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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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A Weed Is a Flower
by Aliki
Reprint from Aladdin Paperbacks
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in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$7.99
ABC Book of Early Americana
by Eric Sloane
2012 Dover from Dover Publications
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Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington
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from National Geographic
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Abraham Lincoln
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
75th Anniversary Edition from Beautiful Feet Books
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1940 Caldecott Medal winner
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$15.95
Alexander Graham Bell
by Elizabeth MacLeod
from Kids Can Press
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Amazing Impossible Erie Canal
by Cheryl Harness
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Historical Non-Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
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Apples to Oregon
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Aquila's Drinking Gourd
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Aurora Means Dawn
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Buffalo Bill
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Drinking Gourd
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Enemies of Slavery
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Erie Canal
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First Step
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Follow the Drinking Gourd
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Going West
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Going West
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from Dial Books for Young Readers
Historical fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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How Sweet the Sound
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If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln
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from Scholastic Inc.
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If You Traveled On the Underground Railroad
If You Were There
by Ellen Levine & Larry Johnson
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Historical Non-fiction for 2nd-5th grade
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If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon
If You Were There
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from Scholastic Inc.
Historical Non-fiction for 2nd-5th grade
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Indian Summer
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John Brown: One Man Against Slavery
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from Rizzoli International Publications
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Josefina Story Quilt
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by Peter & Connie Roop
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
Historical Fiction for 1st-3rd grade
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Last Princess
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from HarperCollins
Picture Book Biographies for Kindergarten-3rd grade
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Lewis & Clark
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from Holiday House
Historical Non-Fiction for 1st-4th grade
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$7.99
Liam's Watch
by Pamela Dell
from Tradition Books
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Long Way Westward
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Joan Sandin
from HarperCollins
Historical Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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Lost City
by Ted Lewin
Reprint from Puffin Books
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from Aladdin Paperbacks
Biography for 2nd-5th grade
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Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi
by Cheryl Harness
from Simon and Schuster
Biography for 2nd-5th grade
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Moses
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1st edition from Hyperion/Madison Press
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2007 Caldecott Honor Book
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Nettie's Trip South
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Old Ironsides
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Paul Bunyan
by Steven Kellogg
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Picture Book of Davy Crockett
by David Adler
from Holiday House
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Picture Book of Harriet Beecher Stowe
by David A. Adler
1st edition from Holiday House
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Picture Book of Lewis and Clark
by David A. Adler
from Holiday House
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
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from Holiday House
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Pony Express
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from Scholastic Press
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Secret to Freedom
by Marcia Vaughan, illustrated by Larry Johnson
from Lee & Low Books
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Slave Family
by Bobbie Kalman & Amanda Bishop
from Crabtree Publishing
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So Tall Within
by Gary D. Schmidt, Illustrated by Daniel Minter
from Roaring Brook Press
for Preschool-3rd grade
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$18.99
Sod Houses on the Great Plains
by Glen Rounds
from Holiday House
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in Pioneer & Frontier Life (Location: HISA-19PIO)
Star-Spangled Banner
by Peter Spier
from Yearling
American History for 2nd-6th grade
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$10.99
Steam, Smoke, and Steel
by Patrick O'Brien
from Charlesbridge
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$8.99
Story of Old Ironsides
by Norman Richards
from Children's Press
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Story of the Gettysburg Address
Cornerstones of Freedom
by Kenneth Richards & Tom Dunnington
from Children's Press
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Story of the Panama Canal
by R. Conrad Stein
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
Historical Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
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Story of the Underground Railroad
by R. Conrad Stein
from Children's Press
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
by Deborah Hopkinson
1st edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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Tecumseh
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Ten Mile Day
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Historical Non-Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
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Thee, Hannah!
by Marguerite de Angeli
from Herald Press
Realistic Fiction for
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They Were Strong and Good
by Robert Lawson
from Viking Press
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1941 Caldecott Medal winner
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They're Off!
by Cheryl Harness
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Historical Non-Fiction for 2nd-5th grade
in Pony Express (1860-1861) (Location: HISA-19PEX)
$8.99
They're Off!
by Cheryl Harness
from Simon and Schuster
Historical Non-Fiction for 2nd-5th grade
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Three Names
by Patricia MacLachlan
from HarperCollins
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$9.99
Three Names
by Patricia MacLachlan, illustrated by Alexander Pertzoff
from HarperCollins
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Unfading Beauty
by Tracy M. Leininger
from His Seasons
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Voice of Her Own
by Kathryn Lasky, Illustrated by Paul Lee
from Candlewick Press
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Wagon Wheels
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Barbara Brenner
from HarperCollins
Historical Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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$5.99 $3.00 (1 in stock)
Young Abe Lincoln
by Cheryl Harness
from National Geographic
Picture Book Biography for
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$7.95
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