Stanford University - Department of Computer Science - The Gilded Age
- Khan Academy - Misunderstanding evolution: a biologist's perspective on Social Darwinism
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Gilded Age - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
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Feedback
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Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External Websites
- America's Story from America's Library - Gilded Age
- UCLA Department of Social Sciences - Social Issues of the Gilded Age: An Overview
- Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums - Hayes Historical Journal: The Gilded Age in American History
- The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - AP US History Study Guide - The Gilded Age
- American Heritage - The Gilded Age
- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - A New Gilded Age, and What It Means for Global Health
- Digital History - Overview of the Gilded Age
- Stanford University - Department of Computer Science - The Gilded Age
- Khan Academy - Misunderstanding evolution: a biologist's perspective on Social Darwinism
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Gilded Age - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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Gilded Age: Marble House
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- Date:
- c. 1871 - c. 1880
- Location:
- United States
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Top Questions
What was the Gilded Age?
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?
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?
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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July 18, 2024, 3:04 AM ET (Washington Post)
Trump’s biggest donor is a Gilded Age heir also backing RFK Jr.
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.
More From BritannicaAmerican literature: Critics of the gilded ageTwain’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.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.