Gilded Age

The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today is the collaborative work of Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that satirized the era that followed the Civil War. This period is often referred to as &quote;The Gilded Age&quote; because of this book. The corruption and greed that was typical of the time is exemplified through two fictional narratives: one, of the Hawkinses, a poor family from Tennessee that tries to persuade the government to purchase their seventy-five thousand acres of unimproved land; and second, of Philip Sterling and Henry Brierly, two young upper-class men who seek their fortune in land as well. This book is widely considered one of the hundred greatest books of all time and is here to attract a whole new generation of readers, for the themes of this classic work are still relevant to our nation today.