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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
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20 Plays for U. S. History Classes
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1965 Newbery Honor Book
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American Naval History for 8th-Adult
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All That Glitters
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America During Four Wars
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America's National Battlefield Parks
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American Waterways: Canal Days
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Amistad
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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North Star Books #30
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Black Falcon
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Black Man in America
from Franklin Watts
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Black Potatoes
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2002 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
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Blowing-Wand
Land of the Free Series
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Boy in the Alamo
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Boy with a Pack
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Buffalo Coat
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California Gold Rush
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Call of Duty
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Captain Bayley's Heir
by G. A. Henty
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Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Captain Bayley's Heir
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from Robinson Curriculum
Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Captain Bayley's Heir
by G. A. Henty
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Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Captain, My Captain
by Deborah Meroff
from Inheritance Publications
Historical Fiction for 8th-10th grade
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Carry a Big Stick
Leaders in Action Series
by George Grant
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham
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Biography for 5th-9th grade
1956 Newbery Medal winner
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Carver: A Life in Poems
by Marilyn Nelson
from Boyds Mill Press
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2002 Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Award
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$16.95
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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Chickamauga
by Horace Porter
from Konecky & Konecky
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Chief Joseph Country
by Bill Gulick
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Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
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by Henry David Thoreau
from Dover Publications
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Civil War Battles
by Curt Johnson
1st edition from Crescent Books
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War Between the States
by Tom Spencer
from Logos School
Historical Reference for 9th-12th grade
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$21.50
Civil War Songbook
from Dover Publications
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Civil War Stories
by Ambrose Bierce
from Dover Publications
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$5.00
Civil War: 1861-1865
by David E. Roth
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Climb a Lofty Ladder
by Marion & Walter Havighurst, illustrated by Jill Elgin
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Clipper Ships and Captains
by Jane D. Lyon
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in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Co. Aytch
by Sam Watkins
from Touchstone
Historical Non-fiction for 8th-Adult
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$17.00
Colonial Triangular Trade: An Economy Based on Human Misery
by Phyllis Raybin Emert, ed.
from History Compass
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Coming of the Mormons
Landmark #37
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Copper Kings of Montana
Landmark #95
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Cowboys and Cattle Country
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in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Custer's Last Stand
Landmark #20
by Quentin Reynolds
from Random House Books for Young Readers
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in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Custer's Last Stand
Landmark #20
by Quentin Reynolds
from Random House Books for Young Readers
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in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
Danger in the Desert
by Roger Cohen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
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Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness
Landmark #21
by John Mason Brown
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Dark Venture
by Audrey White Beyer, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Davy Crockett
Landmark #57
by Stewart H. Holbrook
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Declaration of Independence and Other Great Documents of American History
Dover Thrift Editions
by John Grafton, editor
from Dover Publications
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
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$4.00
Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War
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$9.50 (1 in stock)
Disaster at Johnstown: The Great Flood
Landmark #109
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Do's and Don'ts of Yesteryear
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