1870s to 1914

[FedoraFan112390]

I find the era between the end of the Civil War, and the start of World War I, a fascinating period. A time which spanned from the cowboy era, the railroads, the further growth of the United States, the emergence of the U.S. as a major player on the World Stage, right up to the outbreak of the Great War. It seems a much freer, more rugged, yet in some ways also more refined time. A time when America still had untamed frontiers and a man could make anything he wanted of himself.

I am curious if there are any good books which can further illuminate what the political and social life of the United States was over this period of time? How it changed after World War I?

Where can I also read the popular journals of the day, reflecting on the issues of the times and also what they thought the future would be? I am curious for example what daily life was like in say 1911, or how they spoke or how they wrote, and what they thought the future would hold. The post Civil War and pre WWI era in America truly fascinates me and I want to learn all I possibly can - please help me?

 

[Lean'n'mean]

It seems a much freer, more rugged, yet in some ways also more refined time. A time when America still had untamed frontiers and a man could make anything he wanted of himself.

I guess that depends on one's definition of refined. Hollywood has a lot to answer for.

 

[vitanola]

Well, for a start, in one insular community, Boston, one could start with Howells' "The Rise of Sials Lapham", followed by John Marquand's remarkable "The Late George Apley".

 

[Stanley Doble]

A lot of Mark Twain's stuff fits in this period. All his travel books, The Gilded Age, and he did a lot of essays on current events like the Spanish American war, the exploitation of the Congo by King Leopold, the Austro-Hungarian constitutional crisis, his impressions of Germany, France, Italy, Austria, South Africa at the time of the Boer war, Australia, India, Hawaii and the South Pacific plus philosophical and religious speculations. He had his first big literary success in 1866 and died in 1910 so you could say he covers the period like a blanket. The only things that don't quite fit are Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, both written about his boyhood in the 1840s and 1850s. Everything else he wrote would be right in your period. He even wrote the earliest description of surfing, on a visit to Hawaii in 1866.

Twain has the added advantage that he made an effort to write as simply and clearly as possible which makes his writing a lot more accessible to the modern reader, than some of his wordier contemporaries.

 

[HudsonHawk]

One could also check out How The Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis. It will certainly give some perspective on that "refined" social life of many.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The works of Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens are also worth looking up. And if you want to get theoretical, Thorstein Velben's "Theory Of The Leisure Class" is a good book to read.