Traditional Essay

Traditional Essay



Named after an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, this era of growth and excess following the American Civil War would more than live up to the authors' sarcasm. As American industry and agriculture began to outpace European competition, some entrepreneurs and corporate leaders became very wealthy, while the gap between rich and poor widened dramatically. Lavish public displays of self-indulgence by a small but growing number of newly rich Americans provided the "gilding" for this time of great social and political conflict. Greed, poverty, upheaval, reform, corruption, urbanization, industrialization, progress, innovation and struggle. Those ...