The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890sUniversity of Chicago Press, 2002 M03 15 - 375 pages "Large-scale economic change, job uncertainty, the politics of extremism and paranoia, arguments over America's international role, racial conflicts. Sound familiar?"(Fritz Lanham, Houston Chronicle) Just as we do today, Americans of the 1890s faced changes in economics, politics, society, and technology that led to wrenching and sometimes violent tensions between rich and poor, capital and labor, white and black, East and West. In The Reckless Decade, H. W. Brands demonstrates that we can learn a lot about the contradictions that lie at the heart of America today by looking at them through the lens of the 1890s. The 1890s saw the closing of the American frontier and a shift toward imperialist ambitions. Populists and muckrakers grappled with robber barons and gold-bugs. Americans addressed the unfinished business of Reconstruction by separating blacks and whites. Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and other black leaders clashed over the proper response to continuing racial inequality. Those on top of the economic heap—Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan—created vast empires of wealth, while those at the bottom worked for dimes a day. Brands brings all this to life in a vivid narrative filled with larger-than-life characters facing momentous challenges as they worked toward an uncertain future. |
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Adams African-Americans Alliance alternating current Altgeld American army bankers blacks Bois Browne Bryan Carnegie cars century Chicago Civil Cleveland Coin Congress court Coxey Coxey's Coxey's army Coxeyites Croker crowd Cuba Cuban Debs declared demanded Democratic dollar economic Edison election farmers federal fight fire forces free silver Frick frontier gold Hanna hijackers Hinky Dink Homestead Homestead strike House hundred Indians industrial issue Jim Crow Jim Crow law Kicking Bear labor land leaders McKinley McKinley's million Morgan Negro never Olney party Pennsylvania Philippines Pinkertons Plunkitt political Populists president Pullman Pullman Company race railroad Republican Richard Croker Rockefeller Rockefeller's Roosevelt Senate silver silverites South Southern Southern Alliance Spanish steel strike strikers Sutton Tammany thought thousand tion took Tourgée train troops Turner union United vote wanted Washington West William Jennings Bryan workers wrote Yerkes York