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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
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abraham Lincoln in Peace and War
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Across Five Aprils
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1965 Newbery Honor Book
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Age of Fighting Sail
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American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
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American Waterways: Canal Days
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American Yesterday
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Amistad Slave Revolt and American Abolition
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Black Man in America
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Bold Journey
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Bull Run
by Paul Fleischman, David Frampton (Woodcuts)
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Butter in the Well: Historical Diary 1868-1888
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham, illustrated by John O'Hara Cosgrave II
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Biography for 5th-9th grade
1956 Newbery Medal winner
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Cavalryman with Custer
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Chains
Seeds of America #1
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Children of the Wild West
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Civil War
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Civil War
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Civil War
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Civil War
Step Into History
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Civil War
American War Series
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Civil War Battles
by Curt Johnson
1st edition from Crescent Books
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Civil War Book of Facts
by Frank Burd
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Colter's Run
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Cowboys of the Wild West
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Cowboys of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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Davy Crockett
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Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War
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Diary of an Early American Boy
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DK Eyewitness: Civil War
by John Stanchack
from DK Publishing
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Early Days of a Cowboy on the Pecos
by James F. Hinkle
from Unknown Publisher
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Era Of Civil War & Reconstruction 1860-1877
Focus on U.S. History
by Kathy Sammis
from Walch Publishing
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Era Of Expansion & Reform 1800-1860
Focus on U.S. History
by Kathy Sammis
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in 19th Century America (Location: HISA-19C)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Era Of Industrial Growth & Foreign Expansion 1865-1900
Focus on U.S. History
by Kathy Sammis
from Walch Publishing
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Era of Modernization Through the 1930s
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Explorers, Missionaries, and Trappers
by Kieran Doherty
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First Four Years
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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First Four Years (Pictorial Cover)
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Fort Clatsop
by Daniel J. Dattilio
from KC Publishing
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Fortune's Bones
by Marilyn Nelson, notes and annotations by Pamela Espeland
from Front Street
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2005 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Geronimo: Apache Freedom Fighter
Native American Biographies
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Gettysburg
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by MacKinlay Kantor
from Random House
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Girl in Blue
by Ann Rinaldi
from Scholastic Inc.
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Great Battles of the Civil War
by John Macdonald
from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Great Little Madison
by Jean Fritz
from PaperStar Books
Biography for 5th-8th grade
1990 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
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Harriet Beecher Stowe
by Suzanne M. Coil
from Franklin Watts
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Harriet Tubman
Triangle Histories: The Civil War
by Lisa Halvorsen
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Hattie Big Sky
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Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
by Helen Keller
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History Channel Presents: The War of 1812 - 2 DVDs
from History Channel
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
History of US Book 4
History of US Book 4
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
in Joy Hakim's A History of US (Location: HISA-HAKIM)
$18.98 $11.00 (1 in stock)
History of US Book 5
History of US Book 5
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
in Joy Hakim's A History of US (Location: HISA-HAKIM)
$15.95 $11.00 (2 in stock)
History of US Book 6
History of US Book 6
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
in Joy Hakim's A History of US (Location: HISA-HAKIM)
$15.95 $11.00 (1 in stock)
History of US Book 7
History of US Book 7
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
in Joy Hakim's A History of US (Location: HISA-HAKIM)
$15.95 $11.00 (1 in stock)
Industrialization Through the Great Depression
American History Series
by Cindy Barden and Maria Backus
from Mark Twain Media
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Island Far From Home
by John Donahue
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
James Fenimore Cooper
by Donald A. Ringe
from Twayne Publishers
for 6th-10th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Jason Lee
Sowers Series
by Charles Ludwig
from Mott Media
Biography for 7th-9th grade
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$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Jed Smith
by Frank Latham
from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 4th-8th grade
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John James Audubon: Painting America's Wildlife
by Janet Stevenson, illustrated by Robert Boehmer
from Encyclopedia Britannica
for 7th-10th grade
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
John Paul Jones
Sterling Point Books
by Armstrong Sperry
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Biography for 5th-9th grade
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$4.50 (2 in stock)
Johnny Reb - Coloring Book
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from Bellerophon Books
Coloring Book for 4th-8th grade
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$3.50 (2 in stock)
Kathleen: A Yankee Girl at Gettysburg
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from Gramercy Books
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$5.50 (1 in stock)
Kit Carson: Folk Hero and Man
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from Doubleday & Company
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Ladies Were Not Expected
by Dorothy Nafus Morrison
2nd edition from Oregon Historical Society Press
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Lady of Arlington
by Harnett T. Kane
from Doubleday & Company
for 6th-12th grade
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Laura
by Donald Zochert
from Avon Books
for 7th grade-adult
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$4.00 (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
in Little House Materials (Location: LIR-LHM)
$39.99 $20.00 (1 in stock)
Leaders of the North and South
Civil War Chronicles
by Bill Sell
from MetroBooks
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Letter Writer
by Ann Rinaldi
Reprint from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 5th-9th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Lincoln: A Photobiography
by Russell Freedman
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 5th-9th grade
1988 Newbery Medal winner
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$12.99 $6.50 (6 in stock)
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)
Little Women
Whole Story Series
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by James Prunier
from Viking Press
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$12.00 (3 in stock)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Kate Aldous and James McGairy
First Edition from Parragon Publishing
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.50 (1 in stock)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrator unknown
Undated from M. A. Donohue & Company
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
by Gary D. Schmidt
from Scholastic Inc.
for 7th-9th grade
2005 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Long Road to Gettysburg
by Jim Murphy
from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 5th-8th grade
in American Civil War Era (1850-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Long Winter
by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Garth Williams
from Harper & Row
for 3rd-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Master George's People
by Marfe Ferguson Delano
from National Geographic
for 5th-9th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Mathew Brady
by James D. Horan
from Bonanza Books
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Men-of-War
by Patrick O'Brian
1st Us Edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 5th-10th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.00 (2 in stock)
Mirror of War: The Washington Star Reports the Civil War
by John W. Stepp, I. William Hill
from Prentice Hall
for 8th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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