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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)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Abraham Lincoln in Peace and War
by Earl Schenck Miers
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Abraham Lincoln's World
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Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Across Five Aprils
by Irene Hunt
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1965 Newbery Honor Book
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Across Five Aprils
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1965 Newbery Honor Book
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Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Puffin Classics
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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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Andersonville
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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Historical Non-fiction for 9th-Adult
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Beginning of the Republic
A Basic History of the United States Volume 2
by Clarence B. Carson
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Biography of James A. Garfield
Sons of Liberty Series
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Black Man in America
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Bonanza Girl
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Historical fiction for 4th-9th grade
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Butter in the Well: Historical Diary 1868-1888
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Captain, My Captain
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from Houghton Mifflin
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1956 Newbery Medal winner
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham, illustrated by John O'Hara Cosgrave II
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Chief Joseph Country
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3rd Printing 1994 from Caxton Press
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Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
Dover Thrift Editions
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Civil War Battles
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Civil War Between the States
by Tom Spencer
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Civil War Book of Facts
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Civil War Songbook
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Civil War Stories
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Civil War: 1850-1895
American History by Era Volume 5
by Auriana Ojeda, book editor
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Danger in the Desert
by Roger Cohen
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Dark Venture
by Audrey White Beyer, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon
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Declaration of Independence and Other Great Documents of American History
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Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War
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Early Days of a Cowboy on the Pecos
by James F. Hinkle
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Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men
by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
1st edition from Open Court Publishing
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$6.00 (2 in stock)
Era Of Civil War & Reconstruction 1860-1877
Focus on U.S. History
by Kathy Sammis
from Walch Publishing
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Era Of Expansion & Reform 1800-1860
Focus on U.S. History
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Era Of Industrial Growth & Foreign Expansion 1865-1900
Focus on U.S. History
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Explorers, Missionaries, and Trappers
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Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service: 1878-1915
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Flight into Spring
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Fortune of War
Aubrey/Maturin #6
by Patrick O'Brian
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Frontier Living
by Edwin Tunis
from Lyons Press
Historical Reference for 7th-10th grade
Newbery Honor Book 1962
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Gettysburg
by Frank A. Haskell & William C. Oates
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Gettysburg: Battle & Battlefield
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Gettysburg: The Final Fury
by Bruce Catton, photographs by Matthew Brady
1982 Edition from Berkley Books
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Gilded Age: A History in Documents
Pages From History
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from Oxford University
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Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman
by Gladys Aylward
from Moody Press
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$9.99
Gods and Generals
by Jeff Shaara
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Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Romance for 9th-12th grade
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$24.00
Great Battles of the Civil War
by John Macdonald
from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Great Courses - American Civil War
from The Teaching Company
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$30.00 (1 in stock)
Growing Up in Coal Country
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
from Houghton Mifflin
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$6.36
Growth of America
A Basic History of the United States Volume 4
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
American History Reference for 9th-Adult
in Basic History of the United States (Location: HISCUR-BHUS)
$19.00
Harriet Beecher Stowe
by Suzanne M. Coil
from Franklin Watts
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Harriet Tubman: Moses of Her People
from Dover Publications
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$7.95
Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
Signet Classics
by Helen Keller
Reprint from Signet Classics
Autobiography for 7th-10th grade
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Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
by Helen Keller
from Dover Publications
Autobiography for 7th-10th grade
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History Channel Presents: The War of 1812 - 2 DVDs
from History Channel
for 7th-12th grade
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$6.00 (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 (2 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 5
History of US Book 5
by Joy Hakim
3rd edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
in Joy Hakim's A History of US (Location: HISA-HAKIM)
$6.50 (1 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 (2 in stock)
History of US Book 6
History of US Book 6
by Joy Hakim
3rd edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
in Joy Hakim's A History of US (Location: HISA-HAKIM)
$6.50 (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 (2 in stock)
History of US Book 7
History of US Book 7
by Joy Hakim
3rd edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
in Joy Hakim's A History of US (Location: HISA-HAKIM)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Homemade Uniforms
by Daniel Forster
for 6th-10th grade
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$5.00
House of the Seven Gables
Signet Classics
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Signet Classics
Fantasy for 9th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
If The South Had Won The Civil War
by MacKinlay Kantor
from Forge
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in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.99
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs
from Dover Publications
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$5.00 $3.00 (1 in stock)
James Fenimore Cooper
by Donald A. Ringe
from Twayne Publishers
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Jason Lee
Sowers Series
by Charles Ludwig
from Mott Media
Biography for 7th-9th grade
in Sowers Biographies (Location: BIO-SOW)
$5.00 (2 in stock)
Jessie Benton Fremont
by Marguerite Higgins
from Beautiful Feet Books
for 4th-9th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$13.95
John Brown Russwurm
by Mary Sagarin, Introduction by Ernest Kaiser
1st edition from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
John James Audubon: Painting America's Wildlife
by Janet Stevenson, illustrated by Robert Boehmer
from Encyclopedia Britannica
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
John Paul Jones
Sterling Point Books
by Armstrong Sperry
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in War of 1812 (Location: HISA-19WET)
$4.50 (2 in stock)
Journals of Lewis & Clark
Signet Classics
by John Bakeless, editor
from Signet Classics
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.95
Kids at Work
by Russell Freedman, photographs by Lewis Hine
from Clarion Books
for 6th-9th grade
1995 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
in Industrialization & Organized Labor (Location: HISA-19IND)
$11.99
Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
1st edition from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
50th Anniversary from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$20.00
Labor's Untold Story
by Herbert M. Morais, Richard O. Boyer
3rd edition from United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of Amer
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$5.00 (2 in stock)
Laddie
by Gene Stratton-Porter
from Indiana University Press
Romance for 7th-10th grade
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$16.95
Lantern in Her Hand
by Bess Streeter Aldrich
from Puffin Books
Realistic fiction for 7th-10th grade
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$8.99
Laura
by Donald Zochert
from Avon Books
for 7th grade-adult
in Little House Materials (Location: LIR-LHM)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography
by William Anderson
from HarperTrophy
for 4th-10th grade
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$9.99
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
Leaders of the North and South
Civil War Chronicles
by Bill Sell
from MetroBooks
for 7th-Adult
in American Civil War Era (1850-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
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