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Published Oct 2010
624 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
The three decades after the Civil War saw a wholesale shift in American life, and the cause was capitalism. Driven by J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and others like them, armies of men and women were harnessed to a new vision of massive industry. A society rooted in the soil became one based in cities, and legions of immigrants were drawn to American shores.
H. W. Brands’s American Colossus portrays the stunning transformation of the landscape and institutions of American life in these years. Brands charts the rise of Wall Street, the growth of a national economy, the building of the railroads, and the first sparks of union life. By 1900, America was wealthier than ever, yet prosperity was precarious, inequality rampant, and democracy stretched thin. A populist backlash stirred.
American Colossus is an unforgettable portrait of the years when a recognizably modern America first took shape.
"Perhaps the only significant omission in this fast-paced, engrossing narrative is a tendency to dwell on political doctrines... while only briefly discussing the dogma of ... social Darwinism, which favored the monopolists." - Publishers Weekly
"An educational, briskly written pseudo-textbook aimed at readers outside university classrooms." - Kirkus
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
H.W. Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. A New York Times bestselling author, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography for The First American and Traitor to His Class.
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