LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County History Roundtable will discuss the Gilded Age at its meeting on Monday, April 8.

The meeting will take place from 6:15 to 8 p.m. at Country Air Properties at 460 S. Main St. Lakeport.

Admission is free, and everyone is welcome.

The term "Gilded Age" for the period of economic boom after the American Civil War up to the turn of the century was applied to the era by historians in the 1920s, who took the term from one of Mark Twain's lesser known novels, “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today,” published in 1873.

The book satirized the promised "golden age" after the Civil War, portrayed as an era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding of economic expansion.

In the 1920s and 30s "Gilded Age" became a designated period in American history. The term was adopted by literary and cultural critics as well as historians. For them, "Gilded Age" was a pejorative term used to describe a time of materialistic excesses combined with extreme poverty.

Zane Jensen will explore the good, the bad and the ugly of the period of American history known as the Gilded Age.

Jensen, a professor of history, will look into the rise of the unions, and how they not just helped workers, but also how in some cases, they hurt workers. It was a time of paradoxes, extremes and monopolies that helped and hurt the country.

Phil Smoley will warm up the group by sharing information about little-known American hero Casimir Pulaski.

Pulaski was a Polish nobleman born in Warsaw, and had a long, successful history fighting for Polish independence until being forced to flee in the face of overwhelming odds.

Making his way to the American colonies, he offered his service to George Washington and became known as "the father of the American cavalry.”