Politics changed over the period, but politics and politicians did not change nearly so rapidly as ordinary life and ordinary Americans. During the Gilded Age, the actions of millions mattered more than the actions of a few. The cumulative efforts of tens of thousands of tinkerers transformed technology. People moved from the countryside into cities and, in much smaller numbers, from the east to the west. Mass immigration made the United States, in today’s parlance, diverse and multicultural even as the country tried, and failed, to bridge the racial chasm that slavery had created.
