Carol Kinney Student ID 503951 HIS223-CE Essay Week 2: The Gilded Age July 11, 2014 Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner wrote “The golden gleam of the gilded surface hides the cheapness of the metal underneath (1873).” This quote from the book The Gilded Age, which named the era (“The Gilded Age” lecture, week 2; slide 33), epitomizes American society in the post-Civil War and near the end of the Reconstruction Era. Twain’s and Warner’s quote highlights the contrast between the lives of the “golden” society and that of the cheap “metal” society that Jacob Riis names “The other half (“Jacob Riis Clip”).” During the Gilded Age, several social, political and economic factors caused America to experience simultaneous great wealth and immense poverty, causing two distinct societal classes. The relatively few men and their families that were either fortunate enough to be born into wealth, or had a knack for business, lived lives of “personal greed [and] social excess (“The Gilded Age” lecture, week 2; slide 33).” Meanwhile, the rest of society was “overworked and undernourished . . . living in conditions of unspeakable horror (“Jacob Riis Clip”).” While families with the last names of Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan and Rockefeller built the opulent “Millionaire’s Row (PBS American Experience, 1996-2009; Gallery: Millionaire’s Row)” of “elegant” an “fabulous” homes on upper Fifth Avenue in New York City that resembled “palaces,” the masses were not so blessed. Instead, the majority of the people whom slaved on the railroads, mines, and mills for the rich lived in tenement squalor in places named “Radpicker’s Row, Blind Man’s Alley and Bottle Alley (“Jacob Riis Clip”).” The rich were amassing “modern technology ((PBS American Experience, 1996-2009; Gallery: Millionaire’s Row),” the “finest collections of art,” and hordes of “gaudy” trappings. The “other half (“Jacob
Riis Clip”)” lived in overcrowded “rickety walk-ups,” with “no plumbing at all” and always faced “life threatening” diseases and epidemics due to unsanitary conditions and lack of food and clothing. It is this unjust economic gap between the “golden” and “metal” classes, and “political corruption (“The Gilded Age” lecture, week 2; slide 33)” that would be the driving force behind civil and social unrest, and eventually reform. Reform would come slowly at first, due to the rich control over the political process and politicians. “One of the first presidents to try and deal with the corruption of the Gilded Age was Rutherford B. Hayes (“The Gilded Age” lecture, week 2; slide 35).” Presidents Hayes and Arthur both issued “limited (“The Gilded Age” lecture, week 2; slides 36-39) reforms, as would McKinley (c.f. “The Presidents History Channel . . .”), but it was not until Theodore Roosevelt took the office of president in 1901 would the nation see “greater transformation (“The Presidents History Channel . . .;” min. 22)” in terms of social, economic and political reform that would narrow the gap between the classes for a period of time. Roosevelt would initiate big business trust-busting or “trust reform (“The Presidents History Channel . . .;” min. 27),” social and health reforms, as well as political reforms that would end the age which bred the masked “cheapness of metal” with “golden gleam.” While the Gilded age of the late 1800’s may be long over, contemporary society has seen similar discrepancy between the classes. In 2011, an organized movement called “Occupy Wall Street says their movement represent[s] the ’99 percent’ of Americans who’ve been left behind, while a tiny minority of wealthy earners pull ahead.” Occupy Wall Street’s movement exists to call attention to the “disparity” between the income and “net worth of the “1 percent” of the nation, which averaged about “$14 million in 2009)” compared to “the poorest households.” According to Khimm, twenty percent of the households
in the United States had a net worth of about negative $27,000, which “means the wealthiest 1 percent held and average of 225 times the wealth of the average median household in 2009-a ratio that was 125 in 1962.” Many economists and journalists are calling our current situation in the United States the “New Gilded Age (Grusky, D. & Krichell-Katz, T., 2012).” In this text, Grusky and KrichellKatz argue that the same income inequality, gender and racial inequality and political imbalance that existed during the Gilded Age in the 1800’s exist in today’s society. In the 1800’s reformers were calling for “greater democracy (“The Progressive Era and the Age of Reform” lecture, week 2; slide 27),” “honest and efficient . . . government,” “effective and continual regulation of big business” and “greater social justice for the working poor.” Today, reformers are seeking similar changes within society. In 2014 alone, Governor Chris Christie from New Jersey is battling public corruption charges (c.f. Worland, J., 2014) and “there are loopholes that allow entities and persons to use shell com companies as well as trusts to hide and launder proceeds from illegal activities (Transparency International, 2014).” And workers and the president are calling for a raise in the minimum wage (c.f. The White House, 2014). And just as the Progressive Party rose from a split in the Republican party in 1912 (c.f Roark, J.L., 2012; 698-699), the Tea Party has done the same in today’s political arena (c.f. The Tea Party, 2014). While many people in today’s society may not realize that progressivism and reforms is not a new issue within society, there are many similarities between Twain’s Gilded Age and today. Likewise, the Bible has acknowledged the inequalities of the societal, political and economic classes since the beginning of time.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 says “behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me [God]. So I removed them, when I saw it (ESV).” In the same way that God despised the inequality in Sodom and Gomorah, he exhorts us through the prophet Isaiah to “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause (ESV).” The Apostle John writes in his first letter, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (ESV),” which was a paraphrase from Jesus’ words quoted at Matthew 25. The early Christians understood and lived with the same social inequalities that existed in The Gilded Age and today. The Book of Acts is an account of how they sought to overcome this inequality by living communally (Acts 2) and setting up the Jerusalem Fund (Acts 11:29-30) to aid believers whom were persecuted by big business and governmental figures. These early Christians were the progressive reformers of their time and continue to be a model of God’s heavenly vision for his people. While God’s ultimate plan of salvation and social equality for his people cannot fully be realized in this fallen world, he gives us a way to show the world that one day the “golden gleam” and the “cheap metal” will all be equal when his eternal kingdom is finally realized by the masses and never again with there be a separation between the “1 percent” and “the other half.”
Cited Sources Grusky, D. & Krichell-Katz, T. (2012). The New Gilded Age. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press. Print. Jacob Riis Clip. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EACoIbokOcc. Khimm, S. (06 Oct. 2011). Who are the 1 percent? The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/who-are-the-1percenters/2011/10/06/gIQAn4JDQL_blog.html. PBS American Experience. (1999-2009). [The Gilded Age]. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/gildedage.html. Roark, James L. The American promise : a history of the United States. Boston New York: Bedford/St.Martins, 2012. Print. The Gilded Age. (n.d.). [PowerPoint lecture, week 2, History of the U.S. Since Civil War, California Baptist University]. Retrieved from calbaptist.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/ frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps. The Presidents History Channel 1885 19913 Cleveland to Taft. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTqUKRJk7dQ&feature=youtu.be. The Tea Party. (2014). [The Movement]. Retrieved from http://www.teaparty.org/. The White House. (2014). [Raise the Wage]. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/raisethe-wage. Transparency International. (2014). [Corruption by country/Territory, United States]. Retrieved from http://www.transparency.org/country#USA. Twain, M. & Warner, C. D. (1873). The Gilded Age. Retrieved from
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/read/9781632955593?referring_ean=9781632955593. Worland, J. (24 June 2014). Here’s what you need to know about Chris Christie’s latest bridge scandal. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/2918132/chris-christie-bridgegate/.