America’s Gilded Age, 1877-1900 (Wed Feb 6 – Fri Feb 8)
by Dr. H - February 5th, 2019
As you study Chapters 15 and 16, notice the economic, cultural, and political changes in this era. Also pay attention to the changing makeup of society in this time period (the scholarly word for studying the social makeup of a society is “demography”) and to new ideas and intellectual debates, especially about the role of government in establishing and securing progress and freedom. We often think about the US as being a society without rigid social classes, one in which social and economic mobility (“rags to riches”) is possible – was that true for the Gilded Age? (Is it true now?)
I’ll also be interested to see if you perceive echoes of the Gilded Age in our own time. How might this chapter’s history be relevant to you today?
A link to explore: check out some of the so-called “summer cottages” of the Gilded Age upper class in Newport, Rhode Island. Many are maintained as house museums – definitely worth a daytrip if you haven’t been.
Watch clips from PBS films The Gilded Age — highly recommended (showed Chapter 1 in class)
Also you might be interested to know that there’s an organization just for historians who study this time period, SHGAPE (Society for the History of Gilded Age and Progressive Era).
