Political Reform
        Corruption, politics, and trash: Award-winning book describes how Gilded Age cities cleaned up with dirty deals
    
      September 12, 2024
      
        
        6 min
      
    
    At the peak of America’s Gilded Age, overflowing trash clogged city streets, but the cleanup wasn’t driven by reformers. Instead, corrupt politicians saw the waste crisis as a business opportunity, using backroom deals to transform sanitation systems—and line their pockets.