Tag: Gilded Age

While the extended conversation, “Writers in the House,” has been cancelled, settle in here for an insightful look at how contemporary writers are looking at and responding to Edith Wharton’s legacy. 

One similarity between the island mansions and the Berkshire cottages may be the reason they were built: They were status symbols. No one claims, not even the owners, that 20,000 square feet is necessary.

But despite the one-in-a-million, up-from-the-bottom stories we all know and love, equal opportunity was never real. We’re not united by this new system any more than we were under aristocratic rule.

Thanks to a new book by local historian Bernard Drew, we know that there were automobile storage facilities, road competitions and even innovative car manufacturing operations in the Berkshires. And we know that the cottagers embraced the industry with considerable gusto.

Set in Charleston, South Carolina, and based on the life of her great-grandfather Frank Dawson, Roxana Robinson’s use of published accounts, family journal entries and letters tells a compelling story of one man’s attempts to navigate the country’s new political, social and moral landscape.

Amy Bend and her dire economic and social circumstances were the model for Edith Wharton’s Lily Bart in "The House of Mirth," published in 1905.

Today, 1 percent controls 90 percent of the wealth. Will there be an unstoppable shift away from democracy?

Lenox is known as a Gilded Age resort and many of the mansions are restored and open.

It is interesting to contemplate that weather is blamed for the demise of the Vikings, the French Revolution and the bubonic plague. It is also interesting that the founding of this country, the creation of our Constitution, the Civil War, American industrialization and our Gilded Age all happened against a backdrop of extreme cold and global climate change.

The wedding present Irene Botsford Hoffmann received from her father was a house. It was built on her 43-acre property and named Overbrook.

Du Bois not only accepted and advocated the principles of human equality and natural rights embodied in America’s Declaration of Independence. He actually sought to apply them worldwide.

By 23 years old, Julia Ward Howe was dancing and talking, although neither was sanctioned, and testing the waters of whatever else might shock.

It is interesting that what draws many to Berkshire today is no different than what drew people in the 18th century: land. If we value our unique Berkshire communities, how do we protect and maintain them in this modern world?

During the Gilded Age, the equipage, the livery and the horses as well as the skill in driving were sources of great pride. A local newspaper even gave a whole column for the length of the page to recounting the teams and mounts of local cottagers.

Genuine or ersatz, the desire for a coat of arms was rampant in this country. A hundred years after ejecting the king, apparently, we wanted it back.

Panelists Helen Haerhan Moon, Deepika Shukla, Setsuko Winchester and K. Scott Wong will address what it means to be Asian-American in the U.S.