The Gilded Age was a “term coined in the 1873 to critique an era of political corruption and economic inequality that stretched to 1900” as the book says, but what was the Gilded Age really? The Gilded Age was a time of era where we will always remember of the accomplishments of thousands of Americans, but it was also a gap between the rich and the poor. The Gilded Age had many important growth for the economy, which is industrialization, railroads, inventions, monopolies, Laissez-faire policies, labor unions, urbanization, settlement of the West, and the rise of the Populist. The Gilded Age was a time of social change and economic growth. “During the Gilded Age, 1876-1900, Congress was known for being rowdy and inefficient” said from sageamericanhistory.net.