New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905
by Rebecca Edwards
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Book Summary Information
Author: Rebecca EdwardsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-12-08
ISBN: 0195147294
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905
Book Review: Forgotten age
Summary: 4 Stars
Dr. Edwards newest book is a smash for history buffs. The book attacks the Gilded age with a fresh thematic style that avoids the stuffy typical academic style. She does a great job covering the social issues and doesn't get bogged down in the militarism of the period either. She does a super job exposing the racism and crushing ambivalence of unrestrained capitalism of the age and still has room for a chapter on the sexual mores of the era.
There was one draw back though, in avoiding the academic style she decided not to use footnotes which hampers us graduate students from following in her foot prints. For example what student would fail to be motivated to read a first hand source that contains this information, "and one infamous book instructed married couples to schedule sexual intercourse once every three years, between the hours of 11 A.M. and noon. The author even made recommendations on what to eat that day for breakfast" Now how will a dutiful student ever know what that fortifying morning repast should consist of without a footnote to the primary source?
I liked how Dr. Edwards ended her book. Edwards ends her work with an epilogue that ties the whole book back to her philosophical guide, Walt Whitman, in the guise of a guided tour of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. She mixes the optimism characteristic of Americans with the depredations characteristic of unchecked capitalists. She ends on a haunting note that actually stirs the heart of a historian to wonder what comes next. And so we grad students move out to discover that answer...
Summary of New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905
New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905 provides a fascinating look at one of the most crucial chapters in U.S. history. Rejecting the stereotype of a "Gilded Age" dominated by "robber barons," author Rebecca Edwards invites us to look more closely at the period when the United States became a modern industrial nation and asserted its place as a leader on the world stage. Employing a concise, engaging narrative, Edwards recounts the contradictions of the era, including stories of tragedy and injustice alongside tales of humor, endurance, and triumph. She offers a balanced perspective that considers a number of different viewpoints, including those of native-born Anglos, Native Americans, African Americans, and an array of Asian, Mexican, and European immigrants. Beginning with Emancipation and ending with the first deployment of U.S. troops overseas, New Spirits traces the roots of today's diverse and conflicted nation. Organized around major themes, the text consists of three parts. Opening with the legacies of the Civil War, Part I focuses on the era's political and economic transformations. Part II explores upheavals in family life, scientific thought, and religious faith. Part III follows the depression of the 1890s and its aftermath. The book reveals a world of hopeful immigrants and striving professionals; generations in conflict with one another; a new West and South; and religious, political, intellectual, and sexual experimentation. Offering a fresh, sweeping narrative, New Spirits is ideal for readers seeking an introduction to this critical epoch, and for undergraduate and graduate courses on the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, and 20th-century U.S. history.19th Century Books
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