The Progressive Movement

Mark Twain

The Gilded Age occurred in the late Nineteenth Century as a society of small producers became transformed into an urban society dominated by industry. The Gilded Age is often associated with corruption, income disparity, shady business practices, greedy Robber Barons, and lavish lifestyles.

The name Gilded Age was first coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. The novel used humor, irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to expose the greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America. Twain and Warner came up with the term “gilded age” from Shakespeare’s 1623 play King John. Gilding is the decorative process of applying gold leaf to wood, stone, or metal. In King John, Shakespeare described the process of gilding refined gold as excessive and wasteful, similar to the characteristics of the time period written about by Twain and Warner in their novel. Is there anything in your life you consider excessive or wasteful? What is it, and how could you survive without this excess?