The Gilded Age
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2022
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Gilded Age was a time in American history when the economy grew at its fastest rate in history. This had wide-reaching cultural and social effects, including a broadening tier of self-made millionaires, the rapid growth of the working class and a burgeoning black middle class.
It is against this backdrop of rapid change that Julian Fellows, creator of Downton Abbey, sets his new drama. We sat down with the show's historical advisor, Dr Erica Dunbar to help us understand the opportunities, challenges and tensions of this time.
The Gilded Age is available in the UK on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW from 25 January. For US audiences, it is available on HBO from the same date.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. The Gilded Age. The Gilded Age is what |
| 0:07.0 | Americans call the period from the Civil War, the late 19th century, into the early 20th. |
| 0:14.4 | The US economy grew its fastest rate in history as new technology transformed the economy |
| 0:21.0 | and as the job of occupying and settling the whole of the North American continent was |
| 0:26.8 | pretty much completed. Mark Twain coined the term the Gilded Age as the title of his novel, |
| 0:35.0 | the Gilded Age, a tale of today. And that gives us a sense. The Gilded Age looked shiny. |
| 0:40.7 | It wasn't quite what it purported to be. And we're going to find out what it in fact was now with |
| 0:45.4 | Dr. Erika Armstrong-Dumbar. She is the child's and maybe a distinguished professor of history at Rutgers |
| 0:51.4 | University. She has just come off the back of a great project. She was the historical advisor |
| 0:58.2 | to a new HBO drama from the team that created Downton Abbey. Yes, our own Julian Fellows is |
| 1:04.8 | crossed the pond and is now making huge shows about what was going on in the US. |
| 1:10.5 | While the residents of Downton were shooting Grouseon doing what they did. It's a giant new show. |
| 1:15.9 | It's on HBO Max in the US. It sounds at the moment in the UK. The streaming on now streaming |
| 1:21.3 | service is also on Sky Atlantic. So check it out the Gilded Age. And I got Erika on to tell me, |
| 1:28.4 | you know, did they listen to her? How are we asked to get it? How accurate is it when you're |
| 1:32.0 | going to find out now? So what's the Gilded Age and what's the TV show like? It's fascinating stuff. |
| 1:37.9 | If you wish to watch documentaries about 19th century, we got plenty for you. Yes, we do. |
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