m
ark Twain called the period from the end of the Civil War through
the end of the nineteenth century “The Gilded Age” and compared
the times to something cheap and ugly disguised by a thin layer of
gold. Although Twain’s term has stuck to the age, it is a satire that
obscures more than it reveals. The generation after the Civil War
experienced upheavals and hardships but also opportunities and prosperity.
Two broad changes—a Second Industrial Revolution and millions of immi-
grants from southern and eastern Europe—defined this age. As a result, many
of America’s towns and cities grew from ports of trade to centers of industrial
production. The conditions in factories and the lives of the Americans who
worked in them were often dire, and these production centers led to paradoxi-
cal results—increased wealth for most Americans as well as reform movements
and worker protests. During this period, the American middle and upper classes
continued building the consumer culture that began in the early nineteenth cen-
tury and became known for their conspicuous consumption, or the purchasing
of goods to display wealth and define oneself to others.
For many Americans, however, these years accelerated or simply changed the
nature of the oppression that they experienced before the Civil War. Although
the institution of slavery had ended, many African Americans were relegated
to second-class citizenship by the Jim Crow laws and sharecropping systems,
Mexican Americans struggled with growing Anglo settlements in the West, and
Hawaiians contended with growing American imperialism.Seeking the Main Point
As you read the documents that follow, keep these broad questions in mind. These
questions will help you understand the relationship between the documents in
this chapter and the historical changes that they represent. As you reflect on these
questions, determine which themes and which documents best address them.•
How did changes in transportation technologies shape changes in the Amer-
ican economy? In what ways did these changes help transform labor and
labor conditions during this period? How did workers and other reformers
protest these changes?•
In what ways did American industry situate itself within the world econ-
omy? How did the US government assist in this situation?•
What moral arguments were used to question and critique the US economic
order in the late nineteenth century?•
How did migration, both within and to the United States, influence eco-
nomic and social changes during this period? How did migrations from
abroad stimulate conflicts over American identity and assimilation?•
Characterize the justification for conservation during this period.308 ChapTEr 13 | a Gilded aGe | period Six 1865 –1898 TopIC I | the New economy^30914_STA_2012_ch13_307-326.indd 308 01/04/15 11:25 AM