Vance Yeager, age 17, of Gadsden, Ala., for his question:

WHAT WAS THE GILDED AGE OF AMERICA?

"The Gilded Age" of America was coined by the famous author Mark Twain. It was that period of industrialization that followed the Civil War.

Twain used the term to describe the culture of the newly rich of the period. Lacking tradition, the wealthy developed a showy culture supposedly based on the culture of upper class Europeans.

The enormous mansions of the newly rich Americans imitated European palaces. The wealthy filled the mansions with European art works, antiques, rare books and gaudy decorations. They spent their leisure time attending operas, relaxing at luxurious resorts or engaging in other functions they believed were signs of refinement.

During the Gilded Age, however, most Americans had a far different idea of culture than did the rich. They enjoyed fairs that exhibited industrial machines, the latest inventions and other items related to America's material progress.

The Gilded Age included the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 and the Chicago World's Columbian Expostion of 1893.