The Success of Excess: 1870’s to 1900 – A History of the Gilded Age in 100 Minutes

A Camden Conference Community Event hosted at Portland Public Library Wednesday, January 22nd at 6:00pm in the Rines Auditorium
Portland, Maine - During the Gilded Age, the so-called "one percent" dominated the economy to a degree never seen before.  Or since . . . up until our own time.  The rich of the period set a new standard for how much they could lavish on themselves, how splendid their many residences could be, even how much they could eat and drink.

The Gilded Age in the United States was The Age of Privilege in England and La Belle Epoque in France.  Excess was the rule everywhere.  The period was a heyday for rascals of all kinds: Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell, Maine's own James G. Blaine, "Rutherfraud" B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden, Mark Twain, Lord Salisbury, Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Balfour, Napoleon III and Maximillian.  Look out world!

Mac Deford and Tom DeMarco, Camden Conference headliners, return with their intriguing history road show in anticipation of the 2014 Camden Conference, ''The Global Politics of Food and Water''.  This year's Conference, will highlight the coming shortages of food, water and other resources due to an increasingly well-to-do modern world living lives of increasing excess.  But, as we all know, there's nothing new under the sun -- it all began with the Gilded Age.

The show, THE SUCCESS OF EXCESS: 1870s to 1900: A History of the Gilded Age in 100 Minutes, will take place Wednesday, January 22nd at 6:00pm at the Portland Public Library.

Tom DeMarco is the author of thirteen books (his sci-fi novel Andronescu's Paradox is the most recent) and a Principal of The Atlantic Systems Guild, a technology think tank with offices in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.   Mac Deford is a retired Foreign Service officer with service primarily in the Middle East.  He had a subsequent career with Merrill Lynch International, mostly in South America and Asia, and is a regular columnist with The Free Press.

No advanced registration is necessary, but donations are appreciated.

This event is presented by the Camden Conference in anticipation of the 27th Annual Camden Conference: The Global Politics of Food and Water, February 21-23, 2014.

The mission of the Camden Conference is to foster informed discourse on world affairs through year-round community events, public and student engagement, and an annual weekend conference. For more information, visit www.camdenconference.org, email info@camdenconference.org, or call 207-236-1034.