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19th Century America

The 19th was the United States' first full century as a nation. It was full of birth pangs, moments of triumph, and things that made everyone shake their head and wonder what was going on. One of the most interesting of the latter bits was when British ex-pat Joshua Norton crowned himself Emperor of the United States, "reigning" from San Francisco.

Most people remember the 19th century for the Civil War. While it certainly was a significant event, one of the most important events in American history even, there were a number of surrounding factors that were just as important, and without which the War Between the States would never have developed.

Arguably the most significant of these was Western Expansion. The idea that Americans were fulfilling some kind of national destiny by claiming the Western part of the continent was called Manifest Destiny, and its origins can be found in the writings of some of the most prominent Founding Fathers, like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Their dedication to the Enlightenment ideal of human progress (that mankind controlled its own destiny, and that that destiny was to move ever forward) translated into a need to expand their country as far as possible.

As with anything else, God used that humanist doctrine to advance His own truth. While politicians and opportunists went West to obtain land, gold, and freedom, Christian missionaries went to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People like Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and Jason Lee braved the Oregon Trail simply to share their faith with the Native Americans in the Western Territories; the Whitmans even gave their lives, becoming the Pacific Northwest's most famous martyrs.

Meanwhile, back in the East the bigwigs were conspiring to breach the 3,000 mile gap between the East and West coasts with a recently improved invention: the steam engine train. The First Transcontinental Railroad wasn't completed till 1869 (four years after the Civil War had ended), but it's origins reach back to the 1840s when it was first envisioned by Asa Whitney.

In fact, the transcontinental railroad was a significant element of Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaign and administration. This was the problem: the North wanted the Trans to go through their territory because they had so much industrial product to move, while the South wanted it to run through the bottom half of the States so they could transport cotton, sorghum, and other agricultural goods.

The reality was a bit of a compromise, but the violent debates that stirred Congress had no small part in fomenting the division that would ultimately erupt in full-blown war. Slavery was the main issue, but it affected so many other factors that to reduce the origins of the Civil War to slavery alone is a bit revisionist and narrow-sighted.

For a lot of the 19th century, it seemed that the United States led a charmed existence, that Progress was a sure thing and there was nothing really to fear, certainly no problem that couldn't be overcome. The last two decades were exceedingly prosperous, leading to a sense of smug optimism that only the terror of World War I, the moral chaos of the Jazz Age, and the sudden insecurity of the Great Depression could effectively end.

Not everyone was man-centered and materialistic, however. The 19th century saw a surge in evangelism unlike anything the fledgling nation had seen, so pervasive and productive that it was called the Second Great Awakening. Unfortunately, a lot of doctrinal dilution came with the new preaching, but there were plenty of genuine conversions, and much good came of them.

It's difficult to reduce a one hundred year span to a few paragraphs, and there are certainly things we could have mentioned. Comprehensive treatments aren't always the best way to study history, though; each era has its own spirit and attitudes (its own zeitgeist, if you want to get all technical and German) that best represent it. We hope you'll bear that in mind in your study of the 19th century in America, and indeed throughout your study of history here and around the globe.

Topics of Interest from the 19th Century:

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.
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Abraham Lincoln & Frederick Douglass
by Russell Freedman
from Clarion Books
for 7th-12th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
Abraham Lincoln in Peace and War
by Earl Schenck Miers
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln's World
by Genevieve Foster, expanded by Joanna Foster
from Beautiful Feet Books
Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$21.95
Abraham Lincoln's World (pictorial hardcover)
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches
Dover Thrift Editions
by Abraham Lincoln & John Grafton, editor
from Dover Publications
Political Philosophy for 10th-Adult
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$2.00
Abraham Lincoln: The Man & His Faith
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
by Chester G. Hearn
from US Naval Institute Press
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Adventures of Davy Crockett
by David Crockett, illustrated by John W. Thomason
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
by Ulysses S. Grant
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Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
from Paul S. Eriksson, INC.
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
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Autobiography of Josiah Henson
by Josiah Henson
from Dover Publications
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Battle from the Start
by Brian Steel Wills
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Ben Snipes, Northwest Cattle King
by Roscoe Sheller
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Booker T. Washington
by Shirley Graham
from Julian Messner
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Buffalo Bill's Life Story
by William F. Cody, Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
1966 printing from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
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Call of Duty
Leaders in Action Series
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Biography for 9th-Adult
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Carry a Big Stick
Leaders in Action Series
by George Grant
from Cumberland House
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Carver: A Life in Poems
by Marilyn Nelson
from Boyds Mill Press
for 7th-11th grade
2002 Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Award
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$16.95
Co. Aytch
by Sam Watkins
from Touchstone
Historical Non-fiction for 8th-Adult
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$17.00
Early Days of a Cowboy on the Pecos
by James F. Hinkle
from Unknown Publisher
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Eyewitnesses at the Battle of Franklin
by David R. Logsdon
4th edition
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
George B. McClellan
by Michael McHugh
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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$10.00
George Rogers Clark, Soldier in the West
by Walter Havinghurst
from McGraw-Hill
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in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman
by Gladys Aylward
from Moody Press
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$9.99
God's Mountain Man
by Esther Vogt
from Gospel Publishing
Biography for 9th-Adult
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Harriet Beecher Stowe
by Suzanne M. Coil
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Harriet Tubman: Moses of Her People
from Dover Publications
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$7.95
Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
Signet Classics
by Helen Keller
Reprint from Signet Classics
Autobiography for 7th-10th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$5.95
Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
by Helen Keller
from Dover Publications
Autobiography for 7th-10th grade
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$1.50 (4 in stock)
Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
Signet Classics
by Helen Keller
from Living Book Press
Autobiography for 7th-10th grade
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$15.99
Hero Tales
by Theodore Roosevelt & Henry Cabot Lodge
from Cumberland House
Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Hero Tales from American History
by Theodore Roosevelt & Henry Cabot Lodge
Paperback, First Printing from Tolle Lege Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
Illustrious Americans - Volume 1
by Edward Everett Hale
from Mantle Ministries
Biography for 8th-10th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Illustrious Americans - Volume 2
by Edward Everett Hale
from Mantle Ministries
Biography for 8th-10th grade
in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.00 $3.00 (1 in stock)
James Fenimore Cooper
by Isabel Proudfit
from Julian Messner
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
James Fenimore Cooper
by Donald A. Ringe
from Twayne Publishers
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Jim Bridger, Mountain Man
by Stanley Vestal
from Bison Books
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
John Brown Russwurm
by Mary Sagarin, Introduction by Ernest Kaiser
1st edition from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
John James Audubon: Painting America's Wildlife
by Janet Stevenson, illustrated by Robert Boehmer
from Encyclopedia Britannica
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Journals of Lewis & Clark
Signet Classics
by John Bakeless, editor
from Signet Classics
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.95
Kit Carson's Autobiography
by Kit Carson
from University of Nebraska
Autobiography for 9th-12th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Lady of Arlington
by Harnett T. Kane
from Doubleday & Company
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography
by William Anderson
from HarperTrophy
for 4th-10th grade
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$9.99
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Pioneer Girl
by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill
from South Dakota State Historical Society Press
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in Little House Materials (Location: LIR-LHM)
$39.99
Lewis and Clark Expedition - 3-volume Set
by Meriwether Lewis
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$32.00 (1 in stock)
Life and Death of Crazy Horse
by Russell Freedman
from Scholastic Inc.
for 7th-10th grade
1997 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
in Gilded Age (1865-1918) (Location: HISA-19GI)
Life and Letters of "Stonewall" Jackson
by Mary Anna Jackson
from Sprinkle Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Life of Andrew Jackson
by John S. Jenkins
from New Leaf Press
for 10th-Adult
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$13.50
Life of General Stonewall Jackson
by Mary Williamson
from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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$11.75 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Life of J.E.B. Stuart
by Mary Williamson
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$11.75
Life of John Newton
by American Missionary Fellowship
from Attic Books
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$9.50
Life on the Mississippi
Signet Classics
by Mark Twain
from Signet Classics
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
Luck of the La Verendryes
by Lyn Harrington
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 7th-12th grade
in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
by James Daugherty
from Viking Press
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Marcus Whitman: The Great Command
by Nard Jones
2nd edition from Binford & Mort Publishing
for 6th-12th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Mathew Brady
by James D. Horan
from Bonanza Books
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Memorial Volume of Jefferson Davis
by J. William Jones
from Sprinkle Publications
for 10th-Adult
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$22.00 (2 in stock)
Mornings on Horseback
by David McCullough
1st edition from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
for 9th-Adult
National; Book Award
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$20.00
Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West
by LeRoy R. Hafen & Harvey L. Carter
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$21.95 $12.00 (1 in stock)
N.C. Wyeth's Wild West
by N. C. Wyeth
from Brandywine River Museum
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Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee
by David Crockett
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$16.95 $8.50 (1 in stock)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass, edited and introduction by David W. Blight
from Bedford Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Naval War of 1812
by Theodore Roosevelt
from Random House
Historical Non-fiction for 10th-Adult
in War of 1812 (Location: HISA-19WET)
$15.95
On Slavery and the Civil War
Dover Thrift Editions
by Frederick Douglass
from Dover Publications
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in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.00
Oregon Trail
by Francis Parkman, Jr., illustrated by Frederic Remington
1993 printing from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Oregon Trail
by Francis Parkman, Jr., illustrated by Maynard Dixon
from Heritage Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Oregon Trail
by Francis Parkman
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Oregon Trail
Famous Books for Young Americans
by Francis Parkman
from A. L. Burt Company
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Oregon Trail Diary of James Atkin, Jr. in 1852
by James Akin
for 9th-Adult
in Oregon Trail (Location: HISA-19OR)
Oregon Trail Diary of Rev. Edward Evans Parrish in 1844
by Rev. Edward Evans Parrish
for 8th-Adult
in Oregon Trail (Location: HISA-19OR)
Our Mountain Hermitage
by Anne Roller Issler
from Stanford University Press
for 8th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Outlaws of the Pacific Northwest
by Bill Gulick
from Caxton Press
for 7th-Adult
in Pioneer & Frontier Life (Location: HISA-19PIO)
Over the Applegate Trail to Oregon in 1846
by Anne Billeter, Bert Webber
for 8th-12th grade
in Oregon Trail (Location: HISA-19OR)
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant
Penguin Classics
by Ulysses S. Grant
from Penguin Classics
Autobiography for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Princess Ka'iulani
by Sharon Linnea
from Eerdmans
Biography for 7th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$15.00
Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail
by Theodore Roosevelt
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Gilded Age (1865-1918) (Location: HISA-19GI)
$18.95 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Ranch under the Rimrock
by Dorothy Lawson McCall
from Binford & Mort Publishing
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Robert E. Lee
Heroes in Time
by John J. Dwyer
from Broadman & Holman
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Robert E. Lee the Christian
by William J. Johnstone
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$14.50
Rough Riders
by Theodore Roosevelt
from Dover Publications
Historical non-fiction for 9th-Adult
in Gilded Age (1865-1918) (Location: HISA-19GI)
$8.95
Saddles East
by John W. Beard
from Binford & Mort Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in Oregon Trail (Location: HISA-19OR)
Sam Houston
by Noel Gerson
from Doubleday & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Sitting Bull and His World
by Albert Marrin
from Dutton Children's Books
Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Sketches of the Life of Captain Hugh A. White
by Hugh A. White, William J. Hoge
from Sprinkle Publications
for 7th-Adult
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
Smiling Rebel
by Harnett T. Kane
from Doubleday & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Soul of the Lion
by Willard M. Wallace
Reprint from Stan Clark Military Books
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Standing Like a Stone Wall
by James I. Robertson Jr.
from Atheneum
for 6th-12th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Stonewall
by John J. Dwyer
from Broadman & Holman
Biography for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Story of the Wild West and Camp-Fire Chats
by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody
Unknown from Historical Publishing Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Team of Rivals
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
from Simon and Schuster
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in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Then Darkness Fled
Leaders in Action Series
by Stephen Mansfield
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Leaders in Action (Location: BIO-LIA)
$16.95
To Be a Slave
by Julius Lester
from Scholastic Inc.
Historical Non-fiction for 6th-10th grade
1969 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$4.99
To Be a Slave
Puffin Modern Classics
by Julius Lester, illustrated by Tom Feelings
from Puffin Books
Historical Non-fiction for 6th-10th grade
1969 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Trails Plowed Under
by Charles M. Russell
from Doubleday & Company
for 7th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Travels of Jedediah Smith
by Maurice S. Sullivan
from University of Nebraska
for 10th-Adult
in Pacific States (Location: HISV-PNW)
Twelve Years a Slave
by Solomon Northup
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.95
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Signet Classics
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
from Signet Classics
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Everyman's Library
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$28.00
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Dover Thrift Editions
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
from Dover Publications
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00
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