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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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1846 - Portrait of the Nation
by Smithsonian Institute
from Smithsonian Books
in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
$12.00 (2 in stock)
1861: The Civil War Awakening
by Adam Goodheart
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Abe Lincoln
Landmark Series
by Sterling North
from Random House
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Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance
by Frances Cavanah
from Rand McNally
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg
from Graphia
Biography for 5th-8th grade
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by James Daugherty
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Abraham Lincoln
A Rookie Biography
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Abraham Lincoln: The Man & His Faith
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Across America
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Across Five Aprils
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Historical Fiction for 6th-9th grade
1965 Newbery Honor Book
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Age of Fighting Sail
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1st edition from Doubleday & Company
American Naval History for 8th-Adult
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Album of the Civil War
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America in the Time of Abraham Lincoln
by Sally Senzell Isaacs
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America in the Time of Lewis and Clark
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
American Children Through Their Books
by Sister Monica Kiefer
1970 printing from University of Pennsylvania Press
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
American Civil War
by Robert K. Krick
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
by Robert M. Utley, Wilcomb E. Washburn
Revised from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
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American Waterways: Canal Days
by Jeanne Munn Bracken, ed.
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$5.50 (1 in stock)
Amistad Slave Revolt and American Abolition
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Andersonville
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Battle of the Little Bighorn
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1st edition from Falcon Press Publishing
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Battle of the Little Bighorn
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Before the Gold Rush
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Behind the Blue and Gray
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Benjamin in the Woods
Wonder Books Easy Reader
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Big Annie of Calumet
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Big Book of the Civil War
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Big Golden Book of the Wild West
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Billy Yank - Coloring Book
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Biography of James A. Garfield
Sons of Liberty Series
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Birchbark House
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Bite of the Gold Bug
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Black & Tan
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Black Courage
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Black Falcon
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Black Man in America
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Black Odyssey
by Mary Cable
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Blazing West: The Journal of Augustus Pelletier
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Blizzard!
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2001 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
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Blockade Runners and Ironclads
by Wallace B. Black
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Blowing-Wand
Land of the Free Series
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Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Blue and the Gray
by Thomas B. Allen, Photography by Sam Abell
from National Geographic
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Bold Journey
by Charles Bohner
from Houghton Mifflin
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Bonanza Girl
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Boston Jane
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Boy in the Alamo
by Margaret Cousins
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Historical fiction for 4th-9th grade
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Boys' War
by Jim Murphy
from Clarion Books
Historical Non-fiction for 5th-8th grade
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Boys' War
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Buffalo Bill
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Biography for 6th-9th grade
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Buffalo Bill
by Frank L. Beals, illustrated by Jack Merryweather
1959 Edition from Wheeler Publishing, Inc.
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Buffalo Bill and the Wild West
by Henry Blackman Sell and Victor Weybright
Reprint from International Cody Family Assoc.
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Buffalo Bill: Frontier Daredevil
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Meryl Stevenson
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Bull Run
by Paul Fleischman
from HarperCollins
Historical Fiction for 4th-7th grade
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Bull Run
by Paul Fleischman, David Frampton (Woodcuts)
2nd edition from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
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$4.00 (2 in stock)
Bull Run
by Paul Fleischman
from HarperCollins
Historical Fiction for 4th-7th grade
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By the Dawn's Early Light
by Steven Kroll
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by Sid Fleischman
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By the Shores of Silver Lake
Little House Series #5
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
1940 Newbery Honor Book
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By the Shores of Silver Lake (Pictorial Cover)
Little House Series #5
by Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Cabin Boy to Advent Crusader
by Virgil Robinson, illustrated by Harry Baerg
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Cabin Faced West
by Jean Fritz
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Historical fiction for 4th-6th grade
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Caleb's Choice
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Caleb's Story
by Patricia MacLachlan
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Family Stories for 2nd-6th grade
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California Gold Days
by Helen Bauer
1961 Printing from California State Department of Education
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Call of Duty
Leaders in Action Series
by Steve Wilkins
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
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Carolina's Courage
by Elizabeth Yates
from Bob Jones University Press
Historical Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
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Cassie's Journey
by Brett Harvey; illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray
from Holiday House
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$6.50 (2 in stock)
Cavalryman with Custer
by James Harvey Kidd
from Bantam Books
for 6th-8th grade
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$2.00 (1 in stock)
Chang's Paper Pony
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Eleanor Coerr
from HarperCollins
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Chariot in the Sky
Land of the Free Series
by Arna Bontemps, illustrated by Cyrus Le Roy Baldridge
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
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$35.00 (1 in stock)
Chickamauga
by Horace Porter
from Konecky & Konecky
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in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Children of the Civil War
Picture the American Past
by Candice F. Ransom
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
for 2nd-5th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Children of the Emancipation -1860s to 1890s
Picture the American Past
by Wilma King
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
for 2nd-5th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Children of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
from Clarion Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Pioneer & Frontier Life (Location: HISA-19PIO)
$5.00 (3 in stock)
Children of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
from Clarion Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Pioneer & Frontier Life (Location: HISA-19PIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Children's Stories
Tales of the Wild West Volume 6
by Rick Steber
from Bonanza Publishing
for 4th-7th grade
in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
$2.50 (3 in stock)
Christmas on the Prairie
by Joan. Anderson
from Clarion Books
for 2nd-5th grade
in Pioneer & Frontier Life (Location: HISA-19PIO)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Civil War
by Janet Cassidy
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-8th Grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War
by Pat Wesolowski
from Unknown Publisher
for 4th-8th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$3.00 (2 in stock)
Civil War
by John & Patty Carratello
from Teacher Created Materials, Inc.
for 6th-8th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War
CTP Theme Series
by Kerry Anderson
from Creative Teaching Press
for 4th-6th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War
American War Series
by Zachary Kent
from Enslow
for 4th-8th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Civil War Artist
by Taylor Morrison
from HMH Books for Young Readers
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
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