Chapter 1 | The Gilded Age | American Experience | PBS

Meet the elite of the lavishly wealthy Gilded Age — and the struggling workers who challenged them.

[terr]

The very year my 11 year old grandfather arrived on the ship. Small hands were useful for tending violets upstate. He worked for pennies, but made his way to some success with a lot of hard work in farming.

[ameanasaur]

"Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them." - George Santayana

[kaysharogers]

I'm obsessed about the 1890s. Such a beautiful and deeply flawed time.

[judyholiday]

I loved that man's expression at 0:47 when the wind blew his hat off..That is the only time that I have seen a real human like action/expression while watching these old clips that were filmed such along time ago. For the most part these ppl looked like emotionless robots walking around on some street or sidewalk..

[andrewey]

The more things change, the more they stay the same

[sydneysharrock]

POV: looking in the comments for other people who had to watch this because of an assignment.

[unrulysue]

And now here we are, a hundred plus years later and history is repeating itself. The first divide was brought about with the industrial revolution. Our current situation a result of the technological age. Not to say that either industry or technology are bad but rather that human greed has caused their misuse.

[radioheadtv]

0:42 the hat blew away love his expression XD

[tommiebusche]

Thank you PBS for the wisdom & foibles that always makes your product irresistible! You are appreciated.

[AnitaJ]

During the Gilded Age, my paternal grandparents were among the working poor in lower Michigan. Their status was not affected by the great economic dichotomy brought on by all the hubbub of the day.

Meanwhile, my maternal grandparents were farming in northeast Missouri and were also unaffected. Their financial situation was substantially better than that of my father's family.

[lisaahmari]

There is an excellent book called "The Good Old Days, They Were Terrible." Covers this in depth. Appalling that we are in the Gilded Age 2.0.

[michealrawlings]

“We are the rich . We own America. We got it, God knows how?!? But we intend to keep it!!!” 3:28mark. Powerful statement. To bad we don’t know who made that statement. I’m sure they still own America. 🇺🇸

[michaelhiggins]

Carnegie: "I make as much in a few hours as my average worker makes in a year!!"


Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos: "YOOO YOU WANT TO SEE SOME REAL SPEED"

[corinneshutack]

I thought it was strange when in at 4:54, the person said, "American had been founded ... for a country of farmers." These men weren't farmers. They managed concentration camps that yielded crops. My 7th great uncle, John Hart, signed the Declaration of Independence. He is listed in a monument in DC as a "farmer." But he owned enslaved people. He was more akin to a higher-up in the SS than a farmer, I'm sorry to say. And one study shows that 73% of the signers managed these concentration camps for profit.

[janvanwagner]

You can easily see that they thought of themselves as a new ARISTOCRACY ! After the battle to escape that very thing in Europe- once they were rich they wanted the system back. They've been working toward that wealthy / serf system since. Farming allowed people to be independent and self sufficient. Working for the rich leaves them independent & everyone else dependent.

[steaminglobster]

After 150 years, the rich is richer and poor is poorer, but at a much faster speed, and the poor does not even have a factory to go to to earn decent wage by hardworking anymore.

[PM]

That brother at the beginning with wind in his hat though!

[cynthiafeagin]

I visited the Biltmore estate in asheville NC. I can't imagine living like that.

[andrewberrocal]

I’d sooner die a thousand lifetimes hungry and begging for salvation then to live warmer and fuller at the expense of my fellow man

[starcrib]

We now are living in the New Gilded Age. And its horrifying.