The Bowery Boys: New York City History Gilded Age or Gilded Cage? (With The Bowery Boys)
Dec 10, 2021
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Salmagundi Club Sets The Scene
- The episode is recorded in the Salmagundi Club library, a preserved 1853 brownstone filled with leather-bound books and busts of artists.
- The room evokes nineteenth-century New York and serves as an apt setting for discussing the Gilded Age.
Name Was A Critique Not Praise
- The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain as a pejorative to mock superficial wealth and corruption.
- The phrase implies a thin veneer of gold covering deeper social problems rather than a true golden age.
Immigration Fueled Fortunes And Hardship
- The Gilded Age combined extravagant wealth and severe inequality amid mass immigration.
- Immigrants fueled fortunes while many newcomers faced harsh urban conditions and unmet expectations.