Unit 6&7 Basics

• Civil War: 1861-1865
• Reconstruction: 1865-1877 (Ended in 1877 because that's when the last Union troops were pulled from the South)
• The Gilded Age: 1865-1900"Gilded" means something that looks good on the surface, but the appearance is deceptive (usually gritty underneath). Mark Twain coined the phrase, "The Gilded Age." The Gilded Age in America looked good on the outside: extravagant displays of wealth and excess among upper class, 2nd industrial revolution, labor union movements, etc. But underneath, there were problems: xenophobia (nativism), Indians killed and moved to reservations, and ex-slaves heavily discriminated. Inventions: Edison's light bulb, telephone (1876), early motorcar thing, steel industry, barbed wire (Joseph Glidden).