America in the Gilded Age: Third Edition - History Book on 19th Century US Industrial Growth & Social Change | Perfect for Students, Historians & American History Enthusiasts

America in the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age means America and America would not be the country it is today without the successes, failures and excesses of the Gilded Age. That age covers American reconstruction, the American Industrial Revolution and the American Victorian Period. It saw a tremendous influx of immigrants. It saw great changes wrought by technological advance. Sean Dennis Cashman has written a wonderful book that covers the important events and developments of that age. The book is divided into two parts. Part one covers industrial America to include the development of the labor movement, labor strife, immigration, the growth of large cities and skyscrapers, and the art and architecture of the period. Part two covers Reconstruction and politics and the dominant political fights of the age over bimetallism and civil service reform. Cashman writes lively prose but his book reads like a textbook in places. That is not really a bad thing. It is the information that is important and Cashman’s book is packed with information.Occasionally the author will construct and argument or comment in a way that sounds strange to my ear or just does not make sense to me. An example of the latter from page 252:“As E L Godkin, editor of the Nation, observed, it was possible that a system of competitive examinations would discriminate against able men from poor backgrounds who could not afford to go to college. Thus, instead of weakening class prejudice it would have the opposite effect. A nonentity like Franklin Pierce could still become president while a genius from a disadvantage background, like Lincoln, could not.”Competitive examinations for a civil service position, like getting a job with the State Department or becoming Collector for the Port of New York, would have no effect whatsoever on running for elected office. The Constitution is clear on the requirements to run for president and a competitive exam is not one of them. Lincoln was a lawyer, he was well read, he was a tinkerer and an inventor, I am confident he could have passed an examination. Pierce is only a nonentity today. That whole passage is puzzling to me and was obviously written to air the author’s personal opinions.An example of a comment that just sounds strange can be found on page 199:“Robber barons and artists in their employ had chosen as symbol of America’s new prosperity not silver or lead, but gold.”Why would he select lead as a possible symbol of prosperity? How did that metal pop into his mind?Now, what is missing from the narrative?The Astor family. Not one mention. There is a fine photo of the Waldorf Astoria on page 37 but from the caption a non-New Yorker might think it no longer exists. How can the author speak of the development of large modern cities, focusing mostly on New York and Chicago, and not mention the “landlords of New York?” For many the Gilded Age meant ostentatious displays of wealth exhibited at large exclusive costume parties. On page 180 he does mention that Alva Vanderbilt “…who threw parties so dazzling that everyone wanted to attend.” He does not mention the woman who created New York high society and was the first to throw parties “everyone wanted to attend.” That would be Caroline Astor; wife of William Backhouse Astor, Jr. She belonged to one of the oldest of the fabulously wealthy old money families and she threw ostentatiously gaudy, extraordinarily expensive parties that were limited to the wealthy members of old New York families. She insisted on being called “The Mrs Astor” (there were other Mrs Astor’s) and the old New York families that got invited to the parties became known as The Four Hundred or The Knickerbockers; the Vanderbilt’s were not included. It would have been nice if the author could have included something about how Alva Vanderbilt broke down that wall and dethroned The Mrs Astor from her perch at the top of New York high society.Is this a good reference book on the Gilded Age?Citations are missing. No notes or footnotes. Sean Dennis Cashman is a British historian but we must take all his assertion on faith. He has a chapter by chapter bibliography but that is not the same as letting the reader know where to find documentation for any given assertion.The index is incomplete. To find a mention of Alva Vanderbilt by using the index you must remember that she became a suffragette and look up women’s suffrage or Vanderbilt patronage. You cannot find the Adams Vase, “One of the most representative ornaments of the age” (page 199), in the text by looking in the index. It cannot be found by looking up Tiffany. It cannot be found by looking up the name of its designer or the recipient of the vase; they are not in the index either. You must remember which chapter it is in. This is of course not true with every subject and person mentioned in the text but it was disconcerting to find no mention of Alva Vanderbilt or the Adams Vase in the index.This is a very good book and it was, for me, a joy to read. It is packed with a ton of information. It is a reasonably good reference book on the Gilded Age and it has many interesting illustrations. I would recommend it to anyone interested in American history of the 19th century.