Essay On The Gilded Age

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The word gilded refers to something thinly covered in gold. Mark Twain referred to the late 1800s as the Gilded Age due to what it appeared to be, a time of great success for many but underneath a time of corruption in businesses and the government. The 1870s-1890s was a time of poverty, opportunity, and disaster. The growing comfort of middle-class life during the Gilded Age led many to fear that American men were losing their manliness. Many middle-class Americans embraced formerly taboo violent sports like boxing and football. Others called for military action, seeing war as a time of great opportunity to prove American manhood. Employment for middle class men took a turn from outdoor manual labor to deskbound office work. The gilded age

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