What you’ll learn to do: examine cultural, social, and recreational changes for Americans during the Gilded Age

Figure 1. An ad for the bicycle.

While tensions between owners and workers continued to grow, wage earners struggled with the challenges of industrial work, and the culture of American consumerism was changing. Easier access to improved goods at lower prices meant that even lower-income Americans had more options than ever, whether they lived in rural areas and shopped via mail order, or in urban areas and shopped in large department stores. These increased options led to a boom in advertising as businesses competed for customers. Furthermore, the opportunity to buy on credit meant that Americans could have their goods, even without hard cash. The result was a population that had a better standard of living than ever before, even as they went into debt or worked long factory hours to pay for it.