Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920

by Jackson Lears

Overview

An illuminating and authoritative history of America in the years between the Civil War and World War I, Jackson Lears’s Rebirth of a Nation was named one of the best books of 2009 by The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"Fascinating.... A major work by a leading historian at the top of his game—at once engaging and tightly argued." —The New York Times Book Review

“Dazzling cultural history: smart, provocative, and gripping. It is also a book for our times, historically grounded, hopeful, and filled with humane, just, and peaceful possibilities.” —The Washington Post

In the half-century between the Civil War and World War I, widespread yearning for a new beginning permeated American public life. Dreams of spiritual, moral, and physical rebirth formed the foundation for the modern United States, inspiring its leaders with imperial ambition. Theodore Roosevelt's desire to recapture frontier vigor led him to promote U.S. interests throughout Latin America. Woodrow Wilson's vision of a reborn international order drew him into a war to end war. Andrew Carnegie's embrace of philanthropy coincided with his creation of the world's first billion-dollar corporation, United States Steel. Presidents and entrepreneurs helped usher the nation into the modern era, but sometimes the consequences of their actions failed to match the grandeur of their hopes.

Award-winning historian Jackson Lears richly chronicles this momentous period when America reunited and began to form the world power of the twentieth century. Lears vividly captures imperialists, Gilded Age mavericks, and vaudeville entertainers, and illuminates the roles played by a variety of seekers, male and female, from populist farmers to avant-garde artists and writers to progressive reformers. Some were motivated by their own visions of Christianity; all were swept up in longings for revitalization.

In these years marked by wrenching social conflict and vigorous political debate, a modern America emerged and came to dominance on a world stage. Illuminating and authoritative, Rebirth of a Nation brilliantly weaves the remarkable story of this crucial epoch into a masterful work of history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061940965
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Series:	American History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	442
Sales rank:	378,419
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Jackson Lears is Board of Governors Professor of History at Rutgers University and the editor of Raritan: A Quarterly Review. The author of Fables of Abundance (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for history), Something for Nothing, and No Place of Grace, Lears writes for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. He lives in western New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Dreaming of Rebirth 1

Chapter 1 The Long Shadow of Appomattox 12

Chapter 2 The Mysterious Power of Money 51

Chapter 3 The Rising Significance of Race 92

Chapter 4 The Country and the City 133

Chapter 5 Crisis and Regeneration 167

Chapter 6 Liberation and Limitation 222

Chapter 7 Empire as a Way of Life 276

Conclusion: Dying in Vain 327

Acknowledgments 357

Notes 361

Bibliographical Note 391

Index 407

What People are Saying About This

David Nasaw

“A remarkable book. . . . As Jackson Lears demonstrates again, he is one of the best of his (and my) generation of historians.”

Patricia O'Toole

“Jackson Lears has become the historian of American yearning. . . . He excels at the miniature portrait, and his richly associative imagination enables him to make telling use of the Cecil B. De Mille-sized case he assembled for Rebirth of a Nation.”

Tim Rutten

“Jackson Lears is a formidable, compellingly original cultural and intellectual historian. . . . Rebirth of a Nation is Lears’ most ambitious work yet, and it builds brilliantly on his earlier projects. . . . Lears’ convincing new narrative of this pivotal half century never falters.”

Cornel West

“Jackson Lears is one of the few pre-eminent historians of our time. As we dream for a rebirth of America in the age of Obama, this magnificent and magisterial book on the making of modern America could not be more timely. Don’t miss it!”

Todd Gitlin

“In Rebirth of a Nation, Jackson Lears, our most stimulating historian of American culture, outdoes himself, offering a stunning interpretive synthesis on politics, culture, and social upheaval in the pivotal half-century when ideals of regeneration assumed their modern shape, sometimes as imperial bombast, sometimes as designs for reform.”

Edward L. Ayers

“In this sweeping and charged history, Jackson Lears brilliantly evokes a defining era in American history. He recasts what we have blandly called the ‘Gilded Age,’ revealing a time of profound change, sharp conflict, and enduring consequence.”

Michael Kazin

“Jackson Lears, America’s premier cultural historian, has written the smartest and most illuminating survey of this roaring, perplexing era since Richard Hofstadter’s The Age of Reform.”

Editorial Reviews

Rebirth of a Nation is dazzling cultural history: smart, provocative and gripping. It is also a book for our times, historically grounded, hopeful and filled with humane, just and peaceful possibilities.
—The Washington Post

Charles Postel

…a fascinating cultural history…Rebirth of a Nation is a major work by a leading historian at the top of his game—at once engaging and tightly argued. Like the best histories, it is also a book that speaks to our own time.
—The New York Times

Beverly Gage

Lears (history, Rutgers Univ., Something for Nothing: Luck in America) examines the underpinnings of U.S. regeneration after the Civil War from both individual and national standpoints. For example, he shows that individuals, enabled by the Young Men's Christian Association, took part in physical fitness to transform themselves, while on the national level Southern white supremacists renewed themselves by reversing Reconstruction with their Jim Crow laws. Throughout, Lears also notes how militarism itself can be an agent of change and how Protestant Christianity added the important moral spark for regeneration. The latter insight is not new, and Lears is at his best when talking about militarism. As the Civil War faded from memory, the country looked for new wars, such as the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, and World War I, to create its heroes. Lears argues that this militarism still functions today, especially after 9/11. This is not a narrative history but more of an intellectual analysis geared to students and scholars and recommended for such readers.
—Bryan Craig

Library Journal

A cultural historian looks at America's "age of regeneration" between the end of the Civil War and World War I. The end of Reconstruction in 1877 also marked the beginning of decades of social and economic upheaval that transformed the nation from a sleepy republic to a world power. From the Civil War's widespread destruction emerged an intense longing for rebirth. Lears (History/Rutgers Univ.; Something for Nothing: Luck in America, 2003, etc.) presents this struggle between farmers and bankers, workers and industrialists, pacifists and militarists, immigrants and nativists, as a battle for the nation's soul. During this contentious period the noble Republican Party of Lincoln become the captive of big business, while the old bugaboo of race kept Northern and Southern Democrats from mobilizing an effective opposition. In richly allusive and lively prose, Lears explains how the desire for reconciliation among whites was achieved at the price of equal rights for blacks and a reign of racial terror. He examines how the populist dream of a cooperative commonwealth ultimately yielded to the elite cult of manliness and militarism, the pervasive power of capital and a managerial and political class convinced that the nation's road to renewal ran through empire. The author's cast of characters ranges from the unexpected-Harry Houdini, Buffalo Bill-to the predictable array of Gilded Age villains-mainly Morgan, Rockefeller and Carnegie. Lears clearly sympathizes with the idealists and dreamers determined to wrest meaning from the Civil War's awful sacrifice. He cites the work and commentary of people like Jane Addams, Mark Twain, William James and Eugene Debs. For him, Teddy Roosevelt was amonster and Woodrow Wilson a tragic figure, overwhelmed by dark forces. Though the author's take on the era is partisan, readers need not agree with his politics to appreciate the high style and obvious passion he brings to this difficult subject. Large-scale history with an intimate touch.

Kirkus Reviews

A remarkable book. . . . As Jackson Lears demonstrates again, he is one of the best of his (and my) generation of historians.” — David Nasaw, The American Prospect

“Jackson Lears is one of the few pre-eminent historians of our time. As we dream for a rebirth of America in the age of Obama, this magnificent and magisterial book on the making of modern America could not be more timely. Don’t miss it!” — Cornel West

“In Rebirth of a Nation, Jackson Lears, our most stimulating historian of American culture, outdoes himself, offering a stunning interpretive synthesis on politics, culture, and social upheaval in the pivotal half-century when ideals of regeneration assumed their modern shape, sometimes as imperial bombast, sometimes as designs for reform.” — Todd Gitlin

“High-concept cultural history at its provocative best. Lears is a polymath and Big Thinker.” — American History

“A fascinating cultural history. . . .A major work by a leading historian at the top of his game—at once engaging and tightly argued. Like the best histories, it is also a book that speaks to our own time.” — The New York Times Book Review

“Jackson Lears is a formidable, compellingly original cultural and intellectual historian. . . . Rebirth of a Nation is Lears’ most ambitious work yet, and it builds brilliantly on his earlier projects. . . . Lears’ convincing new narrative of this pivotal half century never falters.” — Tim Rutten, The Los Angeles Times

“Jackson Lears, America’s premier cultural historian, has written the smartest and most illuminating survey of this roaring, perplexing era since Richard Hofstadter’s The Age of Reform.” — Michael Kazin, author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan and professor of history, Georgetown University

“Jackson Lears has become the historian of American yearning. . . . He excels at the miniature portrait, and his richly associative imagination enables him to make telling use of the Cecil B. De Mille-sized case he assembled for Rebirth of a Nation.” — Patricia O'Toole, The American Scholar

“In this sweeping and charged history, Jackson Lears brilliantly evokes a defining era in American history. He recasts what we have blandly called the ‘Gilded Age,’ revealing a time of profound change, sharp conflict, and enduring consequence.” — Edward L. Ayers, University of Richmond

From the Publisher

High-concept cultural history at its provocative best. Lears is a polymath and Big Thinker.

American History

Jackson Lears is a formidable, compellingly original cultural and intellectual historian. . . . Rebirth of a Nation is Lears’ most ambitious work yet, and it builds brilliantly on his earlier projects. . . . Lears’ convincing new narrative of this pivotal half century never falters.

Tim Rutten

A fascinating cultural history. . . .A major work by a leading historian at the top of his game—at once engaging and tightly argued. Like the best histories, it is also a book that speaks to our own time.

The New York Times Book Review

In Rebirth of a Nation, Jackson Lears, our most stimulating historian of American culture, outdoes himself, offering a stunning interpretive synthesis on politics, culture, and social upheaval in the pivotal half-century when ideals of regeneration assumed their modern shape, sometimes as imperial bombast, sometimes as designs for reform.

Todd Gitlin

A remarkable book. . . . As Jackson Lears demonstrates again, he is one of the best of his (and my) generation of historians.

David Nasaw

Jackson Lears is one of the few pre-eminent historians of our time. As we dream for a rebirth of America in the age of Obama, this magnificent and magisterial book on the making of modern America could not be more timely. Don’t miss it!

Cornel West

Jackson Lears has become the historian of American yearning. . . . He excels at the miniature portrait, and his richly associative imagination enables him to make telling use of the Cecil B. De Mille-sized case he assembled for Rebirth of a Nation.

Patricia O'Toole

In this sweeping and charged history, Jackson Lears brilliantly evokes a defining era in American history. He recasts what we have blandly called the ‘Gilded Age,’ revealing a time of profound change, sharp conflict, and enduring consequence.

Edward L. Ayers

Jackson Lears, America’s premier cultural historian, has written the smartest and most illuminating survey of this roaring, perplexing era since Richard Hofstadter’s The Age of Reform.

Michael Kazin