Calhoun argues that the Gilded Age is under-studied and misunderstood, a conclusion that my education has supported.\u00a0 Although I am but one student out of so many that learn about American history in our nation, I believed that I received a high caliber education.\u00a0 However, my AP US History teacher, like so many that Calhoun criticizes, stereotyped the Gilded Age as a period of \u201csuperficiality, pretense, and fraud.\u201d\u00a0 We breezed through the period, moving on quickly to more \u2018interesting\u2019 topics such as the Progressive Era and World War One.<\/p>\n
But why does this misunderstanding matter, a question that both Molly<\/a> and Sarah<\/a> have dealt with. For me, this question goes back to the question of why we are students of history: to better understand the present vis-\u00e0-vis the past.\u00a0 My AP US History teacher not only presented a flawed view of the Gilded Age, as seen by Calhoun, but also failed to make the connections that bring relevance to the topic.\u00a0 New Spirits makes this astonishingly clear, tracing the roots of our modern society back to this tumultuous period.\u00a0 The Gilded Age brought about changes that form the foundation of our society today, including the new morals and ways of life that guide our decisions.\u00a0 However, I see more than that, I see also the beginnings of debates that are key today, such as our national dependence on fossil fuel, the trials of commuters to the cities that are so often depicted in our mass media, and the role of that our government should play in private lives.\u00a0 These and many more key issues and aspects of our society today were either heavily impacted by the Gilded Age or find their origins in that period.<\/p>\n