All the major developments of the Gilded Age had to pass, one way or another, through the doors of the home, which sat at the juncture of politics, public policy, gender relations, racial relations, social reform, the economy, and childrearing. The conflicts of the 1860s and 1870s continued for the rest of the century, and Americans framed the new conflicts that arose as conflicts over the home. They sentimentalized the home, but they were also coldly realistic about its power. It was the political and social ground that could not be ceded.
