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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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1812: The War and the World
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-8th grade
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Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance
by Frances Cavanah
from Rand McNally
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abraham Lincoln
Initial Biography
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from Charles Scribner's Sons
Historical Non-fiction for 3rd-6th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Across the Wide & Lonesome Prairie
Dear America
by Kristiana Gregory
from Scholastic Inc.
Fictional historical journal for 3rd-6th grade
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Addy Learns a Lesson
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Adventures of Lewis and Clark
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America's Robert E. Lee
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American Fairy Tales
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Andrew Carnegie
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Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel
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Andrew Jackson: Soldier and Statesman
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Appomattox
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2001 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
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2021 Newbery Honor Book
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$17.99
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Buffalo Bill
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1959 Edition from Wheeler Publishing, Inc.
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Buffalo Bill's Great Wild West Show
Landmark #73
by Walter Havighurst, illustrated by John C. Wonsetler
from Random House
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Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad
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Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Little House Series #5
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Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Cabin Boy to Advent Crusader
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1936 Newbery Medal winner
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Caddie Woodlawn
by Carol Ryrie Brink
from Simon and Schuster
Realistic Family Fiction for 3rd-7th grade
1936 Newbery Medal winner
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Caleb's Choice
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California Gold Days
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1961 Printing from California State Department of Education
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California Gold Rush
Landmark #6
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California Gold Rush
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Captains of Industry
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Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence
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Children of the Civil War
Picture the American Past
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from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Children of the Emancipation -1860s to 1890s
Picture the American Past
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Children of the Wild West
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Clara Barton
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Coming of the Mormons
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Conrad Elroy, Powder Monkey
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Continent for Sale
Winston Adventure Books
by Arthur Groom, illustrated by Joseph Bolden
First Ediition from John C. Winston
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Copper Kings of Montana
Landmark #95
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from Random House
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Cowboy Boots
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Cowboy Sam and the Indians
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Cowboys and Cattle Drives
Frontiers of America
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from Children's Press
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Cowboys and Cattle Ranching
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Custer's Last Stand
Landmark #20
by Quentin Reynolds
from Random House Books for Young Readers
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Custer's Last Stand
Landmark #20
by Quentin Reynolds
from Random House Books for Young Readers
for 5th-9th grade
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Daniel Boone, Wilderness Scout
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Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Daniel Boone, Wilderness Scout
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from Garden City Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness
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David Farragut
The History of the Civil War
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Davy Crockett
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1935 Newbery Honor Book
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Davy Crockett
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from Random House
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Davy Crockett
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from Sterling Publishing Co.
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Disaster at Johnstown: The Great Flood
Landmark #109
by Hildegarde Dolson
from Random House
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DK Eyewitness: Cowboy
DK Eyewitness Series
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from DK Publishing
American History Reference for 4th-8th grade
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DK Eyewitness: North American Indian
DK Eyewitness Series
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from DK Publishing
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Do's and Don'ts of Yesteryear
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from Dover Publications
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$12.95
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Landmark #47
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from Random House
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Dreams in the Golden Country
Dear America
by Kathryn Lasky
from Scholastic Inc.
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$6.00 (2 in stock)
Eli Whitney: Great Inventor
by Jean Lee Latham
from Garrard Publishing Company
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Emancipation Proclomation
by Tonya Bolden
from Abrams Books for Young Readers
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
by Jacqueline Kelly
from Henry Holt and Company
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in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Facing West
by Kathleen V. Kudlinski
for 4th-7th grade
in Oregon Trail (Location: HISA-19OR)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Farmer Boy
Little House Series #3
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$19.99
Farmer Boy (Pictorial Cover)
Little House Series #3
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Fear in the Forest
by Cateau de Leeuw
from T. Nelson & Sons
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Fields of Fury
by James M. McPherson
from Atheneum
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in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$24.99 $14.00 (2 in stock)
First Book of Pioneers
by Walter Havinghurst
from Franklin Watts
for 1st-5th grade
in Pioneer & Frontier Life (Location: HISA-19PIO)
First Four Years
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$18.99 $8.00 (1 in stock)
First Four Years (Pictorial Cover)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams
from Harper & Row
for 3rd-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Flaming Arrows
by William O. Steele, Illustrated by Paul Galdone
1st edition from Harcourt
Historical Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Forever Free
by Dorothy Sterling, illustrated by Ernest Crichlow
from Doubleday & Company
for 5th-8th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
Fortune's Bones
by Marilyn Nelson, notes and annotations by Pamela Espeland
from Front Street
for 4th-8th grade
2005 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
in Slavery & the Underground Railroad (Location: HISA-19SL)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Forward March to Freedom
by Barbara Kay Greenleaf
from Grosset & Dunlap
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Freewater
by Amina Luqman Dawson
from Little, Brown & Company
for 5th-8th grade
2023 Newbery Medal Winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$16.99
From Log Cabin to White House with Abraham Lincoln - Set
from Multnomah Books
for 4th-7th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
General Brock and Niagra Falls
World Landmark #28
by Samuel Hopkins Adams
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
George Rogers Clark: War in the West
Events of the Revolution
by Susan and John Lee, illustrated by Richard Wahl
from Children's Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Geronimo: Wolf of the Warpath
Landmark #81
by Ralph Moody, illustrated by Nicholas Eggenhofer
from Random House
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in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Gettysburg
Landmark #23
by MacKinlay Kantor, illustrated by Donald McKay
from Random House
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in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Gold in California
North Star Books #2
by Paul I. Wellman, illustrated by Lorence F. Bjorklund
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Gold Rush
by May McNeer, illustrated by Lynd Ward
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Golden Age of Railroads
Landmark #93
by Stewart H. Holbrook
from Random House
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Golden Book History of the United States Volume 5
by Earl Schenck Miers
from Golden Press
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Golden Book History of the United States Volume 6
by Earl Schenck Miers
from Golden Press
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Golden Book History of the United States Volume 7
by Earl Schenck Miers
from Golden Press
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Golden Book of California
by Irwin Shapiro
from Golden Press
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in 19th Century America (Location: HISA-19C)
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