golden age

plural golden ages

1. idiomaticA period of happiness, peace, prosperity, and great progress.

   The first half of this century has been referred to as the golden age of medicine. To me it seems more probable that we are on the threshold of a much greater age.

   1951 March, John W. Cline, “The Future of Medicine”, in Northwest Medicine, volume 50, number 3, Portland, Ore.: Northwest Medical Publishing Association, page 165

   2 more examples

   When the album succeeds, such as on the swaggering, Queen-esque “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us,” it does so on The Darkness’ own terms—that is, as a random ’80s-cliché generator. But with so many tired, lazy callbacks to its own threadbare catalog . . . Hot Cakes marks the point where The Darkness has stopped cannibalizing the golden age of stadium rock and simply started cannibalizing itself.

   2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 24 Aug 2012

   That unprecedented act of petulance risks undermining Wall Street’s confidence in the economy and undercutting Trump’s campaign pledge to give the United States another economic “golden age.”

   2025 August 7, Jonathan Lemire, “Things Aren’t Going Donald Trump’s Way”, in The Atlantic

   Synonyms: golden era

2. human sciencesThe Golden Age.

   But in a study of Sumerian and Akkadian sources, Chen has shown that, although the motif of a lost golden age is very old in Mesopotamian literature, its termination in a flood is securely attested only from the second millennium B.C.E.

   2025 December 12, Tom Hercules Davies, “Horses, Wheels, Languages: Greek, Mesopotamian and Indic Epic on the Eurasian Steppe”, in The Classical Quarterly, volume 75, number 1, page 16

alternative golden age

1. human sciencesThe oldest and best of the Classical Ages of Man, when people lived innocent lives of happiness and prosperity.
2. Any previous period similarly viewed as superior to the present.

   The tradition of a "Golden Age" is widespread over the world, and it is not necessary to go at any length into the story of the Garden of Eden and the other legends which in almost every country illustrate this tradition.

   1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 137