Extra reading for US history after the Civil War and before WWI?

[Kendall]

I am looking for non fiction books or excerpts of books that my girls can read to go along with history. We are using A History of the American People by Paul Johnson. We read the first half last year. Now we are reading from the Civil War on.  They can do the reading in 3 days a week and I want to use the other 2 days for more in depth look at anything.  So far we have used some of Fleeing For Freedom about the Underground Railroad. We also used a children's book on Nicodemus, KS which spanned from soon after the Civil war to 1990's.

 

The reading level can be children's fiction or adult. I'm looking for books that they can read chapters or portions of if it is a longer adult book. I'm open to great things after WWI but the time between Civil and WWI is harder to find so I am particularly interested in those.

 

I'm not getting anywhere with internet searches. Tomorrow I will go to a few libraries and scan the shelves, but I'd love to have recommendations.

 

Thanks,

Kendall 

[eagleynne]

You could look at 1877: America's Year of Living Violently or Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America 1877-1920. They are written for an adult audience, but they the period you're looking for.

[Lori D.]

Sometimes it is easier to find books if you list what key events/people were going on in the time period of interest, and then look in the library files for books about those specific events or people. Examples:

 

1850s-1900s = Christianity: the Third Great Awakening; rapid growth of Catholic Church with immigrants

1860s-1930s = Thomas Alva Edison inventing

1865-1913 = industrialization

1865-1877 = Reconstruction

1869-1877 = transcontinental railroad

1865-1890s = American West

1870s-1900s = "robber barons", monopolies, newspaper publishing "empires"

1870s-1960s = Jim Crow laws, lynchings, race riots, segregation, Ku Klux Klan

1870s = locust plagues in the U.S. midwest

1875 = Statue of Liberty begun

1875-1890 = Native Americans forced en masse to reservations

1876 = Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone

1880-1915 = immigration, Ellis Island

1880s-1900s = Tuskeegee University founded; Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver

1889 = Oklahoma Land Rush

1890s = Helen Keller taught to communicate by Annie Sullivan

1890s-1920 = women's suffragette movement

1893 = Chicago World Fair

1898 = Spanish American War, Teddy Roosevelt

1900s-1920s = labor reform, child labor laws

1903-1914 = US building of the Panama Canal

1904 = St. Louis first US city to host the modern Olympics (Athens 1896, Paris 1900 were the first 2)

1911 = Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (brought poor working conditions to light)

 

For more ideas on key events/people, check out the different "movements" of US History:

Reconstruction (1865-1877)

Jim Crow Era (1876-1965)

Gay Nineties (1890s)

Progressive Era (1890s-1920s)

Edited September 24, 2017 by Lori D.

[Kendall]

Thank so much! The college library has 1877 which I'll pick up today to preview. Thanks, Lori, for the list of  subjects. Last night I was trying to get a list like that by searching for library of congress and dewey sub sections but didn't get to anything near as helpful as your list. The subjects you listed will get me call numbers and then I can browse. I enjoy reading books and picking sections(or whole books) for my kids. So many books so little time...

 

 

[Lori D.]

...Thanks, Lori, for the list of  subjects. Last night I was trying to get a list like that by searching for library of congress and dewey sub sections but didn't get to anything near as helpful as your list. ..

 

Glad that helped. Skimming online timelines, the table of contents in a history text, and Wikipedia are all very helpful for pulling together quick lists of key events/people. :)