America in Transition: From the Civil War to World War I

In the aftermath of the Civil War, America grappled with the challenges of integrating 4 million freed slaves into American society, while contending with political change in Mexico and Canada and imperial expansion westward to the Pacific at the expense of the Native populations. We will read and discuss Chapters 7–12 of Alan Taylor’s American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873 (W.W. Norton, 2024) which covers these events and ends with his conclusion in the epilogue: “Restoring the Union ultimately came by excluding southern Blacks from the liberal dream of equal opportunity.”  After Taylor, we move to a discussion of Jackson Lears’ book Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877–1920 (HarperCollins, 2009), continuing the story through the turn of the century. He characterizes the 1870s and 1880s as a period of “…widespread yearning for regeneration,” although that regeneration did not fully extend to everyone. Optimism and faith in the power of progress and the destiny of the Republic grew, only to be tested in the crucible of another war, the first World War, opening the door to yet another uncertain future. Join us!