“The Gilded Age, 1876–1912: Overture to the American Century”, by Alan Axelrod

384 pages, Sterling, ISBN-13: 978-1454925750

I’ve mentioned my fascination with the Gilded age before, when I reviewed “Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age” by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart on November 15, 2018. “The Gilded Age” was first coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their novel of the same name, and was a time of adolescent expansion of the post-Civil War United States from a nation of farmers to a nation of corporations, business and the rise of massive consumerism. It was an age of technological advancement propelled by such behemoths as Thomas Edison with the electric light bulb and Alexander Graham Bell with the telephone; giants of industry – such as Andrew Carnegie in steel, John D. Rockefeller in railroads and oil and JP Morgan in many fields – made America an economic power house. It was also an age of widespread corruption and greed, as evinced in the lives of the piratical Robber Barons. Reformers abounded, from Carrie Nation against liquor, to suffragettes and civil rights activists. Modern advertising and the rise of the department store along with modern retailing were developed. Immigrants from Eastern Europe and Asia came to America lured by promises of employment. The era’s political era ended with the outbreak of the First World War

And so I got The Gilded Age, 1876–1912: Overture to the American Century by Alan Axelrod with expectations of more of the same sort of discussions brought about by the before-mentioned Consuelo and Alva, only on a more complete scale. While the Vanderbilts – and all of the other Robber Barons, as well – are discussed, Axelrod’s work is much more wide-ranging, as he discusses the low along with the high, the mansions of the rich as well as the tenements of the poor. At not-even 400 pages, though, is serves more as a primer to this rather familiar-looking era, full as it is with numerous pictures throughout that will keep younger readers more engaged (and not a few older ones, as well) while reading about this intriguing era. All of the numerous topics I mentioned above are touched-upon and introduced, but I imagine that each subject could and, probably, should warrant a book all its own that delves deep into its darkest reaches. But anyway, I liked The Gilded Age as the start of a conversation and hope to expand my knowledge of this fascinating ear more in the future.