Welcome to the Gilded Age: Wealth, Upheaval, and Reinvention

Hey everyone. Welcome back - Happy New Year! 

In the summer of 1876, Americans from across the country descended upon Philadelphia to attend the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine - more commonly known as the Centennial International Exhibition. Held in Fairmount Park, the exhibition marked the one-hundredth anniversary of American independence. It was the first official World’s Fair hosted by the United States, and it was meant to do something very specific: announce to the rest of the world that the country - just over a decade removed from civil war - had emerged as an industrial and economic global power.

Over the course of several months, more than nine million visitors passed through the exhibition grounds. They viewed massive industrial machines, walked through galleries filled with manufactured goods, and encountered new technologies - including Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, which was demonstrated publicly at the fair. Visitors also sampled new foods, including popcorn, flavored with sugar - which was sold at concession stands throughout the fair.

The Centennial Exhibition serves as a good metaphor for the Gilded Age. Still reeling from the financial setbacks from the Great Panic of 1873, the federal government was unable to fund the costs of the fair and thus the exhibition was largely financed by private donors, many of them wealthy industrialists. The buildings themselves were temporary but grand, designed to showcase progress, innovation, and national confidence. For many Americans, the Centennial Exhibition offered a glimpse of the future - and for historians, it offers something else entirely: a snapshot of the United States at the beginning of what would come to be known as the Gilded Age.

The term “Gilded Age” was coined in 1873 by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. The phrase came into use to describe the decades following the Civil War, generally spanning from the 1870s through the end of the nineteenth century. During this period, the United States experienced rapid industrial growth, large-scale urbanization, and dramatic population increase. In 1870, the U.S. population stood at roughly 38 million people. By 1900, that number had doubled to approximately 76 million.

The country was changing quickly—economically, geographically, and socially. I am so excited to dive into the various aspects and nuances of the Gilded Age, but before we do all of that, I wanted to offer a primer on the era. What was the Gilded Age? What set it apart from other periods in American history? And where will we go in our exploration? 

Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let’s do this. 

In the decades after the Civil War, the United States went through a period marked by significant growth that as historians Eric Foner, Kathleen DuVal and Lisa McGirr illustrate represented quote “one of the most rapid and profound economic revolutions any country has ever experienced,” end quote. Fueled in part thanks to abundant natural resources, an ever growing supply of available labor, and an increased demand for manufactured goods, the United States expanded its industrial output at an unprecedented rate. Industries such as steel, oil, coal, railroads, and manufacturing grew rapidly. By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had become the world’s leading industrial producer.

Technological development accelerated this growth. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone he later demonstrated at the World’s Fair in Philadelphia. In the late 1870s and 1880s, Thomas Edison and others developed commercially viable electric lighting systems transforming Americans’ daily lives. Having access to electricity meant that the day lasted longer - folks who could afford to install electric lighting, for example, did not have to rely on gas lamps and the telegraph increased the speed of information sharing and as a result changed how Americans communicated, worked, and lived.

Railroads played a central role in this expansion. According to the Library of Congress, before 1871, the United States had roughly 45,000 miles of railroad track. By 1900, that number had grown to over 200,000 miles. The growth of railroads was a critical contribution to the growth of various industries in the United States and some historians point to the railroad as making the quote unquote second industrial revolution possible. Railroads connected rural areas to urban markets, linked regions of the country, and enabled the large-scale movement of goods and people. Railroad companies were so powerful and so influential that they even changed time. In 1883, railroad companies adopted standardized time zones to better coordinate train schedules. Prior to this, cities and towns had kept local time, resulting in hundreds of different time standards across the country. Standard time was not introduced by the federal government, but by private railroad companies—an example of how industrial needs shaped everyday life during this period.

As industry expanded, so did wealth - and wealth disparity. The Gilded Age saw the rise of some of the most famous business figures in American history, including industrial magnates like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. These men accumulated large fortunes through industries such as oil, steel, and railroads, often through cut-throat tactics meant to enrich themselves and eliminate any outside competition. If you caught my guest appearance on United She Stands, I shared how men like Rockefeller and Carnegie leveraged their power to buy out competitors and ensure they handled all aspects of their industry. This led to a shift in corporate organization as these large-scale enterprises replaced smaller, locally owned businesses in many sectors. Trusts and holding companies became common as firms consolidated control over production and distribution and in the run up to the turn of the century, some 4,000 firms disappeared - either bought out by larger corporations or forced into bankruptcy.

Not everyone benefitted from the incredible economic growth of the Gilded Age. In fact, for as much as the era is known for producing titans of industry and the explosion of the nouveau riche, it is also remembered for its rapidly widening gap between the richest and poorest Americans. Data from the late nineteenth century documents the increasing concentration of wealth and despite the fact that skilled workers in some industries were able to command higher salaries and enjoyed a bit more freedom over their labor, census records and tax data from the period document growing disparities between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the population.

One of the business transactions that encapsulates the excess of the era occurred in 1901, when Andrew Carnegie sold Carnegie Steel to a group led by J.P. Morgan for approximately 480 million dollars. While the sale technically falls just outside the nineteenth century, it reflects trends already well established during the Gilded Age and helps demonstrate the incredible accumulation of wealth the era is known for. Industrial growth also reshaped where - and how - Americans lived.

The Gilded Age marked a period of the mass movement of people from largely rural to urban settings. Technological innovations and rapid industrial growth influenced the expansion of cities which became beacons for people - both within the United States and throughout the world - seeking better economic opportunities. Populations in cities like Chicago nearly exploded. The windy city grew from around 300,000 people in 1870 to more than 1.7 million by 1900. New York City, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and other urban centers experienced similar growth.

Much of this expansion was fueled by immigration. Between 1880 and 1900, more than nine million immigrants entered the United States. Increasing numbers arrived from Southern and Eastern Europe, adding to earlier waves from Northern and Western Europe. In 1892, Ellis Island opened in New York Harbor as the nation’s primary federal immigration station. Millions of immigrants passed through its halls in the decades that followed - but not every immigrant was welcome. Out West, as Chinese migrants attempted to earn a living working jobs in the railroad or mining industries, they were often met with hatred, vitriol, and demands to vacate the country. As I’ve covered previously, the animosity against Asian immigrants led to legislation like the Page Act in 1875 which all but barred Asian women from entering the country and as I will cover in a future episode, this anti-immigrant sentiment would eventually lead to Congress passing the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 - marking the first time the United States established an immigration law that expressly banned individuals from a specific country. 

The rapid urban growth of the Gilded Age placed strain on housing and infrastructure. In cities like New York, overcrowded tenement buildings became common. These living conditions were documented by contemporary observers, including journalist and photographer Jacob Riis who, in 1890, published How the Other Half Lives, which used photographs and written accounts to show daily life in New York City’s tenements. Cramming people into incredibly tight spaces - sometimes measuring no more than 800 square feet - was a byproduct of both the massive increase in the number of people living in urban environments and the lack of public regulation over how properties were managed. Some of the worst tenements actually began as creative attempts to create capacity and establish model housing units. As historian Richard White describes, one such attempt at model housing was known as the dumbbell tenement - given its name due to its shape - which was described by one magazine in 1888 as quote “great prison like structures,” end quote that had minimal access to light and fresh air. 

As cities and industries grew, so did the American workforce - and with it, labor conflict. During the Gilded Age, many Americans shifted from agricultural work or self-employment to working for others through wage labor in factories, mills, and railroads. Industrial jobs were often dangerous - in fact, American workers died at a higher rate than their European counterparts due to the lack of safety regulations or oversight. In an era before labor laws, workers were often forced to toil long hours for minimal pay with no guarantee that wages would increase or, even worse, stay the same. Workers were vulnerable to the booms and busts of industry and when the government intervened, it often did so on behalf of big business interests and not the worker. Lacking agency, negotiating power, or workplace safety, labor organizations formed in response. The Knights of Labor, founded in 1869, sought to organize workers across trades whereas the American Federation of Labor, established in 1886, focused primarily on organizing skilled laborers.

The focus on organizing workers led to several major labor conflicts. In 1877, the Great Railroad Strike halted rail traffic in multiple states following wage cuts. Instead of attempting negotiations for increased wages, industry leaders sought relief from the government and state militias and federal troops were deployed to restore service.

In yet another example of the widespread labor unrest of the era in 1886, a labor rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square ended in violence after a bomb was thrown, killing police officers and civilians. In 1892, the Homestead Strike at a steel plant in Pennsylvania led to a violent confrontation between workers and private security agents. In each of these cases, government authorities intervened, often using military force to suppress strikes and restore operations - finding that the interests of industry outweighed the interests, wellbeing, and safety of the American worker. 

The political environment of the Gilded Age reflected these tensions. Voter turnout during this period was high by modern standards, and national elections were closely contested - such as the presidential election of 1876 that installed Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House. The Republican and Democratic parties dominated politics, with men like Roscoe Conkling and Chester A. Arthur currying favor by rewarding those who supported the party ticket through things like patronage and payoffs and as a result, party loyalty was strong.

At the same time, the period was marked by documented political corruption. Scandals such as the Whiskey Ring in the mid-1870s involved federal officials and private interests. As historian Richard White illustrates, public officials were susceptible to corruption as a result of the idea known as fee-based governance which White argues quote “made government office a profit center even for the honest,” end quote. As White argues further quote, “the form of American governance was changing during the Gilded Age. The large powers granted the government beginning with the Civil War had always seemed less than they were because of the lack of administrative capacity. They depended on fee-based governance, bounties, subsidies, and delegations of power for their execution,” end quote. It is this evolution, White asserts, that contributed to the pervasive corruption of the era. 

Following the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881, federal lawmakers finally made an effort to reign in at least some of the corruption. In 1883 Garfield’s successor President Chester A. Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act which established merit-based federal employment for certain government positions and reduced the influence of the patronage, or spoils, system and made it so that the government was filled with experts in their field and were no longer subject to the partisan whims of any one presidential administration. And if I could take a quick side bar here to say if you haven’t watched Netflix’s Death by Lightning, please consider adding it to your watchlist. It is incredible and at just four episodes, not an overly large time commitment. 

Social change extended beyond the male-dominated areas of politics and industry. Women - particularly middle-class white women - increasingly participated in the workforce during the Gilded Age, particularly in factories, offices, and retail establishments. Educational opportunities expanded as well, with the growth of women’s colleges and coeducational institutions, giving birth to what historians refer to as the new woman - who was educated and increasingly looking to live a life that challenged the Victorian norms of domesticity. These women would go on to become activists, participating in reform movements and advocacy organizations. 

In 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association was formed through the merger of two earlier groups seeking a pathway to securing the vote for women. And while women worked on the issue nationally, progress toward voting rights occurred unevenly at the state level. In 1893, Colorado became the first state to grant women the right to vote through a popular referendum but it would take until the next century - and the Progressive Era - before the nineteenth amendment extended voting rights to white women throughout the country. 

Finally, the Gilded Age was the period when the United States began laying the foundations of becoming a quote “interventionist empire” end quote. In 1898 alone, the United States both invaded and took control of Puerto Rico and overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom, officially annexing the territory that would later become the 50th state in 1959. 

Needless to say, by the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had been transformed. It was now an industrial nation with vast cities, national markets, and unprecedented economic output. The United States was no longer a quote unquote “isolated republic” - instead looking to spread its influence throughout the world. It was also a country grappling with labor unrest, political reform, and social change.

The systems, institutions, and conflicts that emerged during the Gilded Age did not disappear when the century ended. They carried forward into the decades that followed, shaping the direction of American history and paving way for the social, economic, and political reforms during the Progressive Era. So you see, the Gilded Age is one fascinating, fast paced era in American history - and one I cannot wait to dive into with you. 

In future episodes, we’ll slow down and take a closer look at the people, events, and ideas introduced here. While I have my list of must-cover topics, I always welcome listener suggestions. If there is a person, moment, or object from the Gilded Age that you want me to dive into - let me know. You can find me on my website at www dot civics and coffee dot com or on the social channels such as threads and blue sky. 

Thanks, peeps. I’ll see you next time.