research papers on gilded age

Along with Stanford news and stories, show me:

Student information
Faculty/Staff information

We want to provide announcements, events, leadership messages and resources that are relevant to you. Your selection is stored in a browser cookie which you can remove at any time using “Clear all personalization” below.

The issues of inequality and divisiveness that the United States faces today share many parallels with a period of time after the Civil War which also faced rising inequality, heavy immigration and partisan deadlock.

Richard White (Image credit: Jesse White)

Between the end of the war in 1865 and the start of the 20th century, a time that encompasses two periods historians call the Reconstruction era and the Gilded Age, the newly united, post-slavery U.S. saw rapid and disorienting technological change and the country’s largest wave of migration, as well as weak presidents, corruption and bribery.

Stanford historian Richard White analyzes that historical period in his new book The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 , which is the latest installment in Oxford University Press’ multi-volume series on narrative history of the United States. White argues that the seeds of the modern U.S. were planted during this time period and that a better understanding of the societal and political struggles of the time could shed light on issues being debated today.

Stanford News Service interviewed White about his research.

What is the biggest takeaway from your research about this period of time?

Toward the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans had a clear vision of what they wanted the country to be. They sought to make the republic a replica of Springfield, Illinois, a Midwestern town that embodied free labor and the middle class. By 1896, it was clear that they had helped produce a very different world. The book seeks to explain how this happened.

The “American dream” during this time was about attaining a “competency” rather than great riches. A competency meant having enough to secure independence, security in times of crisis and old age and the means to start children out in life. Previous historians have described Reconstruction and the Gilded Age as a time of individualism. But it was less about individualism than cooperation. These alternate American values are something we forget today.

How and why did you start working on this book?

David Kennedy, who is also a professor of history at Stanford, asked me to take this on years ago, and I initially said no. When he came back later with the same request, I said yes because my mother became ill with dementia and I needed the book’s advance to help with her expenses. She died more than a year before this book was finished.

I’ve written widely about different topics and issues from this era, but I became increasingly fascinated with the period while working on this volume. I realized that just because I taught and studied this period didn’t mean that putting this book together would be easier. Integrating so much diverse material turned out to be a challenge.

In describing the era, I realized I was describing the world into which my own family came. One of my grandparents was the child of Jewish immigrants from Poland who arrived during the Gilded Age. My Jewish grandfather came from what is now Belarus around the turn of the century. My maternal grandmother came from Ireland about the same time. My Irish grandfather, following his relatives, came later. One grandfather was an illegal immigrant; the other was nearly deported back to Russia; both my Irish grandparents returned to Ireland.

How was the Reconstruction and the Gilded Age viewed before by most historians and how is your interpretation different?

Sometimes a generation of scholarship becomes so influential that it kills a field. That’s what happened here. Influential 20th-century historians, such as Pulitzer-Prize winning Richard Hofstadter and Robert Wiebe, described the United States as a fragmented republic searching for order and dismissed the presence of corruption during the Gilded Age. They described the era as one of laissez-faire and weak government. Only recently have historians started to challenge that portrayal.

I found a different country than the one Hofstadter and Wiebe described. I see a strong government that repeatedly intervened in the economy with tariffs, subsidies and social welfare programs. It had power – but without administrative capacity – so it granted authority to private bodies and relied on fees and subsidies rather than bureaucracy. This contributed a great deal to the corruption about which Americans complained.

In trying to evaluate arguments over whether industrialism and urbanization improved the lives of Americans, I turned to demographic studies. They showed that American lifespans declined as did average height. Large numbers of children died. It is hard to argue that conditions for ordinary Americans improved. Those benefits were largely reserved for the 20th century.

Are there any other misconceptions about this period? Any unheralded events or outcomes that we should pay more attention to?

Hofstadter and other historians also see the Gilded Age as an age of individualism. My research shows that’s not the case. The key idea then was one of home. Americans thought of the republic as a collection of homes.

Most people organized their lives around the home. Real men defended and supported a home; true women maintained and reproduced the home. Men who could not do this did not deserve full citizenship and the vote. That was the argument used to deny citizenship to Chinese and voting rights to black people and “tramps,” a term used then to describe workers traveling in search of a job. These groups supposedly threatened homes rather than supported them. Similarly, a real woman maintained a home and a family.

Why is it important for us to understand and learn about that particular period of history? What are some of the lessons that are relevant to today’s America?

The parallels between then and now are striking. In part, the seeds of the modern United States were planted during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age.

Many debates over today’s policy recommendations on how to solve American problems go back to the debates over Gilded Age policies. People who talk about immigration or governance today really need to take a careful look at the Gilded Age. Chances are if policies failed then, they are not going to work now.

But, in another sense, the opposite is also true. The best reason to study history is to discover past possibilities that are not apparent today. The idea of a competency rather than endless material accumulation, of cooperation rather than individualism, and of collectives like the home rather than personal self-fulfillment are Gilded Age ideals that deserve reconsideration.

Richard White is the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford University. He is a MacArthur Fellow and has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Media Contacts

Richard White, Department of History: [email protected]

Alex Shashkevich, Stanford News Service: (650) 497-4419, [email protected]

WashU Libraries

A guide to american history.

BOOKS & MORE...
Databases & Primary Source Collections (Digitized)
CITATION & BIBLIOGRAPHY...
HIST 3091 - Poverty and Social Reform in American History
HIST 48IB - New York, New York: The Empire City from Stuyvesant to Trump
HIST 2561 - Urban America
HIST 367 - America in the Age of Inequality: The Gilded Age & the Progressive Era, 1877-1919

Encyclopedias and Reference Works

Library of congress subject headings, u.s. newspaper databases, popular periodicals of the era, bound primary source collections & primary source subheadings, primary source databases.

HIST 4918 Sexuality in the US/ HIST 301U US Sexuality
HIST 49DM - Advanced Seminar: Meet Me in St. Louis
HIST 487 - Race and Drugs in American History
HIS 385 - American Immigration
HIST 4884 - The Roots of the American Working Classes
HIST 301U - Historical Methods: US History: Researching & Writing Difficult Local Histories
American History Collection Development Policy
Digital Collections Online
Other Local Libraries
Online Resources

Encyclopedia of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2005) - these three print volumes include list of contributors, thematic essays, illustrations, documents, chronology, bibliography, general index, bibliographical index, etc.

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: A student companion (2006) - eBook; an alphabetical encyclopedia including articles on overall trends (immigration, education, music, sports), social movements (anarchism, child labor movement, consumer movement, conservation movement), terms (armistice, chain store, chautauqua), organizations (American Expeditionary Force, Knights of Labor, Republican party), issues (gender relations, race relations), events (Haymarket Square massacre, Palmer raids, Pullman strike), legal cases (Lochner v. New York), laws (Chinese Exclusion Act, Meat Inspection Act, Selective Service Act), ethnic groups (Mexicans, Chinese), economic issues (trusts, scientific management), and biographies. The articles are cross-referenced and have sources for specific further reading.

Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History (2010) - (7 print volumes) - Volume 4, From the Gilded Age through Age of Reform, 1878 to 1920 )

United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918

United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918

United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-

United States -- Intellectual life -- 1865-1918

United States -- Economic Conditions -- 1865-1918

Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era - published quarterly by the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, this journal provides original essays, including online projects, and reviews scholarly books on all aspects of U.S. history for the time period from 1865 through 1920. WashU has access to all issues from the first (Jan. 2002) to the most recent indexed in...

America: History & Life (1964-) contains only journals related history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.

JSTOR - multidisciplinary, a lot of full text articles, but subject headings are too broad

Historical American Newspapers (ProQuest) includes The Atlanta Constitution , Boston Globe , Chicago Tribune , Hartford Courant , Los Angeles Times , The New York Times , San Francisco Chronicle , St. Louis Post-Dispatch , The Wall Street Journal , and The Washington Post

African American Newspapers (ProQuest) includes Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Defender (1909-1975), Cleveland Call & Post (1934-1991), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), Norfolk Journal & Guide (1916-2003), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), and Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002).

Chronicling America - begun in 2005, this website provides access to historic newspapers and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LoC). Its coverage period ranges from 1789 to 1963 and includes over 1000 newspaper titles available from 46 states & Puerto Rico.

Atlantic Monthly - 1862 to 01/31/1905 in Literature Online (LION)

The Crisis (NAACP, NYC) 11/01/1910 to 12/31/1922 in Modernist Journals Project

Harper's Weekly - 01/03/1857 to 1912 available through multiple sources

The Masses - 01/01/1911 to 09/30/1915 in Modernist Journals Project ; 1913-1917 in Special Collections

The Nation - 07/06/1865 to 12/27/1877 available electronically through AAS Historical Periodicals Collection ; all issues in print at West Campus library

School & Society - 1915 to 1972 available in print

The Survey - (WUSTL has Apr. 1909-Dec. 1937) "the primary publication vehicle by which settlement-house residents, professional social workers, amateur reformers, and academic social scientists communicated with one another and exchanged ideas and programs during the Progressive Era." - John D. Buenker

Primary Source Subheadings sources biographies maps periodicals newspapers diaries speeches pictorial works

personal narratives directories interviews sermons anecdotes caricatures and cartoons fiction

General (under United States -- History -- 1865-1921 -- sources ):

America's Gilded Age: An eyewitness history (1992)

The Gilded Age and After; Selected readings in American history (1972)

The American Studies Anthology

Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt through Coolidge, 1901-1929: Debating the issues in pro and con primary documents

Reading the Twentieth Century: Documents in American history

Robber Barons and Radicals

The American Nation: Primary sources

The Diplomacy of World Power: The United States, 1889-1920

American Economic Development since 1860

Lifetimes: The Great War to the Stock Market Crash: American history through biography and primary documents

African Americans

Proceedings of the Black National and State Conventions, 1865-1900

T he Booker T. Washington papers , 1860-1915

The papers of A. Philip Randolph - there are a few items in this collection for the years 1909-1919

Reconstruction, the Negro, and the New South - primary source documents from 1866-1896

Papers of the NAACP. Part 5, Campaign against residential segregation, 1914-1955

Anarchist Voices: An oral history of anarchism in America

The Debates of Liberty: An overview of individualist anarchism, 1881-1908

Emma Goldman: A documentary history of the American years (2003-2012) - print and eBook

Mother Earth - Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1906) - vol. 12, no. 6 (Aug. 1917); Mother Earth Bulletin - Vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 1917) - v. 1, no. 7 (Apr. 1918)

Anti-Asian Sentiment & Movements

China through American Eyes: Early depictions of the Chinese people and culture in the U.S. print media - caricature and cartoons

Racism, Dissent, and Asian Americans from 1850 to the Present: A documentary history

Yellow Peril!: An archive of anti-Asian fear

Anti-Catholicism -- United States -- Sources .

Anti-Imperialist League

The Anti-Imperialist Reader: A documentary history of anti-imperialism in the United States

Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-imperialist writings on the Philippine-American War

Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, 1899

Edmunds, George F. (George Franklin), 1828-1919. The Insular Cases: The Supreme Court and the Dependencies (Boston: New England Anti-imperialist League, 1901)

López, Sixto. The "wild tribes" and other Filipinos (Boston: Anti-Imperialist League, 1911)

Black Nationalism

Classical Black Nationalism: From the American Revolution to Marcus Garvey

Turner, Henry McNeal, 1834-1915. Respect Black; the writings and speeches of Henry McNeal Turner

Native Americans

Indians of North America -- History -- Sources

From Fort Laramie to Wounded Knee: In the West that was

Wounded Knee Massacre, S.D., 1890 -- Personal narratives

A Whirlwind Passed through our Country: Lakota voices of the ghost dance

Encyclopedia of American Indian removal

Organized Labor

Labor History Documents - two volumes

United States' Department of Justice Documents Relating to the IWW, 1910-1916

Industrial Workers of the World, The One Big Union Monthly Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1, 1919)-v. 3, no. 1 (Jan. 1921)

National Woman's Trade Union League of America, Life and Labor - 1911-1921

The Samuel Gompers Papers 1850-1918

Populism and the election of 1896 (1994)

Populism, its rise and fall (1992)

The Populist Mind (1967)

Pragmatism (sort by "Year")

Progressivism

Hofstadter, Richard. ed. The Progressive Movement, 1900-1915

Southern Women in the Progressive Era: A reader

The Reform Spirit in America: A documentation of the pattern of reform in the American republic

The 1912 Election and the Power of Progressivism: A brief history with documents

Progressivism and Postwar Disillusionment, 1898-1928

Prohibition

Anti-Saloon League of America

Radicalism (broadly conceived)

The Radical Reader: A documentary history of the American radical tradition - includes utopian visions, suffrage and feminism, land and labor, anarchism, socialism, communism, environmentalism, and the "New Negro"

The Haymarket Affair and the trial of the Chicago anarchists, 1886 : original manuscripts, letters, articles, and printed material of the anarchists and of the State prosecutor, Julius S. Grinnell

Department of Justice Investigative Files, Part I : The Industrial Workers of the World

State Department Collection of Intelligence, 1915-1927

The Dawn of Religious Pluralism: Voices from the World's Parliament of Religions, 1893

Socialism & Socialist Party (U.S.)

American Socialist party newspaper - Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 18, 1914)-v. 4, no. 8 (Sept. 8, 1917)

SPUSA Pamphlet collection

Simons, A. M. (Algie Martin), 1870-1950. Pamphlets on Social Conditions , v.1/2 (1906-1912)

Women - Equal Rights, Feminism, and Suffrage

International Council of Women

The papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony - microfilm

The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

Public Women, Public Words: A documentary history of American feminism - volume 1, beginnings to 1900

Modern American Women: A documentary history - Pt. 1 Modern Women in the Making, 1890-1920

World War I

World War I (1914-1919)

The Gilded Age - Spanning from 1865 to 1902, The Gilded Age provides insight into the key issues that shaped America in the late nineteenth century, including race and ethnicity, immigration, labor, women's rights, American Indians, political corruption, and monetary policy. These materials are frequently rare and hard-to-find, and include songs, letters, photographs, cartoons, government documents, and ephemera. In addition, the collection features numerous critical documentary essays that provide scholarly commentary and annotations to selected primary sources.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 - this collection currently includes 124 projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools.

Jewish Life in America, 1654-1954 - primary sources addressing key topics such as the immigration process and evolution of early Jewish Settlements, differing strands of Judaism in America, Jewish schools and charitable institutions, and civil rights and minority rights issues.

Indigenous Peoples of North America - includes manuscript collections, rare books and monographs, newspapers, periodicals, census records, legal documents, maps, drawings and sketches, oral histories, and photos

Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 - historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums that concentrate heavily on the 19th century immigration to the US. By incorporating books, pamphlets, serials, diaries, biographies, and other writings capturing diverse experiences, the collected material provides a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants.

Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League (records from 1901-1928) - Booker T. Washington established the League with the support of Andrew Carnegie n 1900 "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro," and headed it until his death. It eventually included 320 chapters across the United States. The League included small African American business owners, doctors, farmers, craftsmen, and other professionals. Its goal was to allow business to put economic development at the forefront of getting African-American equality in America. Affiliated professional organizations included the National Negro Bankers Association, the National Negro Press Association, the National Association of Negro Funeral Directors, the National Negro Bar Association, the National Association of Negro Insurance Men, the National Negro Retail Merchants’ Association, the National Association of Negro Real Estate Dealers, and the National Negro Finance Corporation.

Electing the President: Proceedings of the Democratic National Conventions, 1832-1988 - This collection includes the proceedings of the 1832-1988 Democratic National Conventions, providing gavel to gavel coverage, including speeches, debates, votes, and party platforms. Also included are lists of names of convention delegates and alternates. Records of the earliest proceedings are based in part on contemporary newspaper accounts. A similar database is also available for the Republican National Conventions, 1856-1988 .

Revolution in Honduras and American Business: The Quintessential “Banana Republic” (1910-1930) - In 1899, the first boatload of bananas was shipped from Honduras to the United States. The fruit found a ready market, and the trade grew rapidly. The American-based banana companies constructed railroad lines and roads to serve the expanding banana production. Perhaps even more significant, Honduras began to attract the attention of the U.S. government. This collection contains the largest single group of records relates to Honduran political affairs; pertaining chiefly to the turbulent political situation and almost continuous revolutionary activity in Honduras. It details both the political and financial machinations of the fruit companies, but also the graft and corruption of the national government, the American banking community’s loans, the U.S. government’s response and the various aborted popular/revolutionary uprisings.

Trade Literature and the Merchandizing of Industry (1820-1926) (a within Smithsonian Collections Online) is comprised of items selected from the National Museum of American History, and contains about one million pages of primary source content. This digital collection allows researchers to: determine the history of companies/industries; discern styles from furniture to machinery; analyze marketing and management techniques, and examine illustrations of the items Americans used at home and in business. Key research areas covered include: railroads and railway equipment; agricultural machinery; transportation equipment; power generation; building and construction; iron and steel; mines and mining equipment, and motorized vehicles.

Sunday School Movement and Its Curriculum (1884-1920) - Early in the 19th century various denominations and non-denominational organizations began to create Sunday schools in an effort to educate the illiterate, particularly children. By mid-century, the Sunday school movement had become extremely popular and Sunday school attendance was a near universal aspect of childhood. Working-class families were grateful for this opportunity to receive an education. Religious education was, of course, always also a core component.

Union Label and the Needle Trades: Records of the United Garment Workers of America (1899-1994) - This collection consists of two full series and one partial series from the Records of the United Garment Workers of America—Series I: Time and Motion Studies; Series III: Office Files, 1899-1994—Meeting Minutes of the General Executive Board subseries; and, Series VIII: Index Card Files for plants and/or locals in. The Time and Motion Studies are made up of time study/ time and motion research files for the garment industry, as well as files relating to industry research and information from the first half of the twentieth century. The minutes from the early period cover issues such as immigration, sick benefits, and nine-hour work days. The overwhelming majority of the Series VIII index card files comprise information on various plants and union locals. These are in alphabetical order by city (with a few exceptions) and contain information about the locals, manufacturers, wages, garments, and efforts to organize locals in those cities.

First World War - drawn from archival collections around the world, this collection provides an intimate glimpse into daily life in the army and auxiliary services, battles, trench warfare, weapons and equipment, and thoughts on the enemy, as seen through the eyes of the men and women who served in the First World War. Rather than official publications or newspaper accounts, this collection includes diaries, letters, scrapbooks, sketches, and photographs. Key features include interactive maps, 360° views of personal items and objects, and a virtual trench experience.

Women, War, and Society, 1914-1918 women's essential contribution to the war in Europe is fully documented in this definitive collection of primary source materials brought together in the Imperial War Museum, London. These unique documents - charity and international relief reports, pamphlets, photographs, press cuttings, magazines, posters, correspondence, minutes, records, diaries, memoranda, statistics, circulars, regulations and invitations - are published here for the first time in fully-searchable form.

Digital Public Library of America offers a single point of access to millions of items including photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Their featured collections include subjects such as aviation, baseball, food, immigration since 1840, photography, and women in science.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries (colonial - 1950) includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters carefully chosen using leading bibliographies plus 7,000 pages of previously unpublished materials

<< Previous: HIST 2561 - Urban America
Next: HIST 4918 Sexuality in the US/ HIST 301U US Sexuality >>
Last Updated: May 13, 2024 1:43 PM
URL: https://libguides.wustl.edu/americanhistory

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Collections

Course & Subject Guides

The gilded age & progressive era - bradford campus.

Locating Secondary Sources
Locating Primary Sources
Locating Books & More
Chicago Style Guides

What are primary sources?

Primary Sources

"Original materials that provide direct evidence or first-hand testimony concerning a topic or event.
Primary sources can be contemporary sources created at the time when the event occurred (e.g., letters and newspaper articles) or later (e.g., memoirs and oral history interviews).
Primary sources may be published or unpublished. Unpublished sources are unique materials (e.g., family papers) often referred to as archives and manuscripts.
What constitutes a primary source varies by discipline. How the researcher uses the source generally determines whether it is a primary source or not.

Two of the many primary documents available from the Early American Imprints database."

Locating Primary Souces in Library Databases

Adam Matthew Explorer This link opens in a new window Collections spanning the social sciences and humanities, developed in collaboration with leading libraries and archives. Includes unique primary source content with a wealth of additional features to enhance engagement.
American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I This link opens in a new window Based on the American Antiquarian Society's landmark collection -- the most extensive in existence -- American Broadsides and Ephemera offers fully searchable facsimile images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900. Featuring many rare items, the pieces of ephemera include clipper ship sailing, theater and music programs, stock certificates and more.
Black Drama: Third Edition This link opens in a new window Black Drama, now in its expanded third edition, contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print.
Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window With more than 2.3 million entries, PQDT is the database of record for doctoral dissertations and master's theses. The database represents the work of authors from over 1,000 graduate schools and universities in North America and from around the globe. Over 60,000 new dissertations and theses are added to the database each year.
Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window Presents mainly US census data for the nation as a whole, such as immigration statistics by country of origin or mortality rates by disease, ranging back to the 1800s.
Historic Pittsburgh This link opens in a new window Historic Pittsburgh is a digital collection that provides an opportunity to explore and research the history of Pittsburgh and the surrounding Western Pennsylvania area on the Internet. It is a joint project of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Most of the materials in Historic Pittsburgh's Full-Text Collection were published or produced before the early 1920s and are out of print or not readily accessible.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window When complete this collection will include approximately 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from Colonial times to 1950, plus 4,000 pages of previously unpublished materials. Drawn from more than 1,000 sources the collection represents all age groups, ethnicities, regions and the famous and the not so famous.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery This link opens in a new window A digital archive in four parts devoted to the study and understanding of the history of slavery in America and the rest of the world from the late 15th through the early 20th century.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window U.S. Declassified Documents Online provides immediate access to a broad range of previously classified federal records spanning the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The collection brings together the most sensitive documents from all the presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies in a single, easily searchable database. Former title: Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS).
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window WSM brings together books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies, documenting the multiplicity of women’s reform activities and examines perspectives on women’s social movements from Colonial times to the present.
African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window Rich with first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and congressional addresses, Congressional abstracts and business and commodity markets this enormous collection of African-American newspapers contains a wealth of information about the cultural life and history during the 1800s. It also contains large numbers of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements, all of which embody the African-American experience.
Atlanta Daily World This link opens in a new window The Atlanta Daily World had the first black White House correspondent and was the first black daily newspaper in the nation in the 20th century.
Baltimore Afro-American This link opens in a new window The most widely circulated black newspaper on the Atlantic coast. It was the first black newspaper to have correspondents reporting on World War II, foreign correspondents, and female sports correspondents.
Chicago Defender This link opens in a new window A leading African-American newspaper, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside Chicago.
HarpWeek This link opens in a new window The HarpWeek database contains all the pages of Harper's Weekly for the Civil War Era and Reconstruction (1857-1912) as scanned images, together with a series of indexes. HarpWeek provides information on domestic and foreign news, editorials, and people during the Civil War era.
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window The New York Times from 1851-2013 with searchable full text, full page, and article-level images.
Philadelphia Tribune This link opens in a new window The oldest continuously published black newspaper, it was dedicated to the needs and concerns of the fourth largest black community in the U.S. During the 1930s the paper supported the growth of the United Way, rallied against the riots in Chester, PA, and continuously fought against segregation.
Pittsburgh Courier 1911-2002 This link opens in a new window The Pittsburgh Courier was one of the most nationally circulated Black newspapers and reached its peak in the 1930s. A conservative voice in the African-American community, the Courier challenged the misrepresentation of African-Americans in the national media and advocated social reforms to advance the cause of civil rights.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Historical) This link opens in a new window This database provides full page and article images with searchable full text for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1786-2003). The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue in PDF format.
Washington Post (Historical) This link opens in a new window The Washington Post from 1877-2000
<< Previous: Locating Secondary Sources
Next: Locating Books & More >>
Last Updated: Sep 27, 2023 12:03 PM
URL: https://pitt.libguides.com/HIST0211

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era: A Digital Primary Source Guide

by Serena Covkin

Far too often, United States history curricula race through the fifty years between the Civil War and Reconstruction on the one end, and the Great Depression and World War II on the other—but the tumultuous, crisis-filled, frequently violent, and wholly transformative Gilded Age (1870s-1890s) and Progressive Era (1890s-1920s) deserve our focused consideration. As the country closed out the nineteenth century and moved into the twentieth, its economy, governance, polity, culture, and position on the international stage were forever altered. Explore this digital primary source guide to learn more—and begin making your own contribution to this developing historical literature.

The Gilded Age entered the lexicon and the annals of American history through Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s satirical 1873 novel of the same name, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today . The tale’s “moral was the danger of privileging speculation over honest labor”; the plot’s machinations “exposed the rot beneath the gilded surface.” 1 To contemporary observers and historians alike, there was no better metaphor for the corruption and inequality that then suffused American politics and industry.

Beginning in the 1870s, thanks to a “modern corporate form of ownership,” a new “merger movement,” and a dominant form of “competitive, proprietary capitalism,” industrialists like John D. Rockefeller, James Pierpont Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt—known as “captains of industry” or, more derogatively, as “robber barons”—rose to unprecedented heights of prosperity and power. 2 More and more, wealth was concentrated in the hands of the few—but many ordinary citizens flourished, too, and per capita wealth generally increased throughout the age. 3 Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse began bringing electricity to the public, while innumerable less famous, perhaps even more diligent “tinkerers” invented new devices and procedures that drastically reordered American society and culture. 4 The Gilded Age was a period of mass immigration and urbanization, and new city-dwellers—anxiously but rapidly—integrated “streetcars and elevators…packaged processed foods and machine-made clothing” into their daily lives. 5

Not all of the changes were positive. During the Gilded Age, America—and the world—experienced a series of periodic economic crises, including a devastating Wall Street crash that inaugurated the Panic of 1873. “Recurrent cycles of boom and collapse” wrought dramatically different consequences for those at the top and bottom rungs of the economy. 6 As industrial workers faced wage cuts and untenable living conditions, labor unrest spread across the nation, including the 1886 Haymarket Affair and the 1894 Pullman Strike. These persistent conflicts gave strength to myriad labor unions, an insurgent Populist Party, and even radical revolutionaries and anarchists, “dedicated not to the reform of capitalism but to its abolition,” who wielded bombs and sticks of dynamite alongside their “fierce editorials…and soapbox oratory.” 7 At the turn of the century, political violence was unsettlingly common. President James A. Garfield was assassinated in 1881, and President William McKinley in 1901; eleven years later, former President Theodore Roosevelt survived a shot to the chest.

Less gruesome, if no less contentious, the social reforms and protective legislation that typified the Progressive Era also constituted concerted attempts to “limit the social costs of aggressive, market capitalism.” 8 Increasingly, crusaders of all stripes lobbied local, state, and federal government officials to step in and address their concerns, from temperance, to agricultural subsidies, to monetary policy. 9 In concert with their counterparts across the North Atlantic world, American civil servants and policymakers worked to ameliorate “the problems and miseries of ‘great city’ life, the insecurities of wage work, the social backwardness of the countryside, [and] the instabilities of the market itself.” 10 Though they could not yet vote in most of the country, middle-class women directed settlement houses, women’s clubs, and social movements “for compulsory public education, regulation of sweatshop labor, public sanitation, and the arbitration of strikes.” 11 Throughout this “veritable ‘golden age’ of women’s politics,” maternal social reformers helped “recas[t] the welfare of mothers and children as an issue for public policy” while also creating new, viable spaces for women to operate outside the home. 12 That women could effect positive social change was a guiding premise of the movement for women’s suffrage—and in 1920, the states ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. 13

Scholars continue to debate whether the mantle of progressivism can and should apply to the American South. Beginning in the 1890s, southern legislatures passed “Jim Crow” laws that mandated racial segregation, creating whites-only restaurants, schools, bathrooms, and other public spaces. Across the South, states instituted poll taxes, literacy tests, and discriminatory grandfather clauses that systematically stripped black men of their right to vote. It was precisely at this moment, historian Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore explains, that middle-class black women “became the black community’s diplomats to the white community” and “built social service and civic structures that wrested some recognition and meager services from the expanding welfare state,” enacting their own version of progressive politics. 14 If not as voters then as “clients” of the welfare state, black women led various successful education and public health and safety campaigns. 15

These fifty years witnessed a dramatic expansion of American empire. After four hundred years of strife, the United States devastated its Native American population and in 1887, the Dawes Act bestowed the president with the power to break up Indian reservations among individuals. 16 In 1898, the nation annexed Hawaii; that same year, it waged the Spanish-American War, bringing Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam, and the Philippines under American control; and between 1903 and 1914, it constructed the Panama Canal, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1917, after three years of bloody war in Europe, the U.S. military entered the Great War, helping to ensure Allied victory over the Central Powers and rocketing the United States to a new status as a global superpower.

As Americans encountered the Roaring Twenties and—unbeknownst to them—stood on the precipice of the Great Depression, they inhabited an utterly transformed nation. How they got there—the stuff of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era—demands deep, critical analysis. Find more resources below:

Everyday Life and Leisure in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era

via Library of Congress, America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894 to 1915
via Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection , including 25,000+ images, mostly from the 1890s-1920s
via Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection , including 41,000+ images, mostly from the 1900s-1920s
via Library of Congress’ Flickr, News in the 1910s
via Harvard University, Women Working, 1800-1930
via Library of Congress’ Flickr, Women Striving Forward, 1910-1940
the digitized cookbooks , arranged by date
via Library of Congress, The Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889 to 1939
via Library of Congress, Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1870 to 1885
via Public Domain Music, Music from 1866-1899
via Public Domain Music, Music from 1900-1923
via Northwestern University, digitized publications at Homicide in Chicago, 1870-1930
via Library of Congress, California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California, 1849 to 1900
via Library of Congress, Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897 to 1916
via Library of Congress, The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898 to 1906
via University of Sydney faculty, Digital Harlem: Everyday Life, 1915-1930
via New York Public Library, mapping historical New York City photographs at OldNYC
via New York Public Library, help correct and classify historical New York City maps at Building Inspector
via University of Southern California, interactive maps and timelines at The Roaring Twenties

National Politics

via Library of Congress, Presidential Elections, 1789 to 1920: Resource Guides
via Our Documents, Pendleton Act (1883)
via Library of Congress, Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901
via Library of Congress, Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film
via The American Presidency Project, Papers of Woodrow Wilson
via Library of Congress, American Leaders Speak: Recordings From World War I and the 1920 Election
via Missouri State professor Worth Robert Miller, Documents on the Populist Party
via Digital Public Library of America, Patronage and Populism: The Politics of the Gilded Age
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for The Populist Movement

American Inventors and Technological Change

via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for Electrifying America
via Our Documents, Thomas Edison’s Patent Application for the Light Bulb (1880)
via Library of Congress, Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies
via Library of Congress, Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904
via Library of Congress, Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers

Industrialists and Industry

via Our Documents, Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)
via Furman University, Andrew Carnegie’s “Wealth”
via archive.org, digitized publications of Andrew Carnegie
via archive.org, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s “Electricity as a Motive Power on Trunk Lines”
The Online Collections and Catalog of Rockefeller Archive Center
Online Collection Catalog of the Morgan Library & Museum, including the Morgan Archives

Labor History

via New York University, interactive New York City Labor History Map
via Georgia State University, 19 th and 20 th Century Labor Prints
via Cornell University, digitized documents from The 1911 Triangle Factory Fire
via archive.org, digitized publications of the Knights of Labor
Industrial Workers of the World Documents Library
via University of California, Berkeley, The Emma Goldman Papers
via Industrial Workers of the World, Documents by Eugene V. Debs
via Indiana State University, Eugene V. Debs Correspondence Collection
via Indiana State University, Debs Collection: Pamphlets , including many digitized pamphlets
via University of Maryland, The Samuel Gompers Papers
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for When Miners Strike: West Virginia Coal Mining and Labor History
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for The Homestead Strike
via Northern Illinois University, digitized sources at The Pullman Strike
via Chicago Historical Society, Haymarket Affair Digital Collection
via Library of Congress’ Chronicling America, a selection of newspaper articles on The Haymarket Affair

Social Reform

via Library of Congress, an online exhibition on Jacob Riis: Revealing “How the Other Half Lives”
via International Center of Photography, digitized photographs of Jacob Riis
via Columbia University, interviews with
via University System of Georgia, digitized organizational records at For Our Mutual Benefit: The Athens [Georgia] Woman’s Club and Social Reform, 1899-1920
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for Settlement Houses in the Progressive Era
via University of Illinois at Chicago, Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull-House and Its Neighborhoods, 1889-1963
via University of Illinois at Chicago, Seven Settlement Houses-Database of Photos
via Digital Public Library of America, an online exhibition on Children in Progressive-Era America
via Library of Congress’ Flickr, Child Labor & Lewis Hine
via Our Documents, Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916
via University of Iowa, digitized proceedings of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
via HistoryIT, Frances Willard Digital Journals
via Westerville Public Library, Anti-Saloon League Museum Collection
via Westerville Public Library, Anti-Saloon League Museum Cartoons and Fliers
via Brown University, Alcohol, Temperance & Prohibition Collection
via Digital Public Library of America, an online exhibition on Indomitable Spirits: Prohibition in the United States

The American West, the Frontier, and Native American History

via Our Documents, Dawes Act (1887)
via Massachusetts Historical Society, Photographing the American Indian, 1860-1913
via Northwestern University, Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian
via Montana State University, Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains Digital Collection
via Library of Congress’ Flickr, Framing the West
via University of Washington, Early Advertising of the West, 1867-1918

Immigration

via University of Richmond, interactive maps and timelines at Foreign-Born Population, 1850-2010
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for Immigration and Americanization, 1880-1930
via Online Archive of California, The Chinese in California, 1850-1925
via Our Documents, Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
via University of Minnesota, Digitizing Immigrant Letters (1850-1970)

Jim Crow, Segregation, and Black History

via Our Documents, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
via Library of Congress, primary sources for Jim Crow and Segregation
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for Ida B. Wells and Anti-Lynching Activism
via University of North Carolina, First-Person Narratives of the American South
via Duke University, oral histories at Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for The Great Migration
via UMass Amherst, E. B. Du Bois Collection , including links to online content
via Library of Congress, E. B. Du Bois: Online Resources
via archive.org, W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk
via Library of Congress, Booker T. Washington: Online Resources
via archive.org, Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery

American Imperialism and Foreign Relations

via Mount Holyoke College, Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy, 1898-1914
via Digital Public Library of America, an online exhibition on American Empire
via Our Documents, Joint Resolution to Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States (1898)
via Our Documents, Platt Amendment (1903)
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for American Imperialism: The Spanish-American War
via Library of Congress, primary sources for The Spanish-American War: The United States Becomes a World Power
via Library of Congress’ Chronicling America, a selection of newspaper articles on the Major Events of the Spanish American War
via Library of Congress’ Chronicling America, a selection of newspaper articles on The Sinking of The Maine
via Library of Congress, The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for The Panama Canal
via Linda Hall Library, Explore the Map of the Panama Canal

World War I

via Our Documents, Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Germany (1917)
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for World War I: America Heads to War
via Library of Congress, primary sources for World War I
via University of North Carolina, North Carolinians and the Great War
via New York Public Library, an online exhibition, Over Here: WWI and the Fight for the American Mind
via Library of Congress, World War I Posters
via University of Washington, digitized War Posters
via University of Iowa DIY History, help review transcribed World War I Diaries and Letters
via Library of Congress, Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers’ Newspaper of World War I, 1918 to 1919
via Library of Congress, Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, 1914 to 1919
via Library of Congress’ Flickr, World War I Panoramas

Women’s Suffrage and the Nineteenth Amendment

via Our Documents, 19 th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote (1920)
via Digital Public Library of America, primary sources for Women’s Suffrage: Campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment
via Library of Congress, primary sources for Women’s Suffrage
via Library of Congress, Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921
via Library of Congress, Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party
via Bryn Mawr College, Catt Collection Suffrage Photographs
via Kansas Historical Society, The Suffrage Song Book

Works Cited

The Gilded Age

Reference Sources
Primary Sources in the SLU Libraries
Primary Sources in Library Databases
Primary Sources on the Web
Citing Sources

History Librarian

"Named after an 1873 social satire by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, the Gilded Age encompasses the years from the 1870s to 1900. Scholars tend to see the legacies of the Civil War and Reconstruction as important contributors to the transformations that took place in the last three decades of the nineteenth century."

Source: Dictionary of American History , 3rd ed.

Search across the following historical newspapers at one time: Chicago Defender (July 1909-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1996), Kansas City Call (1919-2010), Los Angeles Times (1881-2014), The New York Times (1851-2016) and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1874-2003).... more .

19th Century newspapers from cities and rural areas throughout the United States... more .

1780-1925. Collection of primary source materials created during the "long nineteenth century" (late 1700s to early 1900s). Includes books, periodicals, diaries, letters, manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, maps, sheet music, and more…. more .

Provides digital access to 50 thematic series of American magazines and journals published between 1684 and 1912 and collected by the American Antiquarian Society... more .

Next: Reference Sources >>
Last Updated: Jan 9, 2024 3:45 PM
URL: https://libguides.slu.edu/gildedage

Research Guides

RPW 2610W A Hands-On History of the American Research University - Loss, Meadows: The Gilded Age

Your Librarians
Rise of the University
The Gilded Age
WW I and the Great Depression
WW II and the Cold War
Civil Rights Era, Part I
Civil Rights Era, Part II
Contemporary Era (1973-present)
Search Tips
Citing Sources
Library Survey

Introduction

The Gilded Age spans the years 1870 to 1900. The term for these years is taken from a satirical novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner titled, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Published in 1873, the novel depicts a post-Civil War America as an age of corruption populated by robber barons, corrupt politicians, and dishonest bankers.

This era also sees the rise of a middle class, many of whom sought to improve their own lives and those of their children through education. Explore the resources below for primary and secondary sources on this era. Additional resources can be found through the library catalog , the Collections Guides database , and by working with one of your course librarians .

Primary Sources

Manuscript Collections
University Archives
Charles Crain Garr Collection Scope and Content This collection contains contains photographs, negatives, clippings, and correspondence from Charles Garr, a Vanderbilt student and football player in the early 1900s. Dates 1880 - 1923
Florence Teague Collection Scope and Contents This collection contains materials related to Florence Teague, and her family. It contains the original 1883 handwritten essay by Mary Summers Conwell, her school certificates, and a newspaper clipping regarding her prize. Florence Teague wrote the family biography. Dates 1883 - 1968
James Hampton Kirkland Papers Scope and Content Note The Papers of James Hampton Kirkland, the second chancellor of Vanderbilt University, are composed of eighteen cubic feet of material that represent Kirkland’s life, particularly his tenure at Vanderbilt (Professor of Latin, 1886 - 1893, Chancellor, 1893 - 1937, Chancellor Emeritus 1937 - 1939). Dates 1859 - 1939 more... less... Offsite storage
Landon Cabell Garland Papers Scope and Contents The Landon Cabell Garland Papers (1830-1993) includes correspondence, diaries, speeches, sermons, a report to the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust, and personal and biographical materials. These are personal papers of Chancellor Garland and are not to be confused with his university papers. This collection is a small snapshot of Chancellor Garland's personal life, with the family correspondence providing the main interest. Dates 1830 - 1958 more... less... Offsite storage
Newton Ford Raines Collection The collection contains an Order For Matriculation for N. F. Raines, October 5, 1875 and report cards 1875-1876.
Vanderbilt Aid Society Collection Scope and Content This small collection consists of 0.63 linear feet of materials relating to the founding of the Vanderbilt Aid Society, or the Ladies Aid Society for the Students of Vanderbilt University as it was called at the beginning. The collection contains correspondence, brief historical notes about the Society by various people connected with it, and the records that have been kept concerning the Treasurers’ reports and the loan fund reports, as well as the minutes from the meetings, 1894 - 1950. Dates 1894 - 1950
Waller Project Collection Scope and Content A variety of resources collected and used by William Waller for his books on the history of Nashville. Includes essays of the history of Price's School for Girls. Dates 1853 - 1954
Vanderbilt Austral Call Number: LH1.V25 V344 Publication Date: 1879-03-01 First newspaper published by student of Vanderbilt University. March-June, 1879.
Vanderbilt Observer Call Number: LH1 .V24 V35 Publication Date: 1882-1917 Literary journal published by the literary societies of Vanderbilt University. It also includes news about happenings at Vanderbilt University.
Central University: Charter, Proceedings of the Board of Trust, and Adress of the Board. The planned institution called in these documents Central University was organized later in 1873 as Vanderbilt University. Includes a historical sketch of the work so far toward the establishment of Central (i.e. Vanderbilt) University), "taken from the Address issued by the Board, at its meeting in Iuka, Miss., August, 1872"; the text of the Charter of the Central University, certified Aug. 19, 1872; proceedings of a meeting of the Board of Trust, held Jan. 16, 1873; and an Address of the Board, dated Jan. 17, 1873.
The Comet/Commodore, 1887-2017 Vanderbilt University student annual.
Faculty Senate Minutes, 1879-1885, 1903-1926 Vanderbilt University Archives Record Group 505 Faculty Senate Box 0487
Minutes of the Executive Board of Trust of Vanderbilt University more... less... Special Collections and University Archives Library

You will need to log into the Sanborn Maps database before following these links to individual pages.

Key to Map Illustrations, 1888 (Digital Sanborn Maps, 1888, page 0a) This key to the map illustrations shows how the volume designates streets and architectural features of buildings.

Vanderbilt University, 1888 (Digital Sanborn Maps, page 38b) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1888 showing the Vanderbilt University campus. Detailed drawings show such items as underground coal sheds, wells, and faculty houses with separate kitchen structures. more... less... Home page for the Digital Sanborn Maps database: http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/eres?id=1083
Key to Map Illustrations, 1897 (Digital Sanborn Maps, 1897 Volume 2, page 0b) This key to the map illustrations shows how the volume designates types of roofs, walls, and other building features.
Vanderbilt University, 1897 (Digital Sanborn Maps, 1897 Volume 2, page 192) These maps show an expanding campus, including additional faculty houses, West Side Row dormitories, and a Machine Shop.

Secondary Sources

History of Vanderbilt University by Edwin Mims Call Number: LD5588 .M5 Publication Date: 1946 An early history of Vanderbilt University from its beginning in 1873 up to the end of World War II.
Gone with the Ivy: A Biography of Vanderbilt University by Paul K. Conkin Call Number: LD5588 .C66 1985 ISBN: 087049452X Publication Date: 1985-06-01 A comprehensive history of Vanderbilt University, from its beginnings in 1873 to 1982.

Schools for All by William P. Vaughn Call Number: LC2802 .S9 V38 ISBN: 0813113121 Publication Date: 1974-06-01 In an extensive study of records from the period, William Preston Vaughn traces the development -- the successes as well as the failures -- of the early attempts of the states to promote education for African Americans and in some instances to establish integration. While public schools in the South were not an innovation of Reconstruction, their revitalization and provision to both races were among the most important achievements of the period, despite the pressure from whites in most areas which forced the establishment of segregated education.
Nashville in the 1890s by William Waller (Editor); S. Horn (Foreword by) ISBN: 0826511651 Publication Date: 2009-06-15 In the 1890s Nashville, Tennessee had already developed into a bustling center of trade and industry. NASHVILLE IN THE 1890s is a memento of that era. An outgrowth of the Vanderbilt Oral History project, established in 1950, this book tells the events large and small--the cataclysms and commonplaces--that distinguished life in the nineties. From mumblety-peg to the Centennial, from a "storebought" jacket to the Panic of 1893, from filling coal boxes to the Spanish-American War, this book recreates the aura of Nashville's elegant era.
Nashville 1900-1910 by William Waller (Editor); S. Horn (Foreword by) Call Number: F444 .N2 W26 ISBN: 0826511651 Publication Date: 1970-11-01 History of Nashville, Tennessee 1900-1910 as related in written memoirs and oral history interviews with local residents.

Twain, Mark and Charles Dudley Warner. The Gilded Age : A Tale of To-Day. Hartford: American Pub. Co., 1874. Call Number: PS1311 .A1 1874 For more information on fore-edge painting, please see:

Wonders of the Hidden Edge: Fore-Edge Paintings from the N-YHS Library
Fore-Edge Paintings (Brandeis Special Collections)
How Fore-Edge Paintings are Done: A Masterclass (YouTube 8:31)
<< Previous: Rise of the University
Next: WW I and the Great Depression >>
Last Updated: Apr 16, 2024 12:59 PM
URL: https://researchguides.library.vanderbilt.edu/rpw2610W

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Student Research Projects

Andrew carnegie.

Representing the two sides of Andrew Carnegie. His side during his rise in business and his other side of philanthropic work. 1892

Andrew Carnegie giving to colleges. 1901

Andrew Carnegie a name infamous with big business. He is seen as one of the great business moguls of America. He came from rags to riches, and eventually dominated the steel industry. Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in Scotland, where he spent much of his childhood tell his early teens. He then immigrated to America and began working for $1.20 a week.[1] He rose up in business fairly quickly after meeting Thomas Scott a leading member of the Pennsylvania Railroad. With Scott he ventured into different aspects of business instead of just working as a hired hand. He invested a good sum of money into the steel industry. Which eventually would pay off greatly.

Once he did make it into the steel industry he adapted the style of vertical integration. This this business style can be seen as a monopoly due to its control of the complete process of a product. This meant that he controlled every aspect from the barges, steel mills, the mines, and the transportation of the product.[2] This created a vast network for Carnegie’s industry as well as a guarantee for his product.

With his company being a monopoly there are many negative aspects that people see about. One can begin treatment of the workers, this due to the time when the mass amounts of people who immigrated to the United States. At the height of his business Carnegie employed 40,000 men. These men worked in all aspects of the business process. Not all of them were happy about the conditions that they worked in, which can be seen in the Homestead strike of 1892. This strike put the workers of one of his steel mill against the steel mill’s foreman. The workers wanted to unionize while Andrew Carnegie and the foreman or against the unionization of their workers. This led to a large-scale conflict between the workers and those who the foreman, Henry Clay Frick, called in such as the Pinkerton Detective Agency.[3] However the strike did not end well for the workers nor for their trade union ally the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. Although this paints Carnegie and his company with distrust there was still a light at the end of the tunnel for Carnegie.

This light at the end of the tunnel was his philanthropy work. Carnegie created the Gospel of Wealth. This was a book that documented how the rich should not die rich and that they should give back to those that help them. Over the course of his business he gained a vast amount of money that he eventually gave back to those who helped him. He reportedly gave away 90% of his wealth towards the end of his life. He gave back to those who helped him throughout the years specifically workers. He also gave back to those who served in war with his Hero Fund. Lastly he gave generously to public libraries. Which he believed that you must be educated, in total he gave 2,811 libraries to communities.[4] As well as countless other donations he gave during the end of his life.

Andrew Carnegie can be seen as a peculiar figure in business history. The first came from nothing to be one of the biggest businessman of the time. One that revolutionized business industry as well as caused many changes to business. In this he can be seen as almost a villain for his treatment of workers as well as the lower class. Yet towards the end of his life he is seen as a generous man gave away almost all his wealth. This two different people from all walks of life. He also repaid those that he wrong so much, the workers. Carnegie can be seen as a giant contradiction due to his early life being so drastically different to that of the later course of his life.

[1]Krass, Peter. Carnegie . New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2002. 22-23

[2]Andrew Carnegie: The Gospel of Wealth. Learning Corp. of America, 1974.

[3]Wolff. Lockout : The Story of the Homestead Strike of 1892 : A Study of Violence, Unionism and the Carnegie Steel Empire . 135

[4]Wall, Joseph Frazier. Andrew Carnegie. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. 829

Search Search Please fill out this field.
Government & Policy

The Gilded Age Explained: An Era of Wealth and Inequality

Katie Miller is a consumer financial services expert. She worked for almost two decades as an executive, leading multi-billion dollar mortgage, credit card, and savings portfolios with operations worldwide and a unique focus on the consumer. Her mortgage expertise was honed post-2008 crisis as she implemented the significant changes resulting from Dodd-Frank required regulations.

Investopedia / Mira Norian

What Was the Gilded Age?

The Gilded Age, which roughly spanned the late 1870s to the early 1900s, was a time of rapid industrialization , economic growth, and prosperity for the wealthy. It was also a time of exploitation and extreme poverty for the working class.

Reconstruction preceded the Gilded Age, when factories built as part of the North’s Civil War effort were converted to domestic manufacturing . Agriculture, which had once dominated the economy, was replaced by industry. Ultimately, the Gilded Age was supplanted by early 20th-century progressivism after populism failed.

The term “gilded age” was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in a book titled The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today . Published in 1873, the book satirized the thin “gilding” of economic well-being that overlaid the widespread poverty, corruption, and labor exploitation that characterized the period.

Key Takeaways

The Gilded Age lasted from the late 1800s to the early 1900s and was characterized by economic growth for the wealthy and extreme poverty for the working classes.
A societal shift from agriculture to industry resulted in a movement to the cities for some and westward migration for others.
The beginning of organized labor, investigative journalism, and progressive ideologies began to spell the end of the Gilded Age and its rigid class structure.
The Gilded Age marked the beginning of industrialization in America—a time of innovation, transportation growth, and full employment. It was also a time of economic devastation and dangerous working conditions for labor.

Economic and Industrial Developments

As the United States began to shift from agriculture to industry as a means of economic growth, people began to move from farms to urban areas. Railroads expanded, industry began to mechanize, communication improved, and corruption became widespread.

Railroad Expansion

Railroads expanded dramatically in the U.S. in the 1870s. From 1871 to 1900, 170,000 miles of track were laid in the United States, most of it for constructing the transcontinental railway system. It began with the passage of the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 , which authorized the first of five transcontinental railroads.

Mechanization of Industries

The late 19th century saw an unprecedented expansion of industry and production, much of it by machines. Machines replaced skilled workers, reducing labor costs and the ultimate selling price of goods and services. Instead of skilled workers seeing a product through from start to finish, jobs were often limited to one task repeated endlessly. The pace of work increased, with many laborers forced to work longer hours.

Communications Networks

Technological advancements, including the phonograph and the telephone, came into existence during the Gilded Age. So did the advent of mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. Professional entertainers quickly adopted these new forms of communication, making listening and reading news new leisure activities.

Monopolies and Robber Barons

During the Gilded Age, many businessmen became wealthy by gaining control of entire industries. Controlling an entire sector of the economy is known as having a monopoly . The most prominent figures with monopolies were J.P. Morgan (banking), John D. Rockefeller (oil), Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads), and Andrew Carnegie (steel).

Because of the way they exploited workers with low wages, long hours, and dangerous working conditions, these wealthy tycoons were often referred to as robber barons , a pejorative term used to describe the accumulation of wealth through that exploitation.

Rural Life and Urban Life—Gilded Age Homes

Homes during the Gilded Age reflected the lifestyle and wealth of the homeowner. While the wealthy built magnificent mansions with stately names like Vanderbilt Mansion, Peacock Point, and Castle Rock, many of the less fortunate lived in tenement buildings in cities, where they flocked for jobs, or in the West, in claim shanties—small shacks built to fulfill Homestead Act regulations.

Social Stratification and Inequality

The Gilded Age saw rapid growth in the economic disparities between workers and business owners. The wealthy lived lavishly, while the working class endured low wages and horrid conditions.

Real Wage Increases

The technological changes brought about by industrialization are thought to be largely responsible for the fact that real wages of unskilled labor grew 1.43% per year during the Gilded Age vs. 0.56% per year during the Progressive Era and just 0.44% per year from 1990 to 2005.

By those measures and comparisons, the Gilded Age would seem to be a success. In 1880, for example, the average earnings of an American worker were $347 per year. That grew to $445 in 1890, an increase of more than 28%.

Abject Poverty

“While the rich wore diamonds, many wore rags.” This summarizes the income and lifestyle disparity that characterized the Gilded Age. In 1890, 11 million of the nation’s 12 million families (92%) lived below the poverty line. Tenements teemed with an unlikely combination of rural families and immigrants who came into urban areas, took low-paying jobs, and lived in abject poverty.

Though wages rose during the Gilded Age, they were deficient initially. As noted above, in 1880, the average wages of an American worker were $347 per year ($10,399 today, as of this writing) but had risen to $445 by 1890 ($14,949 in today’s dollars). Given today’s federal poverty level (FPL) , which is $30,000 for a family of four, most Gilded Age Americans were excessively poor despite the impressive wage growth of the time.

Labor Unions

The rise of labor unions was neither sudden nor without struggle. Business owners used intimidation and violence to suppress workers, even though they had a right to organize. By 1866, there were nearly 200,000 workers in local unions across the United States. William Sylvis took advantage of these numbers to establish the first nationwide labor organization, named the National Labor Union (NLU).

Unfortunately, Sylvis and the NLU tried to represent too many constituencies, causing the group to disband following the Panic of 1873 when it couldn’t serve all those competing groups. The NLU was replaced by the Knights of Labor, started by Uriah Stephens in 1869. Stephens admitted all wage earners, including women and Black people.

The Knights of Labor lost members and eventually dissolved for two reasons. First, Stephens, an old-style industrial capitalist, refused to adjust to the changing needs of workers. Second, a bomb thrown into a crowd at a rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886, was blamed on the union, driving even more members away.

By December 1886, labor leader Samuel Gompers took advantage of the vacuum left by the demise of the Knights and created a new union based on the simple premise that American workers wanted just two things: higher wages and better working conditions. Thus was born the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

Corruption and Scandals—Muckrakers

Another product of the Gilded Age was investigative journalism. Reporters who exposed corruption among politicians in the wealthy class were known as muckrakers for their ability to dig through the “muck” of the Gilded Age to uncover scandal and thievery.

Notable muckrakers included Jacob Rils, who in 1890 exposed the horrors of New York City slum life. In 1902, Lincoln Steffens brought city corruption to light with a magazine article titled “Tweed Days in St. Louis.” Ida Tarbell put her energy into exposing the antics of John D. Rockefeller; her reporting led to the breakup of Standard Oil Co. In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose conditions in the meatpacking industry. This led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Immigration

Many immigrants came to North America during the Gilded Age, with 11.7 million of them landing in the United States. Of those, 10.6 million came from Europe, making up 90% of the immigrant population. Immigrants made it possible for the U.S. economy to grow since they were willing to take jobs that native-born Americans wouldn’t .

While factory owners welcomed these newcomers, who were willing to accept low wages and dangerous working conditions, not all Americans did. So-called nativists lobbied to restrict certain immigrant populations, and in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act passed Congress. But millions came despite the obstacles. The Statue of Liberty beckoned, and the “huddled masses” responded. The children of immigrants began to assimilate, despite their parents’ objections. Another hallmark of the Gilded Age was born, as America became a true melting pot.

Women in the Workforce

Industrialization created jobs outside the home for women. By 1900, one in seven women were employed. The typical female worker was young, urban, single, and either an immigrant or the daughter of immigrants. Her work was temporary—just until she married. The job she was most likely to hold was that of a domestic servant.

The Gilded Age also saw an increase in college-educated women. Colleges, including Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, and Mount Holyoke, opened their doors to women in the post-bellum years. This did not happen without some incredible chauvinism. Scientists of the era warned that women’s brains were too small to handle college work without compromising their reproductive systems. Many, it turned out, took that risk. The predominant fields held by female college graduates were nursing and teaching.

The Black Experience

As reconstruction ended on a state-by-state basis, Black people could migrate away from plantations and into cities in search of economic opportunity, or to move west or south in search of land that they could work for themselves. From 1870 to 1900, the South’s Black population went from 4.4 million to 7.9 million. People found jobs in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, working on railroads and in mines, lumber, factories, and farms. For some, however, sharecropping replaced slavery, keeping Black workers tied to the land without ownership.

For a small set of others, this period led to the foundation of what’s known as the Black elite or “the colored aristocracy,” as was noted by Willard B. Gatewood in Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880–1920 . Among this group were members such as Blanche Bruce, a Republican senator from Mississippi; Josephine Beall Willson Bruce, a women’s rights activist in Washington, D.C., and the wife of Blanche Bruce; and Timothy Thomas Fortune, economist and editor of The New York Age , the nation’s leading Black newspaper at the time.

Economic Impact and Legacy

The Gilded Age saw the transformation of the American economy from agrarian to industrial. It saw the development of a national transportation and communication network. Women began to enter the workforce as never before. Millions of immigrants took root in a new land. Enterprising industrialists became titans and wealthy beyond measure.

Production and per capita income rose sharply, albeit with great disparity among wealth classes. Earlier legislation, like the Homestead Act, motivated the movement westward of millions of people to lay claim to land that would give them a new start and a chance at the American dream. As America became more prosperous, some of its citizens fell victim to greed, corruption, and political vice. This combination of extraordinary wealth and unimaginable poverty was the ultimate juxtaposition of capitalism and government intervention. The debate continues today.

Are There Gilded Age Mansions Left?

You can still see and even visit some of the most opulent examples of Gilded Age domicile excess today. In New York City, for example, you can drive past the Vanderbilts’ Plant House, the Carnegie Mansion, the Morgan House, and others, if you know where to look.

What Was the Worst Scandal of the Gilded Age?

The Gilded Age gave birth to enough scandals to create competition for the worst of the lot, but many historians agree that the transcontinental railroad scandal was the cream of the crop, so to speak.

The federal government, in deciding to underwrite a transcontinental railroad, created an opportunity for corruption that it did not anticipate. As builder of the railroad, the Union Pacific company engaged in price fixing and bribery that affected members of the Ulysses S. Grant presidential administration. The corruption was uncovered by investigators, bringing the scheme to an end.

When Did the Gilded Age Start and End?

The Gilded Age in America refers to the period from the end of Reconstruction to the turn of the century (1870 to 1901). Some extend the period into the early 1900s, but most agree that the beginning of the Progressive Era in the early 1900s is the ultimate ending point.

The Bottom Line

The Gilded Age was critical to the growth of the United States by introducing industrialization and technological advances. It was also a time of political turmoil, greed, and extreme income inequality. The U.S. became the most economically powerful country in the world due to the era. It was a time of unprecedented progress and unimaginable poverty.

The wealth gap between the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Morgans, and Vanderbilts and the rest of the country was palpable. With wealth came greed. With innovation came corruption. Muckrakers, the first investigative journalists, helped uncover the graft, and unions helped labor even the playing field. Ultimately, this “best and worst” of times became another important chapter in the American saga.

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ The Gilded Age .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ The Growth of Populism .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ Progressivism Sweeps the Nation .”

History. “ Gilded Age .”

Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, via Google Books. “ The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today .” Penguin Publishing Group, 2001 (originally published in 1873).

Library of Congress. “ Railroads in the Late 19th Century .”

Library of Congress. “ Work in the Late 19th Century .”

Digital History, University of Houston. “ An Age of Innovation .”

Dupont Castle. “ Castle Rock .”

Preservation Long Island, via ArcGIS StoryMaps. “ Peacock Point .”

South Dakota State University. “ South Dakota Claim Shanty .”

Hugh Rockoff, via National Bureau of Economic Research. “ Great Fortunes of the Gilded Age .” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 14555, December 2008, Page 32.

Clarence D. Long, via National Bureau of Economic Research. “ Wages and Earnings in the United States, 1860–1890: Chapter 3, Annual Earnings .” Princeton University Press, 1960, Page 41 (Page 4 of PDF).

PBS. “ American Experience: The Gilded Age .”

CPI Inflation Calculator. “ $347 in 1880 Is Worth $10,399.49 Today .”

CPI Inflation Calculator. “ $445 in 1890 Is Worth $14,948.63 Today .”

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. “ Federal Poverty Guidelines .”

Khan Academy. “ Labor Battles in the Gilded Age .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ Early National Organizations .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ American Federation of Labor .”

Washington State University Libraries, Digital Exhibits. “ Immigrant Factory Workers .”

American History: From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. “ The Rush of Immigrants .”

Stacy A. Cordery (editor: Charles William Calhoun), via Google Books. “ The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America ,” Chapter 6: Women in Industrializing America, Pages 119–121. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.

Leslie H. Fishel Jr. (editor: Charles William Calhoun, via Google Books. “ The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America ,” Chapter 7: The African-American Experience in the Gilded Age, Page 144. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.

Willard B. Gatewood, via Google Books. “ Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite 1880–1920 (p) .” University of Arkansas Press, 1990.

Town and Country. “ 10 Gilded Age Landmarks in New York City Still Standing Today .”

History. “ Crédit Mobilier .”

The History Junkie. “ The Gilded Age Facts and History .”

Terms of Service
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Your Privacy Choices

Articles on Gilded Age

Displaying all articles.

Sellout! How political corruption shaped an American insult

Ian Afflerbach , University of North Georgia

Do multimillion-dollar dinosaur auctions erode trust in science?

Lukas Rieppel , Brown University

Elon Musk and the oligarchs of the ‘Second Gilded Age’ can not only sway the public – they can exploit their data, too

Nolan Higdon , California State University, East Bay

Joe Exotic channels the spirit of America’s 19th-century tiger kings

Madeline Steiner , University of South Carolina

Fight for economic equality is as old as America itself

Daniel Mandell , Truman State University

Mississippi governor’s race taking place under Jim Crow-era rules after judge refuses to block them

Gideon Cohn-Postar , Northwestern University

Mississippi: African American voters sue over election law rooted in the state’s racist past

Making money off of politics isn’t new – it was business as usual in the Gilded Age

Jeff Broxmeyer , University of Toledo

Fighting words for a New Gilded Age - Democratic candidates are sounding a lot like Teddy Roosevelt

Jennifer Mercieca , Texas A&M University

Think journalism’s a tough field today? Try being a reporter in the Gilded Age

Randall S. Sumpter , Texas A&M University

For tech giants, a cautionary tale from 19th century railroads on the limits of competition

Richard White , Stanford University

Top contributors

Graduate Student in History, Northwestern University

Professor of American History, Stanford University

Associate Professor of Communication, Texas A&M University

Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Toledo

Associate Professor of History, Brown University

Professor of History, Truman State University

Postdoctoral Fellow of History, University of South Carolina

Lecturer of History and Media Studies, California State University, East Bay

Professor of Communication and Journalism, Texas A&M University

Associate Professor of American Literature, University of North Georgia

X (Twitter)
Unfollow topic Follow topic

Great Fortunes of the Gilded Age

This paper explores the origins of the great fortunes of the Gilded Age. It relies mainly on two lists of millionaires published in 1892 and 1902, similar to the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans. Manufacturing, as might be expected, was the most important source of Gilded Age fortunes. Many of the millionaires, moreover, won their fortunes by exploiting the latest technology: Alfred D. Chandler's "continuous-flow production." A more surprising finding is that wholesale and retail trade, real estate, and finance together produced more millionaires than manufacturing. Real estate and finance, moreover, were by far the most important secondary and tertiary sources of Gilded Age fortunes: entrepreneurs started in many sectors, but then expanded their fortunes mainly through investments in real estate and financial assets. Inheritance was also important, especially in older regions

I thank my colleagues Michael Bordo, Carolyn Moehling, and Eugene White for comments on a previous draft. I also thank the participants in a conference at Chiba University on America's New Economy in December 2007 for comments on a related paper. The remaining errors are my responsibility. Nuttanan Wichitaksorn provided able research assistance. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

Download Citation Data

Published Versions

" Great Fortunes of the Gilded Age. " Journal of American Economic History , a publication of the 2 American Economic History Association, Japan. No. 9, March, 1 - 18, (in Japanese).

More from NBER

In addition to working papers , the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter , the NBER Digest , the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability , the Bulletin on Health , and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship — as well as online conference reports , video lectures , and interviews .

15th Annual Feldstein Lecture, Mario Draghi, "The Next Flight of the Bumblebee: The Path to Common Fiscal Policy in the Eurozone cover slide

Themes: Gilded Age

Quick links.

Start with a Research Question
Reference Sources
Secondary Sources
Primary Sources
Writing and Citing

Bunn Library Quick Links

Academic Journals and eBooks Portal Search for academic journal titles and ebooks across our digital collections.
Bunn Library Catalog Search the library catalog for print books and ebooks.
Bunn Library Online Resources Explore all the digital resources available at Bunn Library.
Noodletools Manage your citations and create bibliographies for your research project.

Need help? Chat with a Librarian

Where do I begin? Think big! Start by looking at your topic from a wide lens. Not sure what to choose? Try working through this handout to identify what you are interested in researching. As you begin to gather research, you can start to narrow down your focus based on the amount of evidence that you find. Make a list of keywords as you read! Check out this research organizer for more help organizing your focus.

Research Project Guidelines and Handouts:

Unit 3 Research Paper Guidelines
Writing a Research Paper: Creating a Research Question

The biggest problem a researcher could have is an absent question. Starting with a research question instead of just a topic will make it much easier to come up with a thesis – it will simply be the answer to your question. Is this a good research question?

1. Does my question allow for many possible answers? Is it flexible and open-ended?

2. Is it testable? Do I know what kind of evidence would allow an answer?

3. Can I break big “why” questions into empirically resolvable pieces?

4. Is the question clear and precise? Do I use vocabulary that is vague or needs definition?

5. Have I made the premises explicit?

6. Is it of a scale suitable to the length of the assignment?

7. Can I explain why the answer matters?

For more guidance, refer to your guide to good research questions .

Next: Reference Sources >>
Last Updated: Feb 3, 2024 11:03 AM
URL: https://libguides.lawrenceville.org/gildedage

Home — Essay Samples — History — History of the United States — Gilded Age

Essays on Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was a time of rapid industrialization, economic growth, and social change in the United States. It was a period marked by great wealth and inequality, as well as significant political and social reforms. As a result, there are countless interesting and thought-provoking essay topics to explore from this era.

What Makes a Good Gilded Age Essay Topics

When choosing a Gilded Age essay topic, it's important to consider several factors. First, think about your own interests and passions. What aspects of the Gilded Age do you find most fascinating? Whether it's the rise of big business, the impact of immigration, or the role of women in society, choose a topic that resonates with you.

Next, consider the availability of primary and secondary sources. A good Gilded Age essay topic should be supported by a wealth of historical evidence. Think about whether there are enough sources available to support your chosen topic.

Finally, consider the relevance and significance of the topic. Does your chosen topic shed light on important social, political, or economic issues of the Gilded Age? Is it a topic that will engage and captivate your readers?

A good Gilded Age essay topic is one that is both interesting and significant, supported by ample historical evidence, and resonates with your own interests and passions.

Best Gilded Age Essay Topics

The role of women in the Gilded Age
The impact of immigration on American society
The rise of big business and the Robber Barons
The labor movement and the fight for workers' rights
The influence of the Gilded Age on modern American society
The impact of technological advancements on the Gilded Age
The political corruption and reform movements of the Gilded Age
The role of race and ethnicity during the Gilded Age
The impact of urbanization on American cities
The role of the media in shaping public opinion during the Gilded Age
The impact of the Gilded Age on American culture and the arts
The rise of consumer culture and the emergence of the middle class
The impact of the Gilded Age on American foreign policy
The role of religion in shaping American society during the Gilded Age
The impact of the Gilded Age on Native American communities
The role of education in the Gilded Age
The impact of the Gilded Age on environmental conservation and preservation
The role of social reformers and activists during the Gilded Age
The impact of the Gilded Age on American literature and journalism
The legacy of the Gilded Age in modern American society

Gilded Age essay topics Prompts

Imagine you are a female immigrant arriving in the United States during the Gilded Age. Describe your experiences and the challenges you face as you navigate this new world.
Create a newspaper article that highlights the rise of a prominent Robber Baron during the Gilded Age. Include details about their business practices, wealth, and impact on American society.
Write a letter from the perspective of a child laborer working in a factory during the Gilded Age. Describe the conditions in which you work and the impact it has on your life.
Design a political cartoon that critiques the corruption and political scandals of the Gilded Age. Use symbolism and satire to convey your message.
Write a short story that explores the impact of urbanization on a small town during the Gilded Age. Consider the changes in society, economy, and culture as the town grows and evolves.

The Gilded Age offers a wealth of fascinating and significant essay topics to explore. By carefully considering your interests, the availability of sources, and the relevance of the topic, you can choose an essay topic that is both engaging and impactful. With the right topic, you can delve into the complexities of this transformative era and shed light on important historical issues.

Social Changes in The Gilded Age

Monopolies during the gilded age essay, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences

+ experts online

Exploring Literary and Artistic Reflections of The Gilded Age

Public work life of poor americans in the gilded age, united states history: the gilded age, the gilded age of america, let us write you an essay from scratch.

450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

The Changes Offered by The Gilded Age and Progressive Era

The changes the gilded age brought to american society, america emerging into the "gilded age", the benefits brought by gilded age to america, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind

Economics During The Gilded Age

Gilded age is a period of history, the negative effects of the industrialization on the us society, the gilded age and how it shaped america, credit mobilier scandal during the gilded age, the panics and depressions of 1873 and 1893 during the gilded age, the gilded age and today's society, the inventions of the gilded age: transcontinental railroad and others, art issues during gilded age, the reconstruction era and the gilded age, a debate over social darwinism and reform in the gilded era and modern time, the gilded age and today’s political landscape: a comparison, captains of industry: collis p. huntington, andrew carnegie: a robber baron or a captain of industry, impact of andrew carnegie’s ideology on the united states.

c. 1871 - c. 1880

United States

The Gilded Age in the United States refers to the period from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, characterized by rapid industrialization, economic growth, and social transformation. Several key prerequisites set the stage for the emergence of this era: Industrial Revolution: The Industrial Revolution, which began in the late 18th century, laid the groundwork for the Gilded Age. Advances in technology, such as the steam engine and mechanized production, fueled industrialization and transformed the American economy. Westward Expansion: The settlement of the American West played a crucial role in the Gilded Age. The discovery of gold and other natural resources attracted migrants, leading to the development of industries like mining, agriculture, and railroads. Immigration and Urbanization: The Gilded Age witnessed a massive influx of immigrants from Europe and Asia seeking economic opportunities. This wave of immigration fueled population growth and contributed to the rapid urbanization of cities. Rise of Big Business: The Gilded Age saw the emergence of powerful industrialists and business tycoons who accumulated immense wealth and influence. Entrepreneurs like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan built vast business empires, monopolizing industries and shaping the economy. Social Inequalities: The era was characterized by stark social disparities. While the upper class enjoyed extravagant wealth and opulence, the working class faced poor working conditions, low wages, and limited rights.

Industrialization and Technological Advances: The Gilded Age witnessed a rapid expansion of industrialization, with the rise of industries such as steel, oil, and railroads. Technological advancements, such as the telegraph and electric power, transformed the nation's infrastructure and communication systems. Labor Movements and Strikes: The Gilded Age was marked by labor unrest, as workers protested poor working conditions, low wages, and long hours. Strikes such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Pullman Strike of 1894 demonstrated the growing power of organized labor. Immigration and Urbanization: The Gilded Age saw a significant influx of immigrants, primarily from Europe. This led to rapid urbanization, as cities grew and faced challenges related to overcrowding, poor living conditions, and social tensions. Political Corruption: The era was marred by political corruption and the influence of money in politics. The infamous Tammany Hall political machine in New York City and scandals like the Credit Mobilier exposed the corrupt practices of politicians. Progressive Reforms: As a response to the inequalities and social issues of the Gilded Age, the Progressive movement emerged. Reformers sought to address issues such as political corruption, child labor, and worker rights through legislation and social advocacy.

Andrew Carnegie: A Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist, Carnegie built a vast steel empire and became one of the richest individuals in history. He advocated for the concept of the "Gospel of Wealth" and donated his wealth to support education and libraries. John D. Rockefeller: An American business magnate, Rockefeller co-founded the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry. He amassed immense wealth and became known as one of the wealthiest individuals in history. Rockefeller also engaged in philanthropy and established the Rockefeller Foundation. J.P. Morgan: An influential financier and banker, Morgan played a significant role in shaping the American economy during the Gilded Age. He was involved in numerous business ventures, including the formation of U.S. Steel, and played a pivotal role in stabilizing the financial system during economic crises. Mark Twain: A celebrated writer and humorist, Mark Twain captured the essence of the Gilded Age through his works. His novels, such as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," provided social commentary and satire on the era's excesses and social inequalities. Jane Addams: A social reformer and activist, Addams co-founded Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago that provided services to immigrants and the poor. She worked tirelessly for social justice, women's rights, and the improvement of living conditions for the urban poor.

"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Although set in the 1920s, "The Great Gatsby" reflects the excesses and social stratification of the Gilded Age. The novel explores themes of wealth, materialism, and the pursuit of the American Dream against the backdrop of the Jazz Age. "The Octopus" by Frank Norris: This novel delves into the conflicts between farmers and railroad monopolies during the late 19th century. It portrays the ruthless nature of corporate power and its impact on ordinary people, highlighting the economic struggles and corruption of the Gilded Age. "How the Other Half Lives" by Jacob Riis: Riis's work is a pioneering example of photojournalism that exposes the living conditions of impoverished immigrants in New York City during the Gilded Age. His photographs and accompanying text shed light on the social inequality and housing crisis faced by the urban poor. "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair: Although set in the early 20th century, Sinclair's novel offers a grim depiction of the working and living conditions in the Chicago stockyards. It exposes the exploitation of workers and the unsanitary practices in the meatpacking industry, shedding light on the darker side of industrialization during the Gilded Age.

1. The population of the United States nearly doubled during the Gilded Age, fueled by immigration and internal migration from rural to urban areas. 2. The Gilded Age witnessed the rise of powerful industrialists, often referred to as "captains of industry" or "robber barons," such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan, who amassed enormous wealth and power. 3. Income inequality was prevalent during the Gilded Age. By 1890, the richest 10% of Americans controlled over 80% of the nation's wealth.

The topic of the Gilded Age holds significant importance for studying and understanding a crucial period in American history. Exploring the Gilded Age through an essay provides valuable insights into the economic, social, and political dynamics that shaped the nation during this time. First and foremost, the Gilded Age was marked by tremendous economic growth, industrialization, and the rise of powerful industrialists. It offers an opportunity to examine the impact of rapid industrialization, the consolidation of wealth, and the unequal distribution of resources. This era also witnessed the struggles of the working class, the formation of labor unions, and the fight for workers' rights, shedding light on the evolving dynamics of the labor movement. Moreover, the Gilded Age provides an understanding of the political landscape, including the influence of money and corruption on governance, the role of government in regulating business practices, and the push for progressive reforms. It was a time of significant social change, with advancements in technology, urbanization, and shifting gender roles. By studying the Gilded Age, we gain insights into the consequences of rapid industrialization, wealth inequality, labor unrest, and political corruption. It helps us reflect on the challenges and reforms of that era and draw parallels to contemporary issues, making it a crucial topic to explore in an essay.

1. Brands, H. W. (2017). The age of gold: The California Gold Rush and the new American dream. Anchor Books. 2. Carnegie, A. (2019). The gospel of wealth: Essays and other writings. Penguin Classics. 3. Cherny, R. W. (1996). American politics in the Gilded Age, 1868-1900. Bedford Books. 4. Folsom, B. W., & Meehan, K. D. (2019). The robber barons and the Sherman Antitrust Act: Reshaping American business. Palgrave Macmillan. 5. Hofstadter, R. (2012). The age of reform: From Bryan to F.D.R. Vintage. 6. Krause, S. D., & Hart, C. R. (Eds.). (2019). The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the origins of modern America (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. 7. Summers, M. A. (1995). The Gilded Age: The origins of modern America. Ivan R. Dee. 8. Trachtenberg, A. (2007). The incorporation of America: Culture and society in the Gilded Age (25th anniversary ed.). Hill and Wang. 9. White, R. (2017). The republic for which it stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896. Oxford University Press. 10. Zinn, H. (2005). A people's history of the United States. Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Relevant topics

Great Depression
Westward Expansion
Pearl Harbor
Trail of Tears
Harlem Renaissance
Progressive Era
Lewis and Clark Expedition
Salem Witch Trials
Industrial Revolution

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

IMAGES

Free Gilded Age Essay Example
Unit 10
Research Templates
≫ America during the Gilded Age Free Essay Sample on Samploon.com
⇉American History during the Gilded Age Essay Example
Research Templates

VIDEO

Everything We Know About THE GILDED AGE Season 3
The Gilded Age Season 3 Trailer
THE GILDED AGE Season 2 Episode 5 Recap
THE GILDED AGE Season 2 Episode 3 Trailer
Who Was Emily Roebling In The Gilded Age? Did She Really Build the Brooklyn Bridge
The Gilded Age's Russell & Van Rhijn-Brook Family Trees Explained

COMMENTS

The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Editorial board. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, published since 2000, is a top venue for scholarly exploration of U.S. history from 1865 to the 1920s. It examines a wide and diverse range of topics and welcomes original pieces utilizing new methodologies and novel sources. JGAPE publishes peer-reviewed research essays ...
American Gilded Age
age sounds like a polite apology offered across the generations for the 2Vincent P. DeSantis, "The Political Life of the Gilded Age: An Overview of its Recent Literature," paper delivered in Denver, April 20, 1974. Another recent historiographical survey of the period is Walter T. K. Nugent, "Politics From
Hayes Historical Journal: The Gilded Age in American History
The Gilded Age In American History by VINCENT P. DESANTIS. Volume VII, Number 2 Winter, 1988. The Gilded Age in American history originally meant the years of the Grant Presidency. In fact, it received its name from the title of an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that satirized the excesses of that much maligned era in our ...
Gilded Ages
Our Gilded Moment might be Trumpian, but it draws its fuel from a rebellion against a much lengthier and more complicated era that began in the late 1970s and runs into the present. Asking whether this era is a Second Gilded Age comparable to the First Gilded Age, which began at the end of the Civil War and extended into the early twentieth ...
Reconsidering United States' Reconstruction era, Gilded Age
Between the end of the war in 1865 and the start of the 20th century, a time that encompasses two periods historians call the Reconstruction era and the Gilded Age, the newly united, post-slavery ...
About this journal
About this journal. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, published since 2000, is a top venue for scholarly exploration of U.S. history from 1865 to the 1920s. It examines a wide and diverse range of topics and welcomes original pieces utilizing new methodologies and novel sources. JGAPE publishes peer-reviewed research essays ...
HIST 367
Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era - published quarterly by the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, this journal provides original essays, including online projects, and reviews scholarly books on all aspects of U.S. history for the time period from 1865 through 1920. WashU has access to all issues from the first (Jan. 2002) to the most recent indexed in...
PDF Great Fortunes of the Gilded Age NBER Working Paper No. 14555
In this paper, I attempt to shed some additional light on this issue by exploring the origins of the fortunes of the Gilded Age. This paper is based mainly on two lists of millionaires published in 1892 and 1902. They are similar to the Forbesmagazine lists of the 400 richest Americans.
Influential Works About the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
This chapter reflects on the major scholarly works in the history of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. The most important texts, which established the patterns for subsequent debate for decades, came from the 1950s. An older emphasis on political culture and political economy has been superseded by a new focus on race, gender, and empire.
The Gilded Age & Progressive Era
The Gilded Age & Progressive Era - Bradford Campus This guide is designed to help locate primary and secondary sources for research papers and projects for Dr. Cilli's HIST 0211 The Gilded Age & Progressive Era.
The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era: A Digital Primary Source Guide
4. The Gilded Age was a period of mass immigration and urbanization, and new city-dwellers—anxiously but rapidly—integrated "streetcars and elevators…packaged processed foods and machine-made clothing" into their daily lives. 5. Not all of the changes were positive.
Gilded Age Literature and Inequality by Daniel Shaviro :: SSRN
In my book-in-progress, Dangerous Grandiosity: Literary Perspectives on High-End Inequality Through the First Gilded Age, I use the particular tool of in-depth studies of particular classic works of literature (from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice through Theodore Dreiser's The Financier and The Titan) that offer suggestive insights ...
Research Guides: The Gilded Age: Home
Library and internet resources for research on the Gilded Age. ... (John A Ryan papers). AAS Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window. Provides digital access to 50 thematic series of American magazines and journals published between 1684 and 1912 and collected by the American Antiquarian Society ...
Tariff Incidence in America's Gilded Age
Irwin, Douglas A., 2007. "Tariff Incidence in America's Gilded Age," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 67 (03), pages 582-607, September. citation courtesy of. Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research ...
The Gilded Age
The Gilded Age spans the years 1870 to 1900. The term for these years is taken from a satirical novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner titled, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Published in 1873, the novel depicts a post-Civil War America as an age of corruption populated by robber barons, corrupt politicians, and dishonest bankers.
Andrew Carnegie · The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Student Research
Andrew Carnegie giving to colleges. 1901. Andrew Carnegie a name infamous with big business. He is seen as one of the great business moguls of America. He came from rags to riches, and eventually dominated the steel industry. Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in Scotland, where he spent much of his childhood tell his early teens.
The Gilded Age Explained: An Era of Wealth and Inequality
The Gilded Age, which spanned roughly from the late 1870s to the early 1900s, was a time of rapid industrialization, economic growth, and prosperity for the wealthy. ... These include white papers ...
Gilded Age News, Research and Analysis
Joe Exotic channels the spirit of America's 19th-century tiger kings. Madeline Steiner, University of South Carolina. The flamboyant big-cat aficionados of the Gilded Age weren't strangers to ...
Great Fortunes of the Gilded Age
This paper explores the origins of the great fortunes of the Gilded Age. It relies mainly on two lists of millionaires published in 1892 and 1902, similar to the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans. Manufacturing, as might be expected, was the most important source of Gilded Age fortunes.
The Gilded Age 2.0 of the US Economy by Murat Bayraktar :: SSRN
The captains of industry of this Gilded Age 2.0 are Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. With the top 1% taking roughly two-thirds of almost $42 trillion in new wealth produced since 2020, there has been an increase in global inequality. Starting with new industrial revolutions both Gilded Ages have many socio-economic similarities ...
Research Guides: Themes: Gilded Age: Starting Your Research
As you begin to gather research, you can start to narrow down your focus based on the amount of evidence that you find. Make a list of keywords as you read! Check out this research organizer for more help organizing your focus. Research Project Guidelines and Handouts: Unit 3 Research Paper Guidelines. Writing a Research Paper: Creating a ...
Gilded Age Essays
3 pages / 1490 words. The Gilded Age (1870s-1917) was a time of desire, advancement, and class in America. A solid feeling of national pride and reason won, it was an intricate time in United States history. After a twisting Civil War, the nation was on an ascent to power... Art Nouveau Art History Gilded Age.
Gilded Age Research topics
The parallels between the Gilded Age and the present day are striking. It is surprising how much from the Gilded Age is still relevant today. Drawing on this concept, here are some research topic ideas. These are suggestions for any type of research project. Comparisons drawn here may be used or left out depending on type of research project.

Along with Stanford news and stories, show me:

Media Contacts

WashU Libraries

Encyclopedias and Reference Works

University of Pittsburgh Library System

Course & Subject Guides

What are primary sources?

Locating Primary Souces in Library Databases

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era: A Digital Primary Source Guide

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The Gilded Age

History Librarian

RPW 2610W A Hands-On History of the American Research University - Loss, Meadows: The Gilded Age

Introduction

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Student Research Projects

The Gilded Age Explained: An Era of Wealth and Inequality

What Was the Gilded Age?

Key Takeaways

Economic and Industrial Developments

Railroad Expansion

Mechanization of Industries

Communications Networks

Monopolies and Robber Barons

Rural Life and Urban Life—Gilded Age Homes

Social Stratification and Inequality

Real Wage Increases

Abject Poverty

Labor Unions

Corruption and Scandals—Muckrakers

Immigration

Women in the Workforce

The Black Experience

Economic Impact and Legacy

Are There Gilded Age Mansions Left?

What Was the Worst Scandal of the Gilded Age?

When Did the Gilded Age Start and End?

The Bottom Line

Articles on Gilded Age

Sellout! How political corruption shaped an American insult

Do multimillion-dollar dinosaur auctions erode trust in science?

Elon Musk and the oligarchs of the ‘Second Gilded Age’ can not only sway the public – they can exploit their data, too

Joe Exotic channels the spirit of America’s 19th-century tiger kings

Fight for economic equality is as old as America itself

Mississippi governor’s race taking place under Jim Crow-era rules after judge refuses to block them

Mississippi: African American voters sue over election law rooted in the state’s racist past

Making money off of politics isn’t new – it was business as usual in the Gilded Age

Fighting words for a New Gilded Age - Democratic candidates are sounding a lot like Teddy Roosevelt

Think journalism’s a tough field today? Try being a reporter in the Gilded Age

For tech giants, a cautionary tale from 19th century railroads on the limits of competition

Related Topics

Top contributors

Great Fortunes of the Gilded Age

Published Versions

More from NBER

Themes: Gilded Age

Bunn Library Quick Links

Need help? Chat with a Librarian

Essays on Gilded Age

What Makes a Good Gilded Age Essay Topics

Best Gilded Age Essay Topics

Gilded Age essay topics Prompts

Social Changes in The Gilded Age

Exploring Literary and Artistic Reflections of The Gilded Age

The Changes Offered by The Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Economics During The Gilded Age

Relevant topics

IMAGES

VIDEO

COMMENTS