The end of the Civil War in 1865 marked a major watershed in American, and indeed world history. To begin, the Union would endure -- the great experiment of the nation state with a democratically elected government in Lincoln's phrase -- of the people, by the people and for the people, would go on and thrive. To be sure, state's rights would remain strong, but the superiority of the federal government would never be challenged again. It was now the United States of America, not the United States of America.
Reconstruction
Presidential Reconstruction
Radical Reconstruction
Presidential Impeachment
Secondly, the clash between the agrarian South and the industrial North had paved the way for a future that would be dominated by the rise of great cities and powerful industrial giants fuelled by a growing demand for consumer goods. Technology was seen as a way to improve one's living standard and conditions and was applied as an elixir to all the problems of the world. Blind faith in technology resulted in such catastrophes as the Titanic.
The Gilded Age
The Titans of the Gilded Age - Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan
New Attitudes About Wealth
Politics in the Gilded Age
The Rise of American Labor
The Great Upheaval
The American Federation of Labor
The Ugly Side of Cities
A New Wave of Immigrants
Literature and Art in the Gilded Age
Rapid Urbanization
The Growing Cult of Sports and Leisure
Money in Newspapers
Another outcome of the Civil War was the continued expansion of the nation across the continent. Manifest Destiny became a reality, as Southerners tried to start anew, Northerners speculated on future riches, and adventurers from both sections sought to stake their claim to the last American frontier of the west.
This newly transformed America thrust the young country headlong into the spotlight of the world a second time. However, unlike the Revolutionary War, which garnered international discussion as to whether or not a nation really could be governed on democratic principles, the period leading from Reconstruction to World War I saw America take its place for the first time as a mover and shaker of world events.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
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