The Gilded Age | How the Other Half Lives | 3

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2020

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the spring of 1883, Mrs. Alva Vanderbilt threw the grandest party New York had ever seen, claiming her spot at the top of the city’s social hierarchy. The Gilded Age drove feverish growth in America’s cities. Populations swelled. Skyscrapers and steel bridges soared above city skylines. And the new economic elite poured their outrageous fortunes into magnificent mansions and lavish balls.

But there were two sides to Gilded Age cities. Less than a mile away from Manhattan’s elegant brownstones, the poor eked out a living in sooty factories and crowded slums. In the 1880s and 1890s, reformers rose up to challenge inequality—galvanizing workers and exposing the dark underbelly of urban growth.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.6	Imagine its May 30th, 1883, a ball-me Memorial Day in New York City.
0:23.6	You and your little sister are spending your Sunday afternoon walking along the Brooklyn
0:27.0	Bridge.
0:28.0	You're going to the public just a week ago, and today you're part of a massive throng
0:31.2	of people strolling across.
0:33.0	They're children fighting over candy, women carrying parasols to shield their eyes from
0:37.6	the afternoon sun, hundreds of veterans wearing old Union Army uniforms in honor of the holiday.
0:43.9	Your sister's eyes light up as she takes in the crown.
0:46.6	Oh, isn't this wonderful?
0:48.0	I've never seen the city from so high up before.
0:50.5	But calling it the eighth wonder of the world.
0:52.9	Yes, so you keep reminding me, yes.
0:54.9	Oh, just saying it's an incredible feat of engineering.
0:57.9	Yes, and absolutely incredible.
1:00.4	I just don't know why we had to come out today, all days.
1:03.4	It's packed.
1:04.4	Well, anyways, thanks for coming along.
1:06.1	You say that as if I had a choice.
1:07.8	No, you practically dragged me here.
1:10.3	Your sister flashes you in this chivas grin.
	...

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