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Not everyone was completely pleased with the booming prosperity of the United States in the decades after the Civil War.  A popular writer and humorist from Missouri, whose pen name was "Mark Twain" (his real name was Samue Clemens), criticized the decades after the Civil War by calling them the "Gilded Age."

Not everyone was completely pleased with the booming prosperity of the United States in the decades after the Civil War.  A popular writer and humorist from Missouri, whose pen name was "Mark Twain" (his real name was Samue Clemens), criticized the decades after the Civil War by calling them the "Gilded Age."

He described this era (from the end of the Civil War through the 1880s) as "gilded" because it appeared golden, but beneath the shiny surface was greed, corruption and hardship.  Mark Twain even wrote a novel by that name, in which Washington, D.C., was run by greedy businessmen and corrupt government officials.  (Mark Twain wrote several other influential novels, including "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," describing a fictional journey on a raft on the Mississippi).   

He described this era (from the end of the Civil War through the 1880s) as "gilded" because it appeared golden, but beneath the shiny surface was greed, corruption and hardship.  Mark Twain even wrote a novel by that name, in which Washington, D.C., was run by greedy businessmen and corrupt government officials.  (Mark Twain wrote several other influential novels, including "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," describing a fictional journey on a raft on the Mississippi River).   

In real life, the Gilded Age featured "robber barons," who were people who became extremely wealthy through ruthless business practices.  The worst "robber baron" was Jay Gould, a financier on Wall Street who committed rampant fraud by printing false stock certificates to defraud investors.  He even tried to corner the gold market in 1869.  That led to a financial panic known as Black Friday.  After Gould drove up the price of gold by hoarding it, President Grant learned of the scheme and started selling the government gold reserves on the market to cause the price to fall.  The price of gold then fell sharply, and many lost their savings.  Gould, however, had sold out at the highest price to make the biggest profit!

In real life, the Gilded Age featured "robber barons," who were people who became extremely wealthy through ruthless business practices.  The worst "robber baron" was Jay Gould, a financier on Wall Street who committed rampant fraud by printing false stock certificates to defraud investors.  He even tried to corner the gold market in 1869.  That led to a financial panic known as Black Friday.  After Gould drove up the price of gold by hoarding it, President Grant learned of the scheme and started selling the government gold reserves on the market to cause the price to fall.  The price of gold then fell sharply, and many lost their savings.  Gould, however, had sold out at the highest price to make the biggest profit!