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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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1861: The Civil War Awakening
by Adam Goodheart
from Vintage Books
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in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
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Adventures of Davy Crockett
by David Crockett, illustrated by John W. Thomason
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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Age of Fighting Sail
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American Naval History for 8th-Adult
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American Barns and Covered Bridges
by Eric Sloane
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American Children Through Their Books
by Sister Monica Kiefer
1970 printing from University of Pennsylvania Press
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American Civil War
by Robert K. Krick
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American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
American Yesterday
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Andersonville
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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Battle from the Start
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Battle of Gettysburg
by Frank A. Haskell & William C. Oates
from Chapman Billies, Inc
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Beginning of the Republic
A Basic History of the United States Volume 2
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
American History Reference for 9th-Adult
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$17.00 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Behind the Scenes
by Elizabeth Keckley, edited by Frances Smith Foster
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Black Odyssey
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Blue and the Gray
by Thomas B. Allen, Photography by Sam Abell
from National Geographic
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Buffalo Bill and the Wild West
by Henry Blackman Sell and Victor Weybright
Reprint from International Cody Family Assoc.
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Butter in the Well: Historical Diary 1868-1888
by Linda K. Hubalek
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Chickamauga
by Glenn Tucker
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Chief Joseph Country
by Bill Gulick
3rd Printing 1994 from Caxton Press
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$20.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War Book of Facts
by Frank Burd
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Civil War Songbook
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War: 1850-1895
American History by Era Volume 5
by Auriana Ojeda, book editor
from Greenhaven Press
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War: A History
by Harry Hansen, Introduction by Richard S. Wheeler, Foreword by Gary Gallagher
from New American Library
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Coming Fury
Centennial History of the Civil War Volume 1
by Bruce Catton
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Confederate War
by Gary W. Gallagher
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Death Valley Scotty
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$16.00 (1 in stock)
Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men
by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
1st edition from Open Court Publishing
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$6.00 (2 in stock)
Embattled Rebel
by James M. McPherson
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Forever Free
by Eric Foner, illustrations edited with commentary by Joshua Brown
from Vintage Classics
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Fortune of War
Aubrey/Maturin #6
by Patrick O'Brian
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
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$14.95 $6.50 (1 in stock)
Freighters and Pilgrims
Knowledge Keepers Home Library Series 1865
by Charles E. Young and Sarah Raymond Herndon
from Knowledge Keepers
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
General Lee: Southern Commander
Knowledge Keepers Home Library Series 1861
by John Esten Cooke, Captain Robert E. Lee, foreword by Nicki Truesdell
from Knowledge Keepers
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Gettysburg: Battle & Battlefield
by W. C. Storrick
from Barnes & Noble
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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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Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
by Allen C. Guelzo
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Gods and Generals
by Jeff Shaara
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Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
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$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Great Battles of the Civil War
by John Macdonald
from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
History of Human Society: Pioneer America
The History of Human Society
by John R. Alden
1st edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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House Divided
by Ben Ames Williams, jacket & illustrations by Reginald Marsh
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In the Name of the Father
by Francois Furstenberg
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Jacksonland
by Steve Inskeep
from Penguin Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Jefferson Davis and His Generals
by Steven E. Woodworth
from University Press of Kansas
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
John Brown Russwurm
by Mary Sagarin, Introduction by Ernest Kaiser
1st edition from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
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John Brown's Body
by Stephen Vincent Benet
from Rinehart & Company, Inc.
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Pulitzer Prize Winner
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John Wanamaker: King of Merchants
by William Allen Zulker
from Eaglecrest Press
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Joshua Barney
by Ralph D. Paine
from Century Co.
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
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)
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)
Land of Hope
by Wilfred M. McClay
from Encounter Books
for 10th-Adult
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$49.99 $25.00 (1 in stock)
Laura
by Donald Zochert
from Avon Books
for 7th grade-adult
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$4.00 (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)
Leafy Rivers
by Jessamyn West
First Edition from Harcourt, Brace & World
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Lewis & Clark: An illustrated History
by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns
2004 printing from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$12.50 (1 in stock)
Life on the Mississippi
Signet Classics
by Mark Twain
from Harper & Brothers
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
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Little Bighorn
by Robert Nightengale
from Far West Publishing
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Man Who Would Not Be Washington
by Jonathan Horn
from Scribner
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Mark Twain
by Edward Wagenknecht
2nd Printing, 1962 from University of Oklahoma Press
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Massacre at Fall Creek
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from Harcourt Brace Jovanich
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Mathew Brady
by James D. Horan
from Bonanza Books
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Memorial Volume of Jefferson Davis
by J. William Jones
from Sprinkle Publications
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$22.00 (2 in stock)
Middle Passage
by Charles Johnson
from Atheneum
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$7.50 (2 in stock)
Mirror of War: The Washington Star Reports the Civil War
by John W. Stepp, I. William Hill
from Prentice Hall
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Mornings on Horseback
by David McCullough
1st edition from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
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National; Book Award
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Mosby's Rangers
by Jeffry D. Wert
from Simon and Schuster
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West
by LeRoy R. Hafen & Harvey L. Carter
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$21.95 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee
by David Crockett
Reprint from Bison Books
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$16.95 $8.50 (1 in stock)
Naval Warfare
Civil War Chronicles
by John C. Wideman
from MetroBooks
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Old West: Miners
from Time-Life Books
for 7th-Adult
in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Oregon Trail, Yesterday and Today
from Caxton Press
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Outlaws of Halfaday Creek
by James B. Hendryx
from A. L. Burt Company
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$20.00 (1 in stock)
Peter Cartwright, the Backwoods Preacher
by Peter Cartwright
Undated from Cranston and Curts
for 10th-Adult
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Pioneer Children on the Journey West
by Emmy E. Werner
from Westview Press
for Adult
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Plain & Fancy
for Adult
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Prayin' to Be Set Free
from John F. Blair Publishing
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in American Civil War Era (1850-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Progressive Years
by Otis Pease, editor and introduction
2nd Printing from George Braziller
for Adult
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Red River to Appomattox
The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 3
by Shelby Foote
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Robert E. Lee
Heroes in Time
by John J. Dwyer
from Broadman & Holman
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Robert E. Lee: A Life Portrait
by David J. Eicher
from Taylor Publishing Company
for Adult
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Roots
by Alex Haley
Book Club Edition from Doubleday & Company
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Rough Riders
by Theodore Roosevelt
from University of Nebraska
Historical non-fiction for 9th-Adult
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Sam Houston
by Noel Gerson
from Doubleday & Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Dover Thrift Editions
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.00 $3.50 (2 in stock)
Shiloh: A Novel
by Shelby Foote
from Vintage Books
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Shiloh: A Novel
by Shelby Foote
from Barnes & Noble
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in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea
by Gary Kinder
from Vintage Classics
for 9th-Adult
in Clearance: Fiction (Location: ZCLE-FIC)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Smiling Rebel
by Harnett T. Kane
from Doubleday & Company
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Soldier's Story
Civil War Chronicles
by David Phillips
from MetroBooks
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Soul of the Lion
by Willard M. Wallace
Reprint from Stan Clark Military Books
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
South in Modern America
by Dewey W. Grantham
from University of Arkansas Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Steal Away Home: Charles Spurgeon and Thomas Johnson
by Matt Carter and Aaron Ivey
from B&H Books
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Stillness at Appomattox
The Army of the Patomac Volume 3
by Bruce Catton
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 10th grade-adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Streets Were Paved With Gold
by Stan Cohen
2012 Printing from Pictorial Histories Publishing Company
for 6th-Adult
in 19th Century America (Location: HISA-19C)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Such Troops as These
by Bevin Alexander
from Dutton Caliber
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Sugar and Slaves
by Richard S. Dunn, foreword by Gary B. Nash
from University of North Carolina Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
This Hallowed Ground
by Bruce Catton
from Doubleday & Company
for 10th grade-adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Touched By Fire
by William C. Davis, ed.
from Black Dog & Leventhal
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Traveling the Missouri
from Silver Burdett Press
for 4th-Adult
in Lewis & Clark Expedition (1801-1803) (Location: HISA-19L&C)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
True Tales of the South at War
by Clarence Poe, ed.
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in American Civil War Era (1850-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
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