Month: September 2011

During the Gilded Age (ca. 1877-1900), the United States was in many ways a third world country.   In particular, many cities  throughout the East coast and Midwest were teeming with squalor.  Each day, overcrowded slums became home to more people and animals than anyone had thought possible.  During the warmer months, streets were filled with pedestrians, push carts, children, rooting pigs, stray dogs, and the bloated a