(Social and intellectual developments): Lightly documented but brilliantly insightful is Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 2 vol. (1835; originally published in French, 1835), available in many later editions. Edward Pessen, Riches, Class, and Power Before the Civil War (1973), challenges Tocqueville’s version of equality in Jacksonian America. Other useful treatments are William H. Pease and Jane H. Pease, The Web of Progress: Private Values and Public Styles in Boston and Charleston, 1828–1843 (1985); and Barbara Welter, Dimity Convictions: The American Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1976); Rush Welter, The Mind of America, 1820–1860 (1975); Martin Duberman (ed.), The Antislavery Vanguard (1965); and David Brion Davis (comp.), Ante-Bellum Reform (1967).
(Jacksonian politics): Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson (1945, reissued 1953), is an influential study that stimulated a great array of refutations of its pro-Jackson interpretation, including Edward Pessen, Jacksonian America, new ed. (1978, reprinted 1985). A stimulating if not always convincing comparison of Jacksonian and earlier America is Robert H. Wiebe, The Opening of American Society: From the Adoption of the Constitution to the Eve of Disunion (1984). Richard P. McCormick, The Second American Party System (1966, reissued 1973), is an influential study. Michael Paul Rogin, Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian (1975), is brilliant, original, and controversial. John M. Belohlavek, Let the Eagle Soar!: The Foreign Policy of Andrew Jackson (1985), fills a void in the Jacksonian literature.
(Expansionism): Bernard De Voto, The Year of Decision, 1846 (1942, reissued 1989); and K. Jack Bauer, The Mexican War, 1846–1848 (1974), are scholarly treatments. Edward Pessen
The Civil War
Syntheses of modern scholarship are James M. McPherson, Ordeal by Fire (1982); and J.G. Randall and David Donald, The Civil War and Reconstruction, 2nd ed. rev. (1969). Allan Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 8 vol. (1947–71), provides a comprehensive history. Clement Eaton, A History of the Old South, 3rd ed. (1975, reissued 1988), is a general history of the region. Full, critical assessments of slavery are provided by Kenneth M. Stampp, The Peculiar Institution (1956, reprinted 1978); and the study on slavery by Genovese, cited in the section covering 1816 to 1850. A perceptive account of the political conflicts of the late 1850s is Roy F. Nichols, The Disruption of American Democracy (1948, reissued 1967); while Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case (1978), offers an analysis of the constitutional issues. Jean H. Baker, Affairs of Party (1983), discusses the strong partisan attachments of ordinary citizens. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), is an engrossing narrative history of the Civil War. Comprehensive coverage of the Confederate military effort in the East is Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, a Study in Command, 3 vol. (1942–44, reissued 1970–72); while Warren W. Hassler, Jr., Commanders of the Army of the Potomac (1962, reprinted 1979), does the same for the Federals. Studies of the war in the Mississippi valley include Thomas L. Connelly, Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee, 1861–1862 (1967), and Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862–1865 (1971). An examination of the Gettysburg battle is Edwin B. Coddington, The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command (1968, reissued 1984). Virgil Carrington Jones, The Civil War at Sea, 3 vol. (1960–62), describes the naval war. David Herbert Donald Warren W. Hassler
Reconstruction
Excellent syntheses of scholarship on the Reconstruction period are Rembert W. Patrick, The Reconstruction of the Nation (1967); John Hope Franklin, Reconstruction (1961); and Kenneth M. Stampp, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877 (1965, reprinted 1975). The fullest account of blacks’ experience in the postwar years are Leon F. Litwack, Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery (1979); and Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988). C. Vann Woodward, Reunion and Reaction (1951, reissued 1966), covers behind-the-scenes political and economic negotiations in the disputed 1876–77 election. A definitive account of the South in the post-Reconstruction era is C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877–1913 (1951, reissued 1971). Important studies of postwar race relations include C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, 3rd rev. ed. (1974, reissued 1982); and Joel Williamson, The Crucible of Race (1984). David Herbert Donald
The transformation of American society, 1865–1900
(National expansion): A comprehensive study of the American “frontiers” of the period is Harold E. Briggs, Frontiers of the Northwest: A History of the Upper Missouri Valley (1940, reissued 1950). Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains (1931, reprinted 1981), is a scholarly classic; see also Ray Allen Billington and Martin Ridge, Westward Expansion, 5th ed. (1982); and Rodman W. Paul, The Far West and the Great Plains in Transition, 1859–1900 (1988). Henry E. Fritz, The Movement for Indian Assimilation, 1860–1890 (1963, reprinted 1981), traces the development of this policy after the Civil War. Studies of the occupation of the Plains by the farmers are Fred A. Shannon, The Farmer’s Last Frontier: Agriculture, 1860–1897 (1945, reprinted 1977); and Gilbert C. Fite, The Farmers’ Frontier, 1865–1900 (1966, reissued 1987).
(Industrial development): Edward C. Kirkland, Industry Comes of Age (1961), recounts development from the Civil War to 1897. Samuel P. Hays, The Response to Industrialism, 1885–1914 (1957), offers a perceptive appraisal of the impact of industry on American life. Discussion of the trade unions during the second half of the 19th century is Norman J. Ware, The Labor Movement in the United States, 1860–1895 (1929, reprinted 1964).
(Politics): Sean Dennis Cashman, America in the Gilded Age: From the Death of Lincoln to the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, 2nd ed. (1988), provides an overview of the era. Leonard D. White, The Republican Era, 1869–1901 (1958, reissued 1965), presents a careful and useful analysis. H. Wayne Morgan, From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877–1896 (1969); and Harold U. Faulkner, Politics, Reform, and Expansion, 1890–1900 (1959, reissued 1963), are also valuable. Studies of populism include John D. Hicks, The Populist Revolt (1931, reprinted 1981); and Lawrence Goodwyn, Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America (1976). Harold Whitman Bradley The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica