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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
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abraham Lincoln's World
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America in the Time of Abraham Lincoln
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American Civil War
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American Civil War
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American Waterways: Canal Days
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Angel Knew Papa and the Dog
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Oxford History of the United States
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Black & Tan
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Black Odyssey
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Buffalo Bill and the Wild West
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Children of the Covered Wagon
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Tales of the Wild West Volume 6
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Civil War
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Civil War
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Civil War Artist
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Civil War Days
American Kids in History
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Civil War for Kids
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Civil War Handbook - Confederate Captain
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Civil War Handbook - Union Lieutenant
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Civil War Heroines
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Civil War Songbook
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Civil War: A History
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Civil War: A Narrative - 3 Volume Set
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Clara Barton
Heroes of History
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Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Co. Aytch
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Colonial Triangular Trade: An Economy Based on Human Misery
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Coolies
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Daughters of the Faith
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Cowboys of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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Cowboys of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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Crossing Bok Chitto
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Curious World of Calpurnia Tate
by Jacqueline Kelly
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2010 Newbery Honor
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Daily Life in a Covered Wagon
by Paul Erickson
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Daniel Boone
by Daniel Boone
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Davy Crockett
by David Crockett
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Biography for 4th-8th grade
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Davy Crockett
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
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Democracy in America
Penguin Classics
by Alexis De Tocqueville
from Penguin Classics
American Government for 11th-12th grade
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Democracy in America
by Alexis De Tocqueville
from Harper Perennial
American Government for 11th-12th grade
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$22.99
Diary of an Early American Boy
by Eric Sloane
from Dover Publications
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$14.95
Diary of an Early American Boy
by Eric Sloane
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Diary of an Early American Boy
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Did You Invent The Phone All Alone, Alexander Graham Bell?
by Gilda Berger, Melvin Berger
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Down the Big River
Purple House Living History Library
by Stephen W. Meader, illustrated by Edward Shenton
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$10.99
Draw 50 Boats, Ships, Trucks, and Trains
by Lee Ames
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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 Modernization Through the 1930s
by Kathy Sammis
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Escape North!
Step into Reading Level 4
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Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
by Jacqueline Kelly
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2010 Newbery Honor
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Eyewitness: Civil War
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Eyewitnesses at the Battle of Franklin
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
F is for Freedom
by Roni Schotter
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$1.50 (1 in stock)
Farmer Boy
Little House Series #3
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
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$8.99
Farmer Boy
Little House Series #3
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
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$9.99
Fear in the Forest
by Cateau de Leeuw
from Bethlehem Books
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$14.95
First Four Years
Little House Series #9
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
by T.J. Stiles
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Flight into Spring
by Bianca Bradbury
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Realistic Romantic Fiction for 6th-9th grade
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