America in the Gilded Age (Amerika im vergoldeten Zeitalter)



"What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." Mark Twain-1871

The last three decades of the 19th century were marked by relentless capitalism, widespread corruption, vulgar tastes, and ostentatious displays of wealth. American know-how seemed able to overcome any obstacle; industrial expansion brought prosperity for many and unimaginable wealth for a few. Yet terrible poverty held most Americans firmly in its grasp.

 

photo of Carnegie reading a newspaper During the "Gilded Age," every man was a potential Andrew Carnegie, and Americans who achieved wealth celebrated it as never before. In New York, the opera, the theatre, and lavish parties consumed the ruling class' leisure hours. Sherry's Restaurant hosted formal horseback dinners for the New York Riding Club. Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish once threw a dinner party to honor her dog who arrived sporting a $15,000 diamond collar.

 While the rich wore diamonds, many wore rags. In 1890, 11 million of the nation's 12 million families earned less than $1200 per year; of this group, the average annual income was $380, well below the poverty line. Rural Americans and new immigrants crowded into urban areas. Tenements spread across city landscapes, teeming with crime and filth. Americans had sewing machines, phonographs, skyscrapers, and even electric lights, yet most people labored in the shadow of poverty.

photo of Carnegie's castle

Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world, despaired of the era's materialism. He wrote that wealthy should "set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display of extravagance." Yet Carnegie owned a castle and 40,000 acres in Scotland and a huge mansion on Fifth Avenue, known as Millionaire's Row. Even so, this lifestyle seemed modest compared to that of his peers.

 

photo To those who worked in Carnegie's mills and in the nation's factories and sweatshops, the lives of the millionaires seemed immodest indeed. An economist in 1879 noted "a widespread feeling of unrest and brooding revolution." Violent strikes and riots wracked the nation through the turn of the century. The middle class whispered fearfully of "carnivals of revenge."

For immediate relief, the urban poor often turned to political machines. During the first years of the Gilded Age, Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall provided more services to the poor than any city government before it, although far more money went into Tweed's own pocket. Corruption extended to the highest levels of government. During Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, the president and his cabinet were implicated in the Credit Mobilier, the Gold Conspiracy, the Whiskey Ring, and the notorious Salary Grab.

 Europeans were aghast. America may have had money and factories, they felt, but it lacked sophistication. When French prime minister Georges Clemenceau visited, he said the nation had gone from a stage of barbarism to one of decadence -- without achieving any civilization between the two.
 

Next: Carnivals of Revenge
 
 


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