Plain History: The Gilded Age

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Corruption. Class wars. Technological splendor. The dawn of a new age of business and government. Rockefeller and Carnegie. The Gilded Age in America—roughly the 1870s through the early 1900s—was one of the most fascinating and misunderstood eras in our history. It seems like every week, news organizations claim that the U.S. is in a new Gilded Age. But what does that mean? What was the Gilded Age? Today’s guest is Richard White, award-winning historian and author of ‘The Republic for Which It Stands,’ a mammoth history of America between the end of the Civil War and the end of the 19th century. We talk about how corruption and monopoly and power worked during that period. We talk about Rockefeller and Carnegie and Morgan, and how these giants typified the era with their business genius and their thin sense of morality. We talk about how the monopolies of this era used the government, and the government used these monopolies. And we talk about how the movements that emerged from the Gilded Age invented the modern world. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Richard White Producer: Devon Baroldi P.S. If you live in Seattle, Atlanta, or the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, Derek is coming your way in March! See him live at book events in your city. Tickets here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's Bill Simmons letting you know that we are covering the White Lotus on the Prestige TV podcast and the Ringer TV YouTube channel every Sunday night this season with Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson.
0:11.2	Also, on Wednesdays, Rob Honey and I will be sort of diving deep into theories and listener questions.
0:17.1	So you can watch that on the Ringer YouTube channel and also on the Spotify app.
0:21.2	Subscribe to the Prestige podcast feed.
0:23.7	Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel.
0:26.1	And don't forget, you can also watch these podcasts on Spotify.
0:30.8	White Lotus, let's go.
0:36.7	This episode is brought to you by Klarna.
0:39.7	Want to boost your business but not sure where to start.
0:42.8	Adding Klarna's easy to integrate Buy Now Pay Later functionality to your checkout
0:47.1	is the perfect way to boost your customer experience, supercharged sales and improve loyalty.
0:53.9	With Klarna's flexible payment options, you'll be offering
0:56.7	maximum satisfaction that keeps customers coming back for more. Visit clana.com to find out more.
1:06.0	This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Stressing over cybersecurity, whether you're a startup, growing fast, or already established.
1:13.9	Vanta can help you get ISO-27,001 certified and more.
1:18.9	Plus, it allows your company to centralize security workflows,
1:23.0	complete questionnaires up to five times faster,
1:25.1	and proactively manage vendor risk to help your team stay
1:28.6	compliant. Head to vanta.com slash Spotify to learn more. Today, the gilded age of the 19th century
1:37.8	and the 21st century. The first thing every book and essay about the Gilded Age will tell you is about Mark Twain.
1:46.0	In 1873, Twain co-wrote a mediocre book, the entirety of which is forgotten, except for its memorable title, the Gilded Age.
1:55.0	Twain was satirizing ideas in his own time that are now as familiar as oxygen, the juxtaposition of obscene wealth and poverty,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -6 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Ringer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Ringer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.