The Gilded Age (1875-1900) was a crucial era of industrialization and political turmoil that set the United States on the path to becoming the most economically powerful country in the world. Railroad construction connected the continent, newly invented skyscrapers rose in rapidly growing American cities. Expansive new factories needed unskilled workers, who arrived during the largest wave of immigration in American history. As a plethora of new, affordable, mass-produced products went from factory to consumer, it was a heady time of profits and progress. But there were also problems.
Many enterprising Americans benefited from the economic disruption of the time. Others were left behind, ill-equipped to compete in the new economy. The wealth gap between the rich and the poor was astronomical as industrial tycoons like the Rockefellers and the Carnegies built business empires and then used their power to depress wages and shut down competition. They bought politicians, corruptly tilting politics and the economy in their favor. Strikes and labor violence, protests and counter-protests bloodied the streets. Anarchist terrorists both foreign and domestic spread fear across the nation with waves of violence the government seemed helpless to prevent. One proposal: a ban on certain “dangerous” immigrant groups.
Join Allen Pietrobon, an assistant professor of global affairs at Trinity Washington University and an award-winning historian, for a look back at the tumultuous Gilded Age, which doesn’t seem that long ago to many of us today.
Patron Information
- If you register multiple individuals, you will be asked to supply individual names and email addresses so they can receive a Zoom link email. Please note that if there is a change in program schedule or a cancellation, we will notify you via email, and it will be your responsibility to notify other registrants in your group.
- Unless otherwise noted, registration for streaming programs typically closes two hours prior to the start time on the date of the program.
- Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from CustomerService@SmithsonianAssociates.org.
- Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of the program. If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of the program, please email Customer Service for assistance.
- View Common FAQs about our Streaming Programs on Zoom.
