This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, I take a deep dive into the origins of Labor Day. It's a holiday that most Americans these days take for granted. But it was born out of the crisis of the Gilded Age, that tumultuous last third of the 19th century that saw both the US economy boom … [Read more...]
091 The Origins of Labor Day: Protesting Inequality in the Gilded Age
Episode 054 What Was The Gilded Age? Part 3
This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, we present Part 3 of our multi-episode examination of the Gilded Age. In this episode, we look at some of the people and organizations that took on the problems that arose in the Gilded Age. In the case of the former, we examine reformers like … [Read more...]
Why Henry George Matters in This Second Gilded Age
Why Henry George Matters in This Second Gilded Age Edward T. O’Donnell What value does the story of Henry George, a self-taught economist from the late nineteenth century, hold for Americans living in the early 21st century? Quite a lot, if we stop to consider the ways in which contemporary … [Read more...]
Episode 053 What Was The Gilded Age? Part 2
This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, we present Part 2 of our multi-episode examination of the Gilded Age. In this episode, we take a hard look at the dark side of the Gilded Age – all the troubling trends that challenged the ebullient celebration of progress in the late 19th century. … [Read more...]
Episode 052 What Was The Gilded Age? Part 1
This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, we begin a multi-episode look at that fascinating period known as the Gilded Age. This seemed a good time to do it because PBS just aired its new documentary called The Gilded Age. I was lucky enough to be one of the featured historians. The … [Read more...]