The Gilded Age 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 the “Gilded Age” because of this book. The corruption and greed that was typical of the time is exemplified through two fictional narratives: one, of the Hawkins, a poor family from Tennessee that tries to persuade the government to purchase their 75,000 acres of unimproved land; second, of Philip Sterling and Henry Brierly, two young upper-class men who seek their fortune in land as well. Widely considered one of the hundred greatest books of all time, The Gilded Age is sure to attract a whole new generation of listeners, for the themes of this classic work are still relevant to our nation.

America stands at a dramatic crossroads: Massive corporations wield disturbing power. The huge income gap between the one percent and the other 99 percent grows wider. Astounding new technologies are changing lives. Sound familiar? Issues that characterize the early 21st century were also the hallmarks of the transformative periods known as the Gilded Age (1865-1900) and the Progressive Era (1900-1920). In this Great Courses selection, explore these tumultuous times—decades marked by economic, political, social, and technological upheavals—that shaped the US into the world's greatest industrial power and a global geopolitical force.

A love story and social commentary, Edith Wharton's celebrated novel accurately portrays upper-class New York society in the late 19th century due to her insider's view of America's privileged and wealthy. Having grown up in upper-class society, the author ended up becoming one of its most shrewd critics. Her depiction of the snobbery and hypocrisy of the elite, combined with her subtle use of dramatic irony, propelled The Age of Innocence to the position of an instant classic, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 and distinguishing Wharton as the first woman to receive this honor. Actor David Horovitch, perhaps best known for playing Inspector Slack in BBC adaptations of Miss Marple, lends his polished voice to the narration.

Born into wealth, Birdie has a passion for art and science, which makes her perfect for the job of painting landscape habitats at New York's exciting new Museum of Natural History—despite the objections of her mother, who views her pursuit as a distraction. Birdie's dedication to her work only grows once she meets Jay, an Irish immigrant who's yanked himself up by his bootstraps to join the museum's respected team of researchers. From opulent parties to a muddy dig site that may be hiding a groundbreaking discovery, Birdie & Jay is a captivating historical novel that blends romance and scientific truth-seeking adventure with insights into the lifestyle and conventions of Manhattan’s Gilded Age elite. This Audible Original features dual narration from Eva Kaminsky and Gerard Doyle.

High society scoundrel Harrison Archer returns home to Manhattan to discover that his deceased father has left his estranged family bankrupted. To save them from ruin, he must find an heiress to wed—and fast. In desperate need of a matchmaker, Harrison turns to the one woman he wishes he could marry: his childhood friend, Maddie, who is now engaged to a duke. Begrudgingly, Maddie arranges a house party in Newport with a guest list of eligible heiresses. But watching Harrison flirt with potential brides is more than she can bear. Narrated by Justine Eyre, this friends-to-lovers tale is part of Joanna Shupe's Fifth Avenue Rebels series, set in the Gilded Age.

Once upon a time in America, say 150 to 120 years ago, young women (and occasionally, young men) of enterprising families were schooled in the arts of trading their hand in matrimony for money, power, social standing, and political clout. In this Audible Original, history scholar Melissa Ziobro takes listeners inside the era of true marriages of convenience and opportunity, Over the course of 10 lectures, you'll meet the daughters of the newly wealthy whose love matches with Old World aristocrats shaped social norms, transatlantic relations, and even the US economy on a staggering scale.

From best-selling historian H.W. Brands, American Colussus is a sweeping chronicle of how a few wealthy business moguls—J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller top among them—reshaped the United States from a land of small farmers and local merchants into an industrial giant. To quote Audible editor Elliott: "Brands makes the politics of industrial development exciting and captivating, filling it with memorable characters and scenes. It will leave you feeling drunk on history."

Late one cold March night in 1896, New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, an "alienist." Standing on the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan's infamous brothels. Working in secret, Moore and Kreizler set to solve the young man's murder by applying the tools of psychology—at a time when questioning society's belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and mortal consequences. Steeped in historical details, Caleb Carr's The Alienist conjures up the Gilded Age and its dark underside, from verminous tenements to flamboyant gangsters and corrupt cops. The prolific George Guidall masterfully narrates this gripping tale of crime and criminology.

When Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the tender age of 11 in 1805, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and an insatiable desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping, another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. After his death in 1877, the staggering fortune left by "the Commodore" was bitterly fought over and squandered by generation after generation of his heirs. In Vanderbilt, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson, Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence. Narrated by Cooper, this fascinating listen captures the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty against the backdrop of ambition and Gilded Age excess.

No woman in the Gilded Age made as much money as Hetty Green. At the time of her death in 1916, she was worth at least 100 million dollars, equal to more than 2 billion dollars today. Abandoned at birth by her neurotic mother, scorned by her misogynist father, Hetty set out as a child to prove her value. Following the simple rules of her wealthy Quaker father, she successfully invested her money and along the way proved to herself that she was wealthy and therefore worthy. In The Richest Woman in America, author Janet Wallach celebrates the spirit of this strong believer in every woman's ability to become financially independent and her valuable lessons for women in the present times.

To some, it may seem that the United States of America was destined to be a superpower from its start. Today, its economic, military, and cultural strength gives out an aura of everlasting magnificence, possibly even that it was God-given. That, however, is far from the truth. This captivating work of history reveals how America's transformation from a weak, relatively poor, and chaos-ridden dominion into a world-class international power achieved its peak in the late 19th century, during a rich and impactful period of growth that has become known as the Gilded Age.