The reckless decade

A period every bit as turbulent as our own age, the 1890s saw vast changes in the economy, politics, and society of the United States, while giving birth to a technological revolution that would profoundly alter the lives of all Americans. Those who knew how to exploit this new world - Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller - prospered handsomely; those who did not became icons of how the other half lives. The chilling violence of the Homestead steelworkers' strike and other labor conflicts underscored the tension that such disparity produced. The economic elite ensured that the currency of capital…