Dictionary

Gilded Age en · PROPN

Etymology

Coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner as the title of a novel published in 1873.

Meanings

1. The period of United States history from the end of the Civil War to the end of the 19th century, a time marked by rapid economic expansion, a lack of government regulation, and rampant corruption.
   • Here the Gilded Age had found its music published and here the dawning jazz age would break into general consciousness. 2007, John Ogasapian, N. Lee Orr, Music of the Gilded Age, page 149:
   • He [Dario Amodei] argues that we are living through a new Gilded Age in which a few “incredible fortunate” billionaires (including himself) have amassed prodigious wealth and have an obligation to be more philanthropic. 2026 April 18, John Thornhill, “Lunch with the FT: Dario Amodei”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:
   • Under Spofford's vigorous stewardship and astute guidance over a thirty-two year period from 1865 to 1897 that encompassed most of the Gilded Age, the Library of Congress greatly expanded its services to Congress and to the country. 2009, Leonard Schlup, Stephen H. Paschen, Librarianship in Gilded Age America, page 4:
   • It’s true that Mr. Piketty and his colleagues have added a great deal of historical depth to our knowledge, demonstrating that we really are living in a new Gilded Age. But we’ve known that for a while. 2014 April 25, Paul Krugman, “The Piketty Panic”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • This New Gilded Age has found an epicenter in Los Angeles, particularly where Bel-Air, Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills converge. Real estate agents call it the Platinum Triangle. 2017 December 23, Candace Jackson, “Who Wants to Buy the Most Expensive House in America?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • During the Gilded Age, many observers in the United States worried that the country was becoming increasingly inegalitarian and moving farther and farther away from its original pioneering ideal. 2017 [2013], Thomas Piketty, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Belknap Press, →ISBN, page 506:
   • Here, America’s wealthiest megabillionaires gather with the CEOs of America’s most powerful companies[…] to develop the social and business connections that allow the top 0.00001% of earners to continue to accumulate a share of our nation’s wealth that already exceeds the famously cartoonish inequality of the Gilded Age of Rockefeller and Carnegie. 2021 July 12, Hamilton Nolan, “What happens at Sun Valley, the secret gathering of unelected billionaire Kings?”, in The Guardian:
   • Professor Reitano reexamines an issue that roiled the political and intellectual waters of the Gilded Age in ways difficult to conceive today. 2010, Joanne Reitano, Tariff Question in the Gilded Age: The Great Debate Of 1888, page ix:

Forms

Relateds

golden age · Progressive Era

Translations (2)

cmn 鍍金時代 /镀金时代 (Translations) · pl wiek pozłacany (Translations)

wikipedia: The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today · wikipedia: Charles Dudley Warner · wikipedia: Mark Twain