The First Gilded Age

This course will examine late-19th-century economic, social and political transformations in the United States through discussions of insights from people such as Booker T. Washington, Samuel Gompers, Emma Goldman, Andrew Carnegie, William Graham Sumner and Edward Bellamy. These discussions will provide a lens through which we can better understand our current situation, which many have called the Second Gilded Age.

Suggested Reading: The Struggle for America’s Promise: Equal Opportunity at the Dawn of Corporate America, Claire Goldstene (University of Mississippi Press, 2014).