Gilded Age

In United States history, the Gilded Age is a term coined by Mark Twain and used by some historians to refer roughly to the period between 1877 and 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Western United States. As American wages grew much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, and industrialization demanded an ever-increasing unskilled labor force, the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants.