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Teaching The Gilded Age

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Mark Twain, never one to gild the lily, named this period the Gilded Age. The Decadent Age may have been more appropriate. It's up to you to deconstruct the gilding from the wilted lily underneath to help your students get the best image of this complicated time period.

In this guide you will find

  • an activity, among others, looking at the corruption of Tammany Hall.
  • current events, including articles asking if we're in a new Gilded Age (the re-gilded age?).
  • historical resources on inventions, muckrackers, and labor unions.

And so much more.

No need to sugar coat it. Shmoop gives it to you straight.

What's Inside Shmoop's History Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring history to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

  • 3-5 Common Core-aligned activities (including quotation, image, and document analysis) to complete in class with your students, with detailed instructions for you and your students. 
  • Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students.
  • Reading quizzes to be sure students are looking at the material through various lenses.
  • Resources to help make the topic feel more relevant to your 21st-century students.
  • A note from Shmoop's teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the topic and how you can overcome the hurdles.

Want more help teaching Teaching The Gilded Age?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.



Instructions for You

Objective: Andrew Carnegie made a fortune in the steel industry and then developed a philosophy of wealth explaining both the importance and responsibilities of large personal fortunes.

If your students made a boatload of money, they'd probably do a few other things before developing a personal philosophy of wealth (new phone, new clothes, new car), but we're sure they'd get around to it eventually. In the meantime, you can have them examine Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth." 

They'll examine it, argue against it, rebut one of their peer's arguments, and then rebut a rebuttal. In short, they'll be looking at this thing from all sides and practicing their (written) debating skills, too.

Length of Lesson: One class period.

Materials Needed:

  • Excerpt from Carnegie's 1899 essay, "The Gospel of Wealth" (provided below)
  • (Optional) The full text of Carnegie's essay (the excerpt we're using is the 7th paragraph from the end)

Step One: Read through this excerpt from Carnegie's 1899 essay with your students. 

"This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: first, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community -- the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves."
-- Andrew Carnegie, 1899

Step Two: After reading the excerpt, ask if students have any questions. Spend a few minutes explaining some terms (trust funds, agent and trustee) and breaking down Carnegie's argument with them.

Step Three: Ask them to write a short rebuttal to this portion of Carnegie's philosophy.  NOTE: Regardless of their views, they must rebut Carnegie's arguments. Give your students only 7-10 minutes to do so.

Step Four: Have students exchange papers and rebut the arguments just presented by their peer. Instruct them to focus closely on the arguments presented by their peer and respond directly to them. Allow your students 7-10 minutes to do this.

Step Five: Tell students to circulate their papers to a third reader. This reader will rebut the second reader's rebuttal. Again instruct them not just to rehash their original argument; instead they must respond to the specific points raised by the previous reader.

Step Six: Have everyone hand papers back to the original writer and give them a chance to read the rebuttal and the rebuttal to the rebuttal. Then take a few minutes to debrief this exercise using the questions below.

  • Who had a good argument? Who raised some good points? (Ask for specific examples.)
  • What positions were difficult to rebut?
  • Where do you stand now?

Step Seven: End the exercise by asking student to write a short paper (two paragraphs) summarizing their conclusions about Carnegie's philosophy. Are they with him? Against him? Somewhere in the middle? Encourage them to be as clear as possible about their views. 

(Lesson aligned with CA History-Social Sciences 9th-12th grade historical research, evidence, and point of view standards 1, 4; historical interpretation standard 3; 11th grade American History standard 11.2.5)

Instructions for Your Students

What's the first thing you would do if you amassed a personal fortune? 

  • Upgrade your phone? 
  • Update your wardrobe?
  • Buy a car?
  • Take a trip?

Sure. You could  do all of those things. But at some point—seeing as how you're now in charge of a crazy amount of money—you may want to develop a personal philosophy of wealth. At least that's what Andrew Carnegie did. 

Today you'll examine a portion of Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth" and see what you think. You'll argue against it, you'll argue for it, and then, just for good measure, you'll argue against it again. Yes. Really. 

Think we're kidding? Keep reading. 

Step One: Read through this excerpt from Carnegie's 1899 essay with your students. 

"This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: first, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community -- the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves." 
-- Andrew Carnegie, 1899

Step Two: After reading the excerpt, ask if students have any questions. Spend a few minutes explaining some terms (trust funds, agent and trustee) and breaking down Carnegie's argument with them.

Step Three: Ask them to write a short rebuttal to this portion of Carnegie's philosophy.  NOTE: Regardless of their views, they must rebut Carnegie's arguments. Give your students only 7-10 minutes to do so.

Step Four: Have students exchange papers and rebut the arguments just presented by their peer. Instruct them to focus closely on the arguments presented by their peer and respond directly to them. Allow your students 7-10 minutes to do this.

Step Five: Tell students to circulate their papers to a third reader. This reader will rebut the second reader's rebuttal. Again instruct them not just to rehash their original argument; instead they must respond to the specific points raised by the previous reader.

Step Six: Have everyone hand papers back to the original writer and give them a chance to read the rebuttal and the rebuttal to the rebuttal. Then take a few minutes to debrief this exercise using the questions below.

  • Who had a good argument? Who raised some good points? (Ask for specific examples.)
  • What positions were difficult to rebut?
  • Where do you stand now?

Step Seven: End the exercise by asking student to write a short paper (two paragraphs) summarizing their conclusions about Carnegie's philosophy. Are they with him? Against him? Somewhere in the middle? Encourage them to be as clear as possible about their views. 

(Optional) Feel like overachieving? Read the full text of Carnegie's essay. Just for kicks. (And erudition.)