On the Bally

The distinctive American circus—traveling big top, sideshows, animal acts, so-called freaks—came into its own in the second half of the nineteenth century, the era of rampant capitalism and robber barons, of the colonization of the west through land speculation, railroads, and get-rich-quick schemes. Coined “the Gilded Age” by Mark Twain, this first boom of American capitalism was all about the con and the come on, the glittering surface and the baser metal underneath, the money that can be made from manipulating desire.