Some experts are likening the 2020s to a second Gilded Age, as the United States enters an era of rising wealth inequality interspersed with calls for social change and civil upheaval. With the gap between rich and poor widening, this does not seem to be an off-base assessment.

It is not possible to see every aspect of the first Gilded Age, which lasted from the 1870s to the 1890s, in modern America. But some elements from the late 19th century have carried over to the present day, and some economists are sounding alarm bells about what this could mean going forward.

What characterized the first Gilded Age?