Library Catalog
On the Shelf at CCBC Libraries
The Dawn of Innovation by
In the thirty years after the Civil War, the United States blew by Great Britain to become the greatest economic power in world history. That is a well-known period in history, when titans like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan walked the earth. But as Charles R. Morris shows us, the platform for that spectacular growth spurt was built in the first half of the century. By the 1820s, America was already the world's most productive manufacturer, and the most intensely commercialized society in history. The War of 1812 jumpstarted the great New England cotton mills, the iron centers in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and the forges around the Great Lakes. In the decade after the War, the Midwest was opened by entrepreneurs. In thisbeautifully illustrated book, Morris paints a vivid panorama of a new nation buzzing with the work of creation. He also points out the parallels and differences in the nineteenth century American/British standoff and that between China and America today.
Call Number: HC105 .M73 2012
1877 by
In 1877, a decade after the Civil War, not only was the United States gripped by a deep depression, but the country was also in the throes of nearly unimaginable violence and upheaval marking the end of the brief period known as Reconstruction and a return to white rule across the South. In 1877, celebrated historian Michael Bellesiles reveals that the fires of that fated year also fueled a hothouse of cultural and intellectual innovation, with a flamboyant cast of characters from Billy the Kid to John D. Rockefeller.
Call Number: E671 .B47 2010
Realigning America by
The presidential election of 1896 is widely acknowledged as one of only a few that brought about fundamental realignments in American politics. New voting patterns replaced old, a new majority party came to power, and national policies shifted to reflect new realities. R. Hal Williams now presents the first study of that campaign in nearly fifty years, offering fresh interpretations on the victory of Republican William McKinley over Democrat William Jennings Bryan. In tracing the triumph of gold over silver in this fabled "battle of the standards," R. Hal Williams also tells how the Republicans--the party of central government, national authority, sound money, and activism--pulled off a stunning win over the Democrats--the party of state's rights, decentralization, inflation, and limited government. Meanwhile the People's Party, one of the most prominent third parties in the country's history, which also nominated Bryan, went down to a defeat from which it would never recover. Williams plunges readers into a contest that set new standards in financing, organization, and accountability, and he analyzes the transition from the long-dominant "military style" of campaign to the "educational style" that appealed to a savvier electorate. He also presents key players in new light: he views Bryan not simply as a gifted speaker whose "Cross of Gold" speech took the Democratic convention by storm, but as a more calculating politician with his eye squarely on the nomination; he depicts McKinley's campaign manager Mark Hanna not as the one-dimensional fundraising machine painted by history but rather as a shrewd, insightful politician who understood what was required to get his man elected; and he presents retiring president Cleveland as an increasingly out-of-touch, irrelevant chief executive whom the Democrats repudiated in a way no other party ever had a sitting president. With the Republicans' star on the rise and the Democrats banished to the South and the cities, the 1896 election was more than a victory of one party over another, it marked the emergence of new ways of politicking that makes this campaign especially relevant for twenty-first-century readers.
Call Number: E710 .W485 2010
Rebirth of a Nation by
"Fascinating.... A major work by a leading historian at the top of his game--at once engaging and tightly argued." --The New York Times Book Review "Dazzling cultural history: smart, provocative, and gripping. It is also a book for our times, historically grounded, hopeful, and filled with humane, just, and peaceful possibilities." --The Washington Post An illuminating and authoritative history of America in the years between the Civil War and World War I, Jackson Lears's Rebirth of a Nation was named one of the best books of 2009 by The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Call Number: E661 .L43 2009
American Abyss by
At the beginning of the twentieth century, industrialization both dramatically altered everyday experiences and shaped debates about the effects of immigration, empire, and urbanization. In American Abyss, Daniel E. Bender examines an array of sources?eugenics theories, scientific studies of climate, socialist theory, and even popular novels about cavemen?to show how intellectuals and activists came to understand industrialization in racial and gendered terms as the product of evolution and as the highest expression of civilization. Their discussions, he notes, are echoed today by the use of such terms as the "developed" and "developing" worlds. American industry was contrasted with the supposed savagery and primitivism discovered in tropical colonies, but observers who made those claims worried that industrialization, by encouraging immigration, child and women's labor, and large families, was reversing natural selection. Factories appeared to favor the most unfit. There was a disturbing tendency for such expressions of fear to favor eugenicist "remedies." Bender delves deeply into the culture and politics of the age of industry. Linking urban slum tourism and imperial science with immigrant better-baby contests and hoboes, American Abyss uncovers the complex interactions of turn-of-the-century ideas about race, class, gender, and ethnicity. Moreover, at a time when immigration again lies at the center of American economy and society, this book offers an alarming and pointed historical perspective on contemporary fears of immigrant laborers.
Call Number: HC105.7 .B38 2009
Historical Dictionary of the Gilded Age by
This concise dictionary is a comprehensive reference to the colorful period that marks the emergence of the US as a modern nation. Stretching roughly from 1877 to 1901, the Gilded Age was an era noted for extremes - vast fortunes and booming cities on the one hand; widespread poverty on the other.
Call Number: E661 .H59 2003ISBN: 0765603314
Streaming Video
- The Gilded AgeIn 1873, Mark Twain co-authored a satirical novel entitled The Gilded Age. The process of gilding involves applying a thin layer of gold to an object to make it appear more valuable. Historians adopted Twain's title to describe a period of American history characterized by prosperity and industrialization that thinly disguised blatant corruption in politics and business. This program explores many facets of the Gilded Age, including industrialization and the growth of big business, the urbanization of America, the grueling working conditions many endured, and the influence of Victorian culture on American society.
Databases
- U.S. History This link opens in a new window
Articles, essays, and primary sources on the history of the United States. - ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Articles on any subject. This is a good place to start.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun This link opens in a new window
Primary source articles covering the politics, society and events of the time period 1837 - 1992.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Journals, books, images, and primary sources about many subjects.
Census Information
Online From CCBC Libraries
The Growth of American Government, Revised and Updated Edition by
American government evolved over the generations since the mid-nineteenth century. The changing character of these institutions is a critical part of the history of the United States. This engaging survey focuses on the evolution of public policy and its relationship to the constitutional and political structure of government at the federal, state, and local levels. A new chapter in this revised and updated edition examines the debate about "big government" over the last 20 years.
Publication Date: 2014
The Presidency of Grover Cleveland by
Grover Cleveland was a contradiction to almost everyone but himself. The only member of the Democratic Party to serve as chief executive between the Civil War and World War One, Cleveland incurred the most spiteful opposition from members of his own party. Still seeking to reconcile the lingering antipathy of the Civil War, the United States was simultaneously dealing with the closing of the western frontier, industrialisation, an emerging global economy, and a governmental structure mired in exploitation and corruption. Cleveland's rise to political prominence is particularly surprising considering his insistence on integrity over favouritism and equity over partisan loyalty.
Publication Date: 2010
Democracy in Desperation by
The Panic of 1893 and the depression it triggered mark one of the decisive crises in American history. Devastating broad sections of the country like a tidal wave, the depression forced the nation to change its way of life and altered the pattern and pace of national development ever after. The depression served as the setting for the transformation from an agricultural to an industrial society, exposed grave economic and social problems, sharply tested the country's resourcefulness, reshaped popular thought, and changed the direction of foreign policy. It was a crucible in which the elements of the modern United States were clarified and refined. Yet no study to date has examined the depression in its entirety. This is the first book to treat these disparate matters in detail, and to trace and interpret the business contraction of the 1890s in the context of national economic, political, and social development. Steeples and Whitten first explain the origins of the depression, measure its course, and interpret the business recovery, giving full coverage to structural changes in the economy; namely, the growing importance of manufacturing, emergence of new industries, consolidation of business, and increasing importance of finance capitalism. The remainder of the book examines the depression's impact on society_discussing, for example, unemployment, birth rate, health, and education_and on American culture, politics and international relations. Placing the business collapse at the center of the scene, the book shows how the depression was a catalyst for ushering in a more modern America.
Publication Date: 1998
