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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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Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches
Dover Thrift Editions
by Abraham Lincoln & John Grafton, editor
from Dover Publications
Political Philosophy for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.00
Across Five Aprils
by Irene Hunt
from Berkley Books
Historical Fiction for 6th-9th grade
1965 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
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Across Five Aprils
by Irene Hunt
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Historical Fiction for 6th-9th grade
1965 Newbery Honor Book
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$9.99
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Puffin Classics
by Mark Twain
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in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$8.99
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Puffin Classics
by Mark Twain
from Penguin Classics
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Annie Oakley: Young Marksman
Childhood of Famous Americans
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Ballad of Lucy Whipple
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Behind Rebel Lines
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Bound for Oregon
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Buffalo Bill: Frontier Daredevil
Childhood of Famous Americans
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Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt!
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Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
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Civil War Stories
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Childhood of Famous Americans
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Declaration of Independence and Other Great Documents of American History
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Freedom Train
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$6.99
Gathering of Days
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Gettysburg
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Gettysburg
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Gods and Generals
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Going West
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Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
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$20.99
Great Little Madison
by Jean Fritz
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Biography for 5th-8th grade
1990 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
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Great Turkey Walk
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Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers
by Jean Fritz
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Harriet Tubman
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Harriet Tubman: Moses of Her People
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Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
Signet Classics
by Helen Keller
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$5.95
Hitty
by Rachel Field
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Personification story for 4th-8th grade
1930 Newbery Medal winner
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House of Dies Drear
by Virginia Hamilton
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House of the Seven Gables
Signet Classics
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Fantasy for 9th-12th grade
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$5.95
Josefina Story Quilt
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Journals of Lewis & Clark
Signet Classics
by John Bakeless, editor
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in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.95
Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Lantern in Her Hand
by Bess Streeter Aldrich
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$8.99
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
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$11.99
Life on the Mississippi
Signet Classics
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from Signet Classics
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
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$4.95
Little House - Softcover Boxed Set
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
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$79.91
Little Women
Puffin Classics
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$10.99
Long Way Westward
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Mark Twain: Young Writer
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Mariam E. Mason
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$7.99
Meet Abraham Lincoln
Second Series Landmark / Step Up reprints
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$4.99
Old Yeller
by Fred Gipson
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1957 Newbery Honor Book
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On Slavery and the Civil War
Dover Thrift Editions
by Frederick Douglass
from Dover Publications
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$2.00
On the Banks of Plum Creek
Little House Series #4
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
1938 Newbery Honor Book
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On the Way Home
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Perilous Road
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Pioneers
Leatherstocking Tales #4
by James Fenimore Cooper
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Prairie School
An I Can Read Book Level 4
by Avi
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$4.99
Pudd'nhead Wilson
Signet Classics
by Mark Twain
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Mystery for 8th-10th grade
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$4.95
Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane
from Bantam Books
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Red Badge of Courage
Puffin Classics
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Robert E. Lee: Young Confederate
Childhood of Famous Americans
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$7.99
Sarah, Plain and Tall
by Patricia MacLachlan
30th Anniversary from HarperCollins
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1986 Newbery Medal winner
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Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Dover Thrift Editions
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
from Dover Publications
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$4.00
Shades of Gray
by Carolyn Reeder
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Historical Fiction for 4th-6th grade
Scott O'Dell Award
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Shoes for Everyone
by Barbara Mitchell
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Skylark
by Patricia MacLachlan
from HarperCollins
Family Stories for 2nd-6th grade
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$6.99
Slave Dancer
by Paula Fox
from Laurel-Leaf Books
Historical Fiction for 6th-8th grade
1974 Newbery Medal winner
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Slave Dancer
by Paula Fox
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
1974 Newbery Medal winner
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$6.99
Soft Rain
by Cornelia Cornelissen
from Yearling
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$6.99
Sojourner Truth
by Patricia & Frederick McKissack
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Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Staircase
by Ann Rinaldi
from Harcourt
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$6.99
Stonewall
by Jean Fritz & Stephen Gammell
from PaperStar Books
Biography for 5th-8th grade
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$6.99
Story of Sacajawea
by Della Rowland
from Yearling
Biography for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.99
Story of the Underground Railroad - Coloring Book
by Peter F. Copeland
from Dover Publications
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$4.99
Strawberry Girl
by Lois Lenski
from HarperCollins
Realistic fiction for 4th-6th grade
1946 Newbery Medal winner
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$9.99
Streams to the River, River to the Sea
by Scott O'Dell
from Houghton Mifflin
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$7.99
Tales of Uncle Remus
Puffin Modern Classics
by Julius Lester
Reissue from Puffin Books
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$7.99
Teddy Roosevelt: Young Rough Rider
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Edd Winfield Parks
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 3rd-6th grade
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$7.99
To Be a Slave
by Julius Lester
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Historical Non-fiction for 6th-10th grade
1969 Newbery Honor Book
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$4.99
Trail of Tears
Step into Reading Level 5
by Joseph Bruchac
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Historical Non-fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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$4.99
Turn Homeward, Hannalee
by Patricia Beatty
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Signet Classics
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
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$5.95
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Dover Thrift Editions
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
from Dover Publications
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
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$9.00
Up From Slavery
Dover Thrift Editions
by Booker T. Washington
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Autobiography for 10th-Adult
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$6.00
Wagon Wheels
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Barbara Brenner
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Historical Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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