The Gilded Age: Or the Hazard of New Functions
Very broad, balanced , accessible account of the Gilded Age (1865-1901) for undergraduates. This survey includes all the recent scholarship on this period and offers a portrait of the economic, political, social and cultural history of the age. This entertaining account tells of injustice, complacency and shallow thinking but also tells of the creativity and idealism of this period. American resourcefulness is shown at its best and worst. How the conservatism of thought and radicalism of technol ogical change remade the Gilded Age, and how society tempered the applications of each, is part of this story. So, too, are mainstream politics and religion. This is a rich, colorful narrative about a complex period in American history.