The Gilded Gentleman

Returning guest historian and author Connor Williams returns to The Gilded Gentleman table for the in-depth and insightful discussion of the Civil War's influence on the following age of extraordinary wealth and structural advancement for the country.
Connor discusses how America's economic power centers reversed themselves following Emancipation and how the manipulation of wealth fueled the growth and wealth of the Gilded Age. In addition, Connor takes a look at some of the literature of the era including writers such as Mark Twain who captured a very new America in their work.
Connor is the author of the just-published "The Confederacy Myth: How an Insurrection of Slaveholders Tried to Destroy the United States".


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Victoria Woodhull was one of the Gilded Age's most challenging, revolutionary, outspoken, and certainly fascinating figures. Often called the first woman to run for president of the United States, Woodhull worked as a spiritualist and newspaper publisher. She and her sister also became the first female Wall Street stockbrokers.
But Woodhull's life, as biographers have struggled to capture, was a mix of paradoxes, contradictions, and challenges that easily defy simple definition.
The Gilded Gentleman takes a look at who Victoria Woodhull was and her lasting influence, as well as how the creative team behind "A Simple Herstory,” an audio fiction podcast series, has raised the bar for narrative history.
Creator, actor and producer Jocylyn Kuritsky and writer and executive producer Jonathan Goldberg discuss the complexities of Woodhull's life and how they chose to present her in a mix of political commentary, theater, audio drama, and podcast.

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The Gilded Age was not limited to New York. Other cities developed differently during the 19th century and responded uniquely to this period of great technological and economic growth. Boston, Massachusetts, the heart of New England, had a very different story than that of New York. Boston had wealth and a sharp social divide; the Boston elite, known as the "Brahmins," were quite different from the Astors and Vanderbilts of New York.
Boston channeled its money into education, social reform, and cultural expansion. Indeed, during the 19th century, the city was a center for abolitionists and the women's suffrage movement. Boston's story includes not only the Brahmins but also waves of immigrants from Europe, a Black population with longstanding roots in New England, and those arriving from the South.
Author and historian R. Tripp Evans (last heard on the Bachelor Pad episode) returns to the Gilded Gentleman Podcast to chat about Boston's fascinating 19th-century cultural life and history.
This show was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon.

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Join The Gilded Gentleman and Michael Morganthal, a veteran journalist and professional tour guide, for this journey through the news process in late 19th-century New York.

Michael shares how the Gilded Age gave rise to a nearly 24-hour news cycle and how news was reported and transmitted.

In addition, he discusses the rise of sensational "yellow journalism" and the intense competition among titans such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst as the Gilded Age set the stage for the modern news machine we know today.

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In 1894, Madeline Pollard was the most famous woman in America. Her name was splashed across newspaper headlines, and the public hung on every word she said and waited to see and discuss every article of clothing she wore.  

Pollard was suing a well-known Kentucky Congressman, William Breckenridge, for breach of promise. He had promised to marry her upon his wife's death - but chose another woman instead.  The courtroom drama unfolded like the best page-turning novel. 

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, an unassuming young woman from Maine, Jane Tucker, was working furtively under an assumed identity - Agnes Parker - to discover the truth of Madeline's background.   

In her recent book, "Alias Agnes: The Notorious Tale of a Gilded Age Spy," author and scholar Elizabeth DeWolfe spins a true tale that centers on how Gilded Age women found power and used it to ensure their agency, strength, and equality.  Part courtroom drama, part tale of espionage, part old-fashioned mystery, we now have the full story of Madeline Pollard and Jane Tucker for the very first time. 

This podcast was edited and produced by Kieran Gannon.

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