The Gilded Age

Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America

Contributions by Eric Arnesen, Robert G. Barrows, Michael Les Benedict, Ballard C. Campbell, W. Bernard Carlson, Stacy A. Cordery, Ruth C. Crocker, Roger Daniels, Edmund J. Danziger Jr., Leslie H. Fishel Jr., Joseph A. Fry, Lewis L. Gould, Ellen M. Litwicki, Worth Robert Miller, Glenn Porter Edited by Charles W. Calhoun

Not available to order

Publication date:

11 September 2006

Length of book:

402 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742581685

The United States that entered the twentieth century was vastly different from the nation that emerged from the Civil War. Industrialization, mass immigration, the growing presence of women in the work force, and the rapid advance of the cities had transformed American society.

Broad in scope, The Gilded Age brings together sixteen original essays that offer lively syntheses of modern scholarship while making their own interpretive arguments. These engaging pieces allow students to consider the various societal, cultural and political factors that make studying the Gilded Age crucial to our understanding of America today. Charles W. Calhoun connects all of these essays with a comprehensive introduction that places each article in an understandable historical context. For the second edition of this successful book, each essay was revised and three new pieces have been added that explore technology, consumerism, intellectual life, and race in late nineteenth century America.

Introduction
Chapter 1: Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business
Chapter 2: Technology and America as a Consumer Society, 1870–1900
Chapter 3: American Workers and the Labor Movement in the Late Nineteenth Century
Chapter 4: The Immigrant Experience in the Gilded Age
Chapter 5: Urbanizing America
Chapter 6: Women in Industrializing America
Chapter 7: The African-American Experience
Chapter 8: Native American Resistance and Accommodation during the Late Nineteenth Century
Chapter 9: The Influence of Commerce, Technology, and Race on Popular Culture in the Gilded Age
Chapter 10: Cultural and Intellectual Life in the Gilded Age
Chapter 11: The Political Culture: Public Life and the Conduct of Politics
Chapter 12: Party Conflict: Republicans versus Democrats, 1877–1901
Chapter 13: Farmers and Third-Party Politics
Chapter 14: Phases of Empire: Late Nineteenth-Century U.S. Foreign Relations
Chapter 15: Law and the Constitution in the Gilded Age

Charles Calhoun has improved upon an already valuable teaching text. . . . Calhoun's synthesis remains a great tool for teaching. Not only does it allow a glimpse of specialized topics and groups within the Gilded Age, essays are also read with relative ease. . . . Educators and students alike can gain a better perspective on the origins of modern America.