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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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ABC Book of Early Americana - Coloring Book
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from Yesterday's Classics
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Childhood of Famous Americans
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Childhood of Famous Americans
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Little House Series #5
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Realistic Family Fiction for 3rd-7th grade
1936 Newbery Medal winner
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Captive Treasure
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Children of the Covered Wagon
by Mary Jane Carr
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
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American Kids in History
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Civil War Fashions - Coloring Book
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Civil War for Kids
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Activity Guide for 4th-7th grade
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Civil War Uniforms - Coloring Book
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Clara Barton
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$11.99
Copper-Toed Boots
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from Wayne State University
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Courage to Run
Daughters of the Faith
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Curious World of Calpurnia Tate
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Reprint from Square Fish Publishing
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2010 Newbery Honor
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$7.99
Daily Life in a Covered Wagon
by Paul Erickson
from Puffin Books
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$9.99
Daniel Boone
by Daniel Boone
from Applewood Books
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Davy Crockett
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Davy Crockett
Heroes of History
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$11.99
Davy Crockett: Young Rifleman
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Aileen Wells Parks
from Aladdin Paperbacks
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$7.99
Diary of an Early American Boy
by Eric Sloane
from Dover Publications
American History Reference for 4th-8th grade
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$14.95
Did You Invent The Phone All Alone, Alexander Graham Bell?
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$4.99
Down the Big River
Purple House Living History Library
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from Purple House Press
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$10.99
Draw 50 Boats, Ships, Trucks, and Trains
by Lee Ames
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Drinking Gourd
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by F. N. Monjo
from HarperCollins
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Early American History for Intermediate Grades - Guide
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3rd edition from Beautiful Feet Books
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$29.95
Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
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Reprint from Square Fish Publishing
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2010 Newbery Honor
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$8.99
Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service: 1878-1915
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$19.95
Famous Figures of the Civil War
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$16.95
Famous Trains - Coloring Book
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by Bruce LaFontaine
from Dover Publications
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Farmer Boy
Little House Series #3
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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Little House Series #3
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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Farmer Boy
Little House Series #3
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
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Fashions of the Old South - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
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from Dover Publications
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$3.99
Fear in the Forest
by Cateau de Leeuw
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$14.95
Fields of Fury
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from Atheneum
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First Four Years
Little House Series #9
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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$8.99
First Four Years
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
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Follow the Drinking Gourd
by Jeanette Winter
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$7.99
Forty-Acre Swindle
TrailBlazer Books
by Dave & Neta Jackson
from Castle Rock Creative
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in Trailblazer Books (Location: SER-TRAIL)
$8.99
Frederick Douglass: The Right to Dignity
from Emerald Books
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in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Freedom Train
by Dorothy Sterling
from Scholastic Inc.
Biography for 4th-8th grade
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$6.99
Freedom's Pen
Daughters of the Faith
by Wendy G. Lawton
New Edition from Moody Press
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$7.99
From Antietam to Gettysburg - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by Peter F. Copeland
from Dover Publications
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in History of America Coloring Books (Location: COL-HISA)
$4.99
Gathering of Days
by Joan Blos
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Historical Fiction for 4th-6th grade
1980 Newbery Medal winner
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99
George Washington Carver
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Gettysburg Address in Translation
by Kay M., Olson
from Capstone Press
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in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$7.95
Go Free or Die
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Biography for 4th-6th grade
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$9.99
Going West
by Jean Van Leeuwen
from Puffin Books
Historical fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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$6.99
Grandfather's Dance
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from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
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$6.99
Great Fire
by Jim Murphy
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
1996 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
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$7.99
Harriet Tubman
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
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Biography for 4th-7th grade
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$11.99
Harriet Tubman
by Ann Petry
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Biography for 4th-6th grade
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$9.99
Hattie Big Sky
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$8.99
Hitty
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Personification story for 4th-8th grade
1930 Newbery Medal winner
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$5.99
Horses of the Old West - Coloring Book
by John Green
from Dover Publications
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$3.99
House of Dies Drear
by Virginia Hamilton
Reissue from Aladdin Paperbacks
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How Sweet the Sound
by Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated by Frank Morrison
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$17.99
How We Crossed the West
by Rosalyn Schanzer
Reprint from National Geographic
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$7.95
If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War
by Kay Moore
from Perfection Learning
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in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$16.60
Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark
by Rhoda Blumberg
from HarperCollins
Historical Reference for 4th-7th grade
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Industrial Revolution
by Carla Mooney
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$15.95 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Jed Smith
by Frank Latham
from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 4th-8th grade
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Jessie Benton Fremont
by Marguerite Higgins
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$13.95
John Flynn
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Biography for 4th-8th grade
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