In the essay below, Trachtenberg follows the development of Realism during the Gilded Age as a reaction against the sentimentalism of earlier romances and dime novels.

In the following essay, Twigg argues that, in the Gilded Age, middle-class Americans sought to express their individuality, while conforming to the aesthetic ideal, through “tasteful” home decoration, which was documented in the various decorating texts popular among all levels of society.

In the following essay, Dormon examines the popularity during the Gilded Age of ‘coon songs’ (songs about, and many times by, black Americans). Dormon suggests that the songs disseminated racist images and language in order to justify continued segregation and discrimination.

In the excerpt below, Cordery enumerates the limitations placed on women by the domestic ideologies of the Gilded Age and shows how, in spite of these, many women were influential activists.

In this excerpt, Danziger describes the struggles of Native Americans in the face of post-Civil War white migrations westward that forced Indian accommodation to reservation life.

In the following essay, Ickstadt argues that in response to the increasing fragmentation of American society in the Gilded Age, many authors attempted to create a sense of community through utopian symbolism.

In the following excerpt, Blanchard argues that with the increased aestheticism of the Gilded Age came a more open acceptance of homosexuality and alternative definitions of manhood.

In the following essay, Tomsich discusses the “genteel” authors of the Gilded Age, whose religious faith faded with the influence of evolutionary theory and gave way to a sometimes fatalistic moralism.

In the following essay, Falk characterizes the Gilded Age as a time of great literary change, largely due to a break from Romanticism and a movement toward increased realism.

In the following essay, Roberts reflects on the Gilded Age as an era of popular aesthetic interest, wherein high and low-brow culture interacted to create a distinctly American fiction, journalism, theatre, lyric, and decor.

In the excerpt below, Dormon surveys the use of ethnic stereotypes in American cartoon periodicals of the Gilded Age. He argues that they express increasing levels of fear and ethnocentrism in response to immigration.

In the essay below, Kilmer discusses the popularity of the “rags-to-riches” success formula during the Gilded Age, suggesting that news items as well as bardic tales featuring these types of formulaic plots often served as reminders to readers that “honor, public esteem, and fidelity could not be bought.”