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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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Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance
by Frances Cavanah
from Rand McNally
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by James Daugherty
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Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln
Initial Biography
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from Charles Scribner's Sons
Historical Non-fiction for 3rd-6th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Abraham Lincoln in Peace and War
by Earl Schenck Miers
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Abraham Lincoln's World (pictorial hardcover)
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Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
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America's Robert E. Lee
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American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
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American Ulysses
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Andrew Jackson: Soldier and Statesman
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Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
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Ben Snipes, Northwest Cattle King
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2021 Newbery Honor Book
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Buffalo Bill's Great Wild West Show
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by Walter Havighurst, illustrated by John C. Wonsetler
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Buffalo Bill's Life Story
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1966 printing from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
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Cabin Boy to Advent Crusader
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Leaders in Action Series
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Carry a Big Stick
Leaders in Action Series
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Biography for 9th-Adult
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Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence
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Carver: A Life in Poems
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from Boyds Mill Press
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2002 Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Award
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$16.95
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces
by Shannon Garst, illustrated by Douglas Gorsline
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Clara Barton
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Daniel Boone, Wilderness Scout
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by Stewart Edward White, illustrated by Henry C. Pitz
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Daniel Boone, Wilderness Scout
by Stewart Edward White, illustrated by James Daugherty
from Garden City Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness
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David Farragut
The History of the Civil War
by Russell Shorto
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Davy Crockett
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by Constance Rourke, illustrated by Walter Seaton
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1935 Newbery Honor Book
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Davy Crockett
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by Stewart H. Holbrook
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Davy Crockett
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Death Valley Scotty
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$16.00 (1 in stock)
Dolly Madison
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Drawing America: Sacajawea
Drawing America
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from Scholastic Inc.
Biography for 1st-3rd grade
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Early Days of a Cowboy on the Pecos
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Eli Whitney: Great Inventor
by Jean Lee Latham
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Emancipation Proclomation
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from Abrams Books for Young Readers
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Embattled Rebel
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Enemies of Slavery
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Explorers, Missionaries, and Trappers
by Kieran Doherty
from Oliver-Nelson Books
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in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
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Forever Free
by Dorothy Sterling, illustrated by Ernest Crichlow
from Doubleday & Company
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Forward March to Freedom
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George Rogers Clark, Soldier in the West
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George Rogers Clark: War in the West
Events of the Revolution
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from Children's Press
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George Washington Carver: The Man Who Overcame
by Lawrence Elliott
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Geronimo: Wolf of the Warpath
Landmark #81
by Ralph Moody, illustrated by Nicholas Eggenhofer
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
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Greater Journey
by David McCullough
1st edition from Simon and Schuster
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Harriet Beecher Stowe
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Heroines of the Early West
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by Nancy Wilson Ross
from Random House
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How Sweet the Sound
by Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated by Frank Morrison
from Atheneum
for 1st-4th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$17.99
I am Sacagawea
Ordinary People Change the World
by Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos
from Dial Books for Young Readers
for 1st-3rd grade
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Inventing the Future
by David Edward Sloane, Marfe Ferguson Delano
from National Geographic
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Invincible Louisa
by Cornelia Meigs
from Little, Brown & Company
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1934 Newbery Medal winner
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James Fenimore Cooper
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James Fenimore Cooper
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Jane Addams
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Jeb Stuart
Historical American Biographies
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Jed Smith, Young Western Explorer
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Jefferson Davis and His Generals
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Joe Meek
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John Brown Russwurm
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1st edition from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
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John Brown: One Man Against Slavery
by Gwen Everett, Illustrated by Jacob Lawrence
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John Charles Fremont
by Ronald Syme
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John James Audubon
Landmark #48
by John & Margaret Kieran, illustrated by Christine Price
from Random House
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John James Audubon: Painting America's Wildlife
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from Encyclopedia Britannica
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
John Wanamaker: King of Merchants
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Joshua Barney
by Ralph D. Paine
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Kate Douglas Wiggin
Childhood of Famous Americans
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Kit Carson
by Shannon Garst
from Julian Messner
Biography for 1st-3rd grade
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Kit Carson
A Discovery Book
by Nardi Reeder Campion, illustrated by Shannon Stirnweis
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 3rd-6th grade
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Kit Carson and the Wild Frontier
Landmark #53
by Ralph Moody
from Random House
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Kit Carson: Folk Hero and Man
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La Salle of the Mississippi
by Ronald Syme
from William Morrow & Company
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Lady of Arlington
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from Doubleday & Company
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Last Princess
by Fay Stanley; illustrated by Diane Stanley
from HarperCollins
Picture Book Biographies for Kindergarten-3rd grade
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Pioneer Girl
by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill
from South Dakota State Historical Society Press
for 7th-Adult
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$39.99
Lee and Grant at Appomattox
Landmark #8
by MacKinlay Kantor
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Legends of the Wild West
by James A. Crutchfield, Bill O'Neal, Dale L. Walker
from Publications International
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in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Lewis & Clark Expedition
Spencer Press Landmark #5 (RH#15)
by Richard L. Neuberger
from Spencer Press
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in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Life & Letters of Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man
by J. William Jones
from Sprinkle Publications
for Adult
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Life and Letters of "Stonewall" Jackson
by Mary Anna Jackson
from Sprinkle Publications
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Life of Andrew Jackson
by John S. Jenkins
from New Leaf Press
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$13.50
Life of John Newton
by American Missionary Fellowship
from Attic Books
for 10th-Adult
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$9.50
Lincoln: A Photobiography
by Russell Freedman
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 5th-9th grade
1988 Newbery Medal winner
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.00 (3 in stock)
Linda Richards
A Discovery Book
by David R. Collins
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 4th-6th grade
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Lotta Crabtree
by Lois V. Harris
from Pelican Publishing Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Luck of the La Verendryes
by Lyn Harrington
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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Lucretia Mott
A Discovery Book
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Make Way for Sam Houston
by Jean Fritz; illustrated by Elise Primavera
First Edition from G.P. Putnam's Sons
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Many Thousand Gone
by Virginia Hamilton
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in Slavery & the Underground Railroad (Location: HISA-19SL)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
by James Daugherty
from Viking Press
for 7th-10th grade
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Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
A Discovery Book
by Marian T. Place
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for 4th-6th grade
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Marcus Whitman: The Great Command
by Nard Jones
2nd edition from Binford & Mort Publishing
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Mathew Brady
by James D. Horan
from Bonanza Books
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Meet Andrew Jackson
by Ormonde de Kay
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