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Offering new research on strategic factors in the development of the nineteenth century American economy--labor, capital, and political structure--the contributors to this volume employ a methodology innovated by Robert W. Fogel, one of the leading pioneers of the "new economic history."Fogel's work is distinguished by the application of economic theory and large-scale quantitative evidence to long-standing historical questions.

These sixteen essays reveal, by example, the continuing vitality of Fogel's approach.The authors use an astonishing variety of data, including genealogies, the U.S. federal population census manuscripts, manumission and probate records, firm accounts, farmers' account books, and slave narratives, to address collectively market integration and its impact on the lives of Americans.The evolution of markets in agricultural and manufacturing labor is considered first; that concerning capital and credit follows.The demography of free and slave populations is the subject of the third section, and the final group of papers examines the extra-market institutions of governments and unions. ... Read more

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In Dr. Hanson's work, each chapter clearly and effectively juxtaposes an English and an American Writer who utilizes similar themes and patterns in their stories and who as it were, generally lived and wrote during common or close decades within the century. In identifying common themes of women writers in the American South and the English North, she not only highlights finer terrains of culture and literature but also, paradoxically, bridges these two unique locales and brings them closer together. The Deep South, the Far North - south of the Mason-Dixon Line in the United States, or north of the River Trent in Great Britain, all is fair game to the metropolitan pundits to point to the distinction, and consider with little sympathy or understanding. Rarely do they allow the writers who live in or write about those outlandish regions to come with full justice into the center. Yet the true center is a region that the metropolitan crowd can hardly know with any exactitude.A talented and interesting spoiler from the boondocks or outback rarely regards the center of artistic judgement to be some geographical point of reference in the capital city, but rather as a zone in the middle of themselves, a more vital place from where their work comes, and the only one which can matter. The best art only ever came out of a single creative source - if art it can still be called while its practitioners are still alive, and before history or forgetfulness has or had not carried all away. If such writers are anywhere at all at the present time it will be thanks to Gillian Hanson and her illuminating book, an informative co-ordination that points to the fact - a fair supposition - that writers out of the so-called center, but with the English language at their common disposal, are connected more to each other than to the respective centers in their own countries. I like that. Such an original concept has a ring of positive and encouraging truth. It must be inspiring too, to those writers who have had the privilege of being grouped in this way.The critical faculties of the reviewers in England - and elsewhere, for all I know - are beamed onto those novels they purport most to understand, and though one can hardly blame them for that, there occasionally comes a feeling that their readers are not being realistically informed of what is being written. Complaints are invidious, of course, since good writing about people who don't normally appear in novels and stories will sooner or later find its rightful place. It often does, even so, but this excellent book by Gillian Hanson, meant for the general reader such as you or myself, and therefore enjoyable to read, will play a part in the necessary process. It can't do anything but good, both for those she writes about with such sympathy and perception, and for the reader who will without a doubt end the book by being better and more clearly informed. ... Read more

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Which Americans have had the most influence on the 20th century? A number of prominent historians, writers, business leaders and publishers were polled, resulting in these short biographies of 100 important Americans. ... Read more

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More than 100 important innovations in ceramics in thelast 100 years are individually described. These include such majoradvances as the float glass process, continuous glass fibers and glasswool, the zirconia oxygen sensor, honeycomb ceramics, tape casting andmultilayer ceramics, advances in tunnel kilns, low loss optical fiber,dental ceramics, basic oxygen steelmaking refractories, and uraniumdioxide as a nuclear fuel. In addition, a summary of progress inceramics is given that relates ceramic advances to general trends inthe progress of science and industrial development. ... Read more

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A brief biography of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Washington Post publisher who helped lead the newspaper's coverage of the Watergate scandal. ... Read more

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This is a study of why large numbers of Southern black Americans migrated to Chicago during the years 1915-1960. It seeks to explain the causation, motivation, and rationale based on the internal feelings and aspirations of the migrants. It also seeks to find internal motivation for the migration that is as strong as, or stronger than, the usual theory of the "push-pull" economic cycle. ... Read more

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This volume presents a new theory of American politics developed through an investigation of the alternation of reform and reaction over the last century. By employing historical examples and resurveying the chronological territory chapter by chapter, the study details the development and decline of liberal reform movements and focuses on the similarities between eras of reform and reactionary phases and the interrelationship of reform movements over the decades. ... Read more

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A history of the United States in the twentieth century, featuring sociological and cultural events, as well as strictly historical, and using many pertinent literary excerpts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It was a great book.
it was a great book that depicts our lives in the twentieth century and is extremely interesting. i love all of gary nash's books and find them all extremely important to have. ... Read more

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The fifth volume of the PIP series features the work of innovative poets of Southern California. This group of 25 poets does not write a particular "kind" of poetry but has worked together through a series of intersecting ideas and interests to create some of the best writing of contemporary poetry, contradicting many of the simplistic notions of the nation regarding this region of the country. In his introduction, Messerli presents an original history of the literary scene in Southern California and outlines its many -contributions to American culture and the shared interests of these poets.

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Beginning with America's struggle to rebuild after a harrowing Civil War to a burst of growth, both physical and industrial, that led to it becoming a world superpower, this visually engaging and informative book gives the reader everything one needs to know about American History from the Reconstruction to the end of the 20th Century. From 1880, AMERICAN HISTORY 101 follows the transformation of the United States from a relatively small, remote, and isolated outpost to the richest, most powerful, and most influential nation in the world. It also covers a period that produced some of the world's most unforgettable characters-and some of America's proudest (and not so proud) moments. AMERICAN HISTORY 101 is crammed with special features, including lists of who's who, biographical and little-known facts, and a host of photo's, cartoons, and vintage illustrations. As the author, Richard Rubin says about AMERICAN HISTORY 101, "What happens to you today has a great deal to do with what happened to other people a century ago; what you do tomorrow is influenced, whether you know it or not, by what other people did yesterday. In learning about our history, we invariably learn a lot about ourselves too."

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Customer Reviews (1)

Highly informative and entertaining
This book was easy to read as well as informative.This book sparked the imagination of my children ages 12 and 17. ... Read more