America's postwar expansion -- The rise of the robber barons -- Captains of industry -- Gilded age politics, reformers, and regulators -- The rise of labor -- The 1890s : decade of upheaval -- Legacy of the gilded age -- William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) : populist leader and three-time Democratic candidate for president -- Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) : steel magnate and philanthropist -- Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) : Democratic president of the United States -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) : founder of the American Railway Union and the Socialist Party of America -- Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) : founder and president of the American Federation of Labor -- Jay Gould (1836-1892) : gilded age financier and railroad owner -- Mary Elizabeth Lease (1853-1933) : reformist speaker and politician -- J.P. Morgan (1837-1913) : leading banker and financier of the gilded age -- Terrence V. Powderly (1849-1924) : Leader of the Knights of Labor -- John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) : founder of the Standard Oil Company -- Mark Twain describes the get-rich-quick mining culture -- The glitter of gilded age high society -- Exposing the price-fixing schemes of the "lords of industry" -- An anarchist protests his Haymarket death sentence -- Andrew Carnegie's "gospel of wealth" -- "The problem of the children in New York City -- The Sherman Antitrust Act -- The populists articulate their principles -- William Jennings Bryan's "cross of gold" speech -- A second gilded age? : the income gap says yes -- A new gilded age? : living standards say no -- Important people, places, and terms -- Chronology.
Summary
"Provides a comprehensive overview of the political and economic forces that transformed the United States during the nineteenth century from a farming society to an urban, industrial one dominated by powerful industrialists and their vast corporate empires. Includes a narrative overview, biographies, primary sources, chronology, glossary, bibliography, and index"--Provided by publisher.
