The New Middle Class in the Gilded Age

Authors

Payton Pulkrabek, St. Cloud State University

Grade Levels

High School 9-12

Files

Description

As the Carnegie’s and Rockefeller’s led the way for the wealthy and the struggling poor worked tirelessly, there was a rather large portion of individuals that did not quite fit within the two extremes of rich and poor. During the Gilded Age, many institutions were questioned for the first time in United States history, one of them being the class system. While many Americans were weary of actually placing a class system in society because of negative connotations with Europe, a class system already existed in society during the late nineteenth century, it just did not have an official title. The phrase “middle class” was officially inserted into society in 1889. The middle class consisted of professionals who were organized and had specific criteria, like education, for being a part of the group. The middle class changed the social aspects of the United States and also changed the geographic look since most middle class members began moving out of the larger cities to create suburbs. The Gilded Age gave a name to the middle class and its effects are still present today.

Publication Date

1-8-2016

Keywords

lesson plan, Gilded Age, middle class

Disciplines

Curriculum and Instruction | United States History

Recommended Citation

Pulkrabek, Payton, "The New Middle Class in the Gilded Age" (2016). Curriculum Unit on the Gilded Age in the United States. 17.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/gilded_age/17

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.