19th Century Humanities
T H E G I L D E D A G E
The Gilded Age was an era in the late 19th century in United States when there was an up-boost in economy. The term "Gilded Age" came up from the book written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, named The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. The era was most famous for its creation of rapid economic and population growth, which lead to the country's modern industrial economy today.
During the late 1800s, the wealth of the period is highlighted by the rise of American philanthropy, or the practice of helping the poor or those in need usually by providing money. Nowadays, this particular notion would perhaps be the most needed concept for the country, but during the Gilded Age, most people did not approve of this idea, considering that people used to think that it was "rebellious" to do so.
With the idea of philanthropy, many public schools, libraries, and all the activity centers were constructed under funded charities. Many of which were conducted by wealthy industrialists and financiers such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Multimillionaires like these people were believed to have cheated somehow to get their money and rule it over the common people, and they were attacked as "robber barons". But considering what they have contributed for their own country and for the whole community, are they really robber barons, or are they captains of industry?
