This book offers a one-stop reference work covering the Gilded Age and Progressive Era that serves teachers and their students.

This book helps students to better understand key pieces in literature from the Gilded Age and Progressive Era by putting them in the context of history, society, and culture through historical context essays, literary analysis, chronologies, documents, and suggestions for discussion and further research. It provides teachers and students with selections that align with the ELA Common Core Standards and that also offer useful connections for curriculum that integrates American literature and social studies.

The book covers Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, Willa Cather's A Lost Lady, and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Readers will be able to appreciate the significance of this period through these canonical and widely taught works of American literature. The book also includes historical context essays, primary document excerpts, and suggested readings.