The Address

The Gilded Age lasted from the late 1870s to the early 1900s, and Mark Twain, coined the moniker in The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which he coauthored with Charles Dudley Warner. That work satirizes the greed and corruption that characterized America’s post-Civil War era, shining a light on the period’s superficiality. It is a “gilded” age as opposed to a “golden” one, its apparent beauty shallow rather than deep. Twain describes the age as “glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath” because life appeared beautiful and opulent for the wealthy, while the lower classes suffered horribly under inhumane working and living conditions (Mintz, S. and S. McNeil. “Overview of the Gilded Age.” Digital History). This is the age of the robber barons, unscrupulous oil tycoons, and newspaper owners, who thought only of their profits and never of their employees’ welfare or the public good.

Dakota resident, Kenneth Worley, reflects this attitude to Bailey when he says, “The era was all about money and the illusion of success, as opposed to offering anything truly valuable” (224). America offers the impression of equality and beauty, of dreams within reach, but, as