4 What does the term Gilded Age mean In what sense is Mark T

4. What does the term \"Gilded Age\" mean? In what sense is Mark Twain\'s term a criticism of the age?

Solution

The late 19th century came to be known as the Gilded Age by Mark Twain.

It meant the period was glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath.

It was a period of greed and slyness: of avaricious Robber Barons, unscrupulous speculators, and corporate buccaneers, of shady business practices, scandal plagued politics, and vulgar display.

Its easy to picture the Gilded Age as an era of corruption, conspicuous consumption, and uncontrollable capitalism. But this was the beginning of as modern America\'s formative period, where an agrarian society of small producers were transformed into an urban society dominated by industries and industrialists and entrepreneurs.