Gilded Age

Over the later decades of the 19th century some of the country's wealthiest families took up summer residence in the Berkshires. Society people from Boston and New York and literary and artistic luminaries were drawn to the clear mountain air and pristine hills, valleys and lakes. Equally alluring was that the area offered a less formal setting than Newport. It was the Gilded Age, the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, and the nation was enjoying unprecedented prosperity.

TO REDUCE growing income inequality, the usually thoughtful Edward L. Glaeser falls back on a panacea of today's corporate culture: "ensure that everyone has the skills needed to succeed in the information age. " Individuals who acquire profitable skills may gain social mobility, but income inequality will continue to grow. Not all work is done by computer programmers. Some of the most needed and fastest-growing occupations, such as home health aides and food handlers, are poorly paid and lacking in basic benefits.

LENOX -- Some day, Ventfort Hall, built as a country "cottage" for George Hale Morgan and his wife, Sarah Spencer Morgan, will rival the smaller Newport mansions as a destination capturing and re-creating the fine excess of the Gilded Age. For now, it is very much a work in progress. The guided tour is two-thirds lecture and one-third tour, since only a few of the building's 54 rooms have so far been restored. Still, it's interesting to see such a restoration project in its early stages, and it's fun to trace the footsteps of Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, and Charlize Theron.

"The Education of Henry Adams," the greatest autobiography in American literature, includes the greatest omission of any autobiography in American literature. Adams, the finest of all American historians as well as a direct descendant of two presidents, concludes Chapter 20 in 1871 and takes up Chapter 21 in 1892. The missing years are never accounted for or otherwise alluded to. They include the 13 years of his marriage to Marian Hooper Adams, universally known as "Clover. " The couple was married from 1872 until her suicide, in 1885.

RAILROADED: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America By Richard White Norton, 660 pp., illustrated, $35 “Overbuilt, prone to bankruptcy and receivership, wretchedly managed, politically corrupt, environmentally harmful, and financially wasteful, these corporations nonetheless helped create a world where private success often came from luck, fortunate timing, and state intervention. Profit arose more from financial markets and insider contracts than from … ’’ Can you fill in the blank here?

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America By Richard White (Norton, $35) One of our greatest historians shows how Gilded Age railroad giants triggered financial collapse. Orientation: and Other Stories By Daniel Orozco (Faber and Faber, $23)

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA - Hollywood has a soft spot for this quaint, seaside town 20 miles north of Boston. It has served as a backdrop for myriad feature films, including "The Love Letter" (1999) starring Kate Capshaw and Tom Selleck, "State and Main" (2000) with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sarah Jessica Parker, and "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" (2001) with Danny DeVito. But Manchester has another starring role as a charming place to visit. Although I am biased, having grown up here, the town has all the requirements for a getaway, along with a rich history, which includes...

TO REDUCE growing income inequality, the usually thoughtful Edward L. Glaeser falls back on a panacea of today's corporate culture: "ensure that everyone has the skills needed to succeed in the information age. " Individuals who acquire profitable skills may gain social mobility, but income inequality will continue to grow. Not all work is done by computer programmers. Some of the most needed and fastest-growing occupations, such as home health aides and food handlers, are poorly paid and lacking in basic benefits.

In one of Mike Myers’s famous “Saturday Night Live’’ skits from the early 1990s, “Coffee Talk With Linda Richman,’’ the middle-aged, overeducated New York host is a little verklempt and needs to pause. So she gives her audience a topic: “The Progressive Era was neither progressive nor an era. Discuss.’’ That’s how combed over the late 19th and early 20th century has sometimes seemed. The period between the Civil War and World War I has long been called, without hesitation, the beginnings of “our’’ time.

There still remains something golden about Lenox long after the Gilded Age has retreated into history. Once the preferred vacation address of the nation’s financial and literary elite, the bucolic Berkshire hamlet is today most celebrated for Tanglewood. The summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra draws more than 350,000 visitors each season. But apart from sharing lawn seats next to chatty neighbors, the real shame would be failing to savor all that Lenox offers beyond its arboreal amphitheater.

KIDS AQUA KIDS FAMILY DAY Head to the New England Aquarium for stories, art projects, and live animal presentations. Sept. 2 from 10 a.m.-noon (ongoing on Fridays). Free with museum admission of $22.95, $20.95 seniors and college students, $15.95 ages 3-11. New England Aquarium, Central Wharf, Boston. 617-973-5200. www.neaq.org OLD STURBRIDGE VILLAGE'S FAMILY FUN DAYS Play "French & English" - which we know as tug of war. If you prefer to relax, there's music and a fire-balloon flight to watch.

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America By Richard White (Norton, $35) One of our greatest historians shows how Gilded Age railroad giants triggered financial collapse. Orientation: and Other Stories By Daniel Orozco (Faber and Faber, $23)

“The Ameses And Women’s Rights’’ Borderland State Park 259 Massapoag Ave., Easton Tomorrow and June 24, 3:30 to 4 p.m. $2 parking fee; park programs free Park info at www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/borderland Blanche Ames was a suffragist with a secret weapon — she could draw. A clever cartoonist who used her artistic skills to further the cause of women’s right to vote, Ames set up her art studio on the third floor of the Borderland mansion in Easton for work that ranged from oil paintings of prominent people, family portraits, and illustrations of orchids for her...

RAILROADED: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America By Richard White Norton, 660 pp., illustrated, $35 “Overbuilt, prone to bankruptcy and receivership, wretchedly managed, politically corrupt, environmentally harmful, and financially wasteful, these corporations nonetheless helped create a world where private success often came from luck, fortunate timing, and state intervention. Profit arose more from financial markets and insider contracts than from … ’’ Can you fill in the blank here?

There still remains something golden about Lenox long after the Gilded Age has retreated into history. Once the preferred vacation address of the nation’s financial and literary elite, the bucolic Berkshire hamlet is today most celebrated for Tanglewood. The summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra draws more than 350,000 visitors each season. But apart from sharing lawn seats next to chatty neighbors, the real shame would be failing to savor all that Lenox offers beyond its arboreal amphitheater.

In 1897, Clarence Walworth published “The Walworths of America.’’ Eager to breathe life into his ancestors, the author offered readers “a Walworth standing in his own doorway, the children smiling through the window-panes, or chasing the dog in the orchard.’’ Clarence didn’t mention the act of parricide that haunted the Walworth family: On June 3, 1873, Clarence’s brother, Mansfield Walworth, a novelist, was murdered by Frank Walworth,...

Archie and Amélie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age , By Donna M. Lucey, Harmony, 339 pp., illustrated, $25.95 "Archie and Amélie," a real-life tale of "love and madness" in 19th-century high society, has the potential to be as compelling as a smoldering historical novel. The two lovers met at a Newport, R.I., society ball in the summer of 1887. Archie was the soulful 24-year-old son of the spectacularly wealthy Astor family who yearned to make his own mark in the world.

In the mid-19th century, Lenox became a summer haunt for the elite of Boston and New York, but it has since grown into a destination for the wealthy and cultured from around the world. Home of Tanglewood, Shakespeare & Company, the Museum of the Gilded Age, and novelist Edith Wharton's magnificent estate, the town offers a wealth of music, theater, dance, art, and history. It boasts several exclusive spas and retreats, including Kripalu and Canyon Ranch. Its small, stylish downtown is replete with boutique clothing stores, art galleries, and high-end restaurants.

In one of Mike Myers’s famous “Saturday Night Live’’ skits from the early 1990s, “Coffee Talk With Linda Richman,’’ the middle-aged, overeducated New York host is a little verklempt and needs to pause. So she gives her audience a topic: “The Progressive Era was neither progressive nor an era. Discuss.’’ That’s how combed over the late 19th and early 20th century has sometimes seemed. The period between the Civil War and World War I has long been called, without hesitation, the beginnings of “our’’ time.

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA - Hollywood has a soft spot for this quaint, seaside town 20 miles north of Boston. It has served as a backdrop for myriad feature films, including "The Love Letter" (1999) starring Kate Capshaw and Tom Selleck, "State and Main" (2000) with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sarah Jessica Parker, and "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" (2001) with Danny DeVito. But Manchester has another starring role as a charming place to visit. Although I am biased, having grown up here, the town has all the requirements for a getaway,...