{"id":8873,"date":"2022-01-24T10:42:28","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T09:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=198579"},"modified":"2022-01-24T14:50:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T13:50:13","slug":"the-gilded-age-preview-entry-into-a-world-that-really-hasnt-been-covered-on-television-before","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-gilded-age-preview-entry-into-a-world-that-really-hasnt-been-covered-on-television-before\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gilded Age preview: \u201cEntry into a world that really hasn\u2019t been covered on television before\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By amandaraeprescott\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 24 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The Gilded Age<\/em>, the new miniseries from Sky and HBO, was originally pitched by Julian Fellowes as the prequel to Downton Abbey<\/em><\/a>. After years of revisions, historical research and the COVID-19 pandemic, the show has transformed into an original story that uses established history to explore themes and figures that previous dramas on both sides of the Atlantic have ignored in the past.<\/p>\n

Calling the series \u201cAmerican Downton Abbey<\/em>\u201d may be a handy reference for some common story tropes, but it also fails to recognise that there are characters and historical details that could never exist in a British period drama set in 1882 \u2013 because they are uniquely rooted in American history.<\/p>\n

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When was the \u2018Gilded Age\u2019?<\/h2>\n
The Gilded Age<\/em> as a historical era refers to the 1870s through the 1890s in America, and lines up with the later years of the Victorian era in Britain. If you were to ask Americans what they associate with the 1880s, they would most likely mention the great businessmen and their families that have come to symbolise the era: the Vanderbilts; the Astors; the Rockefellers, to name a few.<\/p>\n
Others associate the 1880s with the development of the American West. Americans of colour will likely respond with Jim Crow<\/a>\/post Reconstruction restrictions on Black Americans, Indian Removal and the development of reservations, and the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was passed in 1882. Some may even associate the 1880s with the rise of the labour movement, social reforms, and the American women\u2019s suffrage movement. But often, this era gets less attention in American history compared to other decades in the 19th century. While period drama viewers will have seen the era depicted work such as the 1970s adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder\u2019s Little House on the Prairie,<\/em> or numerous Western films focused on railroad expansion leading to the new towns and cities, cowboys, and conflicts with tribes who had lost their land to the federal government, New York and the East Coast has been absent.<\/p>\n
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Historical inspiration for The Gilded Age<\/em><\/h3>\n
Perhaps the closest screen link thematically to The Gilded Age <\/em>is the 1993 film adaptation of Edith Wharton\u2019s novel The Age of Innocence. <\/em>Wharton grew up in an elite New York family, and her debutante years in the 1880s were the basis for later writings. So it\u2019s perhaps inevitable that Wharton and analysis of her works would have been included in background research for Fellowes\u2019 latest drama.<\/p>\n
The Gilded Age<\/em> at first appears to be following Wharton\u2019s thematic path quite closely, by centring the richest residents of New York and their country estates in Newport, Rhode Island. However, the appearance of the original characterPeggy Scott (played by Den\u00e9e Benton) sets the story on a path towards something entirely new in the American period drama space. Peggy Scott is a young African-American woman who is travelling to New York to seek new employment and create distance from past conflicts with her family.<\/p>\n
Dr Erica Armstrong Dunbar is the main historical consultant for The Gilded Age<\/em> and a co-executive producer. She has spent the last 20 years researching the lives of African-American women in the 19th century. Dunbar was recruited by the production team in 2019. \u201cIt was very clear that we were going to have characters that allowed us entry into a world that really hasn\u2019t been covered on television before,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the world of the Black elite in the 1880s.<\/p>\n
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