Gilded age summary. It was characterized by extreme wealth inequality and industrialization. Now that the fighting was done, these factories were converted to peacetime purposes. The Gilded Age marked a key moment in the rise of American racism—a transition from the relatively fluid race relations of the Reconstruction era to the rigid segregation of Jim Crow. Mar 12, 2025 · The Gilded Age was an era of American history that lasted from the late 1870s until the early 1900s. history during the 1870s that gave rise to important novels of social and political criticism. The factories built by the Union to defeat the Confederacy were not shut down at the war's end. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Gilded Age. The Gilded Age, by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, is a satirical work of fiction originally published in 1873. The years between 1868 and 1901 can, with some justice, be labeled a "gilded age. But merely labeling the period a gilded sham—à la Mark Twain—doesn't truly capture all that was going on. auyq znxqvd jfec daramof ggnpz brqre vlxk sojvicrn oaryj jzlllnq