Product Description
by William Barney (Editor)
A Companion to 19th-Century America is an authoritative overview of current historiographical developments and major themes in the history of nineteenth-century America. Twenty-seven scholars, all specialists in their own thematic areas, examine the key debates and historiography. A thematic and chronological organization brings together the major time periods, politics, the Civil War, economy, and social and cultural history of the nineteenth century. Written with the general reader in mind, each essay surveys the historical research, the emerging concerns, and assesses the future direction of scholarship.
- Complete coverage of all the major themes and current debates in nineteenth-century US history assessing the state of the scholarship and future concerns.
- 24 original essays by leading experts in nineteenth-century American history complete with up-to-date bibliographies.
- Chronological and thematic organization covers both traditional and contemporary fields of research - politics, periods, economy, class formation, ethnicity, gender roles, regions, culture and ideas.
Back Jacket
A Companion to 19th-Century America presents the most up-to-date interpretations of the wide range of historical experience in nineteenth-century America. Twenty-seven scholars - all specialists in their own thematic areas - demonstrate how nineteenth-century American historiography has evolved, summarize current historical research, and assess the future direction of scholarship. Coverage of topics encompasses not only the traditional areas of political, economic, and diplomatic history but also more recent fields of academic enquiry such as the social construction of race, ethnicity, gender, class formations, and cultural identities.
Intended for scholars, students, and general readers of modern American history, this volume stands alone in providing a historiographical overview of nineteenth-century America that is both complete in its coverage and cutting-edge in its interpretations. Each chapter includes a select bibliography which serves as a convenient reference to additional reading.
Author Biography
William L. Barney is Professor of American History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has specialized in the history of the United States in the nineteenth century, especially the Civil War period, and is the author of The Road to Secession (1972), Flawed Victory: A New Perception of the Civil War (1975), and co-edited The American Journey: A History of the United States (1997). In 1987 he was a Fulbright Professor at the University of Genoa in Italy and served as Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor at the University of North Carolina from 1990 to 1993.
