Skip to main content

Rebirth of a Nation

You had mentioned this title, avrds. It covers the turbulent period between 1877 and 1920, seemingly from an industrial angle, although Lears appears to cover quite a bit of territory in the process:

Lears is at his inspired best when he discusses the anti-imperialist intellectuals such as Mark Twain, Jane Addams and William James, who rejected the fantasy of civilizing the Filipinos, as Twain put it, by way of "Maxim Guns and Hymn Books." Equally intriguing is Lears's treatment of the young cultural critic Randolph Bourne. During World War I, as most progressive intellectuals were seduced by the notion of regeneration by way of the bloodbath on the Western Front, Bourne remained "a champion of ambiguity." He stuck to his belief that the war would only produce state repression and inhumanity, famously observing: "War is the health of the state." "Rebirth of a Nation" is 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.

Comments

  1. I have this one coming. Would others be interested in reading this one next? Would certainly set the stage for TR.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here are a couple other odd balls I recently picked up:

    http://www.amazon.com/American-Lightning-Mystery-Hollywood-Century/dp/0307346943

    and this

    http://www.amazon.com/Day-Wall-Street-Exploded-America/dp/019514824X

    ReplyDelete
  3. This book arrived yesterday, and think I'll start on it today until the group settles on another one. Hopefully it will be a good one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Look forward to your comments. I've read a couple books from that era including Brands' The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s. It was a time of much speculation and as Blight noted in Race and Reunion the economic collapse of 1873 had a lot to do with the gutting of Reconstruction, as there was no longer the money to fund these efforts. But, the late 1890s was also the ferment for the Progressivism that took hold in the 20th century.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My comments may be few and far between, Gintaras, since this book appears to be a bit of a slog (glad we didn't choose this one).

    But it is an interesting book generally to pick up after Goodwin since he is looking at the period after the Civil War, and the reunion of what he refers to as the white north and the white south -- thus the rebirth.

    Also he notes that after suffering through such a devastating war, Americans were looking for ways that war could reflect a higher calling.

    He has presented some interesting ideas in the opening -- it may take me awhile to get to them all, however. (Just in case, I'm also bringing Lion in the White House about Roosevelt on the airplane).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Interesting to me in reading some of the reviews of books that pick up the Post-Reconstruction theme is that many chart the Progressive Movement's origins to Reconstruction times. I always thought it came later with the rise of William Jennings Bryan, but then it makes sense that Reconstruction served as a hotbed of radical and socialist thinking in regard to providing a greatere extent of social services to American citizens, although I would say that Progressivism came into being with the next generation.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's exactly where this book is headed, I think.

    And I take back my negative first impression. Once I got past the introduction where he sets out his thesis, it's really interesting. And it picks up with reconstruction, so it's like a more academic follow-up to Goodwin.

    I'll try to post more from it as I have time.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!