The Gilded Age

Co-authored with his Nook Farm neighbor, Charles Dudley Warner, Mark Twain's first novel is probably best known as the book that named an era. "The Gilded Age" brings to mind the huge fortunes accumulated after the Civil War and the poverty that grew right alongside them -- the age was "gilded," not golden. It was an age of widespread political corruption, from big city bosses to senators and representatives at the nation's capitol. It was an era of expansion, from the transcontinental railroad to the empire spanning from the Caribbean to Asia created at its end. It was an age of excess that sparked movements aimed at reforming the civil service, direct election of senators (they were still appointed by State legislatures during the Gilded Age), labor laws, urban development, control of public utilities, monopolies, distribution of wealth, and alleviation of poverty and its associated social problems. Many of the reforms inspired by social, economic and political conditions during the Gilded Age are still in force today.

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