A golden age, or a gilded age? | In Focus
Published 11:00 am Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Gilded: “Covered or tinged with gold or a golden color. “
Mark Twain coined the term Gilded Age to describe the industrial era of the late 19th century.
Twain’s view was that the period of enormous industrial growth looked golden on the outside but was cheap on the inside. Examining this period in detail brings us a deeper understanding of our own Gilded Age.
The Gilded Age was notable for incredible inventions, with technology growing by leaps and bounds: steel production and petroleum refining, steam engines, railroads, telephones, electricity, indoor plumbing, and farm machinery. The age was famous for the rise of industrial giants: John D. Rockefeller in oil, J.P. Morgan in finance, Andrew Carnegie in steel production, Cornelius Vanderbilt in shipping and railroads, among others.
A few benefited while those on the bottom suffered: The unequal distribution of wealth remained high during this period. From 1860 to 1900, the wealthiest 2% of American households owned more than a third of the nation’s wealth, while the top 10% owned roughly three-quarters of it. The bottom 40% had no wealth at all. In terms of property, the wealthiest 1% owned 51%, while the bottom 44% claimed 1.1%.
Scandals and corruption were common during this period. One historian called this period, “The Era of Good Stealings.” Political corruption was rampant, as business leaders spent significant amounts of money ensuring that government did not regulate the activities of big business—and they more often than not got what they wanted. Members of Congress could be purchased by the ultrawealthy. Senators were chosen by the state legislatures (the 17th Amendment guaranteeing direct election of Senators was ratified in 1913).
Racism, sexism, and discrimination against immigrants and native Americans were also common. This was the era of Jim Crow laws. Tens of thousands of Native American children were involuntarily separated from their families and shipped to schools to be assimilated—to “strip them of their languages, cultures, and family ties” (Equal Justice Initiative).
The new immigrants were much poorer peasants and rural folk from southern and eastern Europe, including mostly Italians, Poles, and Jews. Some men, especially the Italians and Greeks, saw themselves as temporary migrants who planned to return to their home villages with a nest egg of cash earned in long hours of unskilled labor. Others, especially the Jews, had been driven out of Eastern Europe and had no intention of returning. Eventually, these groups saw their numbers reduced after World War I.
Women would not be given the right to vote nationally until the 19th Amendment was passed in 1919. Native Americans got the right to vote in 1924 with the Indian Citizenship Act, but were historically barred in different states from doing so. After a long history of fighting against voting rights restrictions, Native Americans now play an increasingly integral part in United States elections.
Civil Service Reform came as a result of the assassination of President James A. Garfield by a mentally ill job seeker who was unable to get a job in Garfield’s administration. The Pendleton Act was signed into law in 1883. The act mandates that most positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political patronage. By late 1826, American politics operated on the Spoils System, a political patronage practice in which officeholders awarded their allies with government jobs in return for financial and political support.
We are living in a second Gilded Age.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes”—a quote often attributed to Mark Twain.
Richard Elfers is a columnist, a former Enumclaw City Council member and a Green River College professor.
