Facts on File Victorian America, 1876-1913 (Almanacs of American Life)

Features essays, statistical data, period photographs, maps, and documents. From the Back Cover Victorian America, 1876 to 1913 investigates America during a period of immense innovation and profound change. Illustrating numerous aspects of American life, both public and private, the book is a kind of mosaic, from which we discover what Americans ate, what they wore, what they did for entertainment, what songs they sang, what games they played, what books they read, who they voted for, what they worried about, how much they earned and how they spent it, what they grew, manufactured and produced, how they did or did not provide social services, how they celebrated themselves in three World's Fairs, and much, much more. Readers will find in these pages many perspectives on the culture, the arts, the economy, the politics and the conditions of ordinary life in the United States during the period between the Civil War and World War I. They will find evidence of diversity, growth and prosperity, as well as of bigotry, economic blight and miserable existences wasted in ill-compensated toil. They will find the mansions of Newport and the slums of the Lower East Side, the open door to immigrants and the confinement of the Indians of the western frontier, the capital accumulation of the robber barons and the struggles of workers - including child labor - for dignity and decent wages. They will find the overwhelming development of technology - for example, the invention and spread of the light bulb, the telephone, the automobile, the airplane and the movies - as it fueled the country's growth and changed America forever. In short, Victorian America, 1876 to 1913 reflects all the variety and contradiction of American life in this extraordinary historical era. Carefully chosen andrepresentative information, in a concise, easy-to-use mix of documents, text, tables and illustrations, allows the reader to sample the texture and flavor of Victorian America. About the Author Crandall Shifflett is professor of history at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he teaches African-American, southern and Appalachian history.