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History of the United States (1865–1917)

The history of the United States from 1865 to 1917 was marked by the Reconstruction era, the Gilded Age, and the Progressive Era, and includes the rise of industrialization and the resulting surge of immigration in the United States.

This period of rapid economic growth and soaring prosperity in the Northern United States and the Western United States saw the U.S. become the world's dominant economic, industrial, and agricultural power. The average annual income (after inflation) of non-farm workers grew by 75% from 1865 to 1900, and then grew another 33% by 1918.[1]


With a victory in 1865 over the Southern Confederate States in the Civil War, the United States became a united nation with a stronger national government. Reconstruction brought the end of legalized slavery plus citizenship for the former slaves, but their new-found political power was rolled back within a decade, and they became second-class citizens under a "Jim Crow" system of deeply pervasive segregation that would stand for the next 80–90 years. Politically, during the Third Party System and Fourth Party System the nation was mostly dominated by Republicans (except for two Democratic presidents). After 1900 and the assassination of President William McKinley, the Progressive Era brought political, business, and social reforms (e.g., new roles for and government expansion of education, higher status for women, a curtailment of corporate excesses, and modernization of many areas of government and society). The Progressives worked through new middle-class organizations to fight against the corruption and behind-the-scenes power of entrenched, state political party organizations and big-city "machines". They demanded—and won—women's right to vote, and the nationwide prohibition of alcohol 1920–1933.


In an unprecedented wave of European immigration, 27.5 million new arrivals between 1865 and 1918[2] provided the labor base necessary for the expansion of industry and agriculture, as well as the population base for most of fast-growing urban America.


By the late nineteenth century, the United States had become a leading global industrial power, building on new technologies (such as the telegraph and steel), an expanding railroad network, and abundant natural resources such as coal, timber, oil, and farmland, to usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.


It was also during this period that the United States began to emerge as a global superpower. The U.S. easily defeated Spain in 1898, which unexpectedly brought a small empire. Cuba quickly was given independence, and the Philippines eventually became independent in 1946. Puerto Rico (and some smaller islands) became permanent U.S. territories, as did Alaska (added by purchase in 1867). The independent Republic of Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. as a territory in 1898.

Thomas Alva Edison

Turn of the century

History of the United States (1918–1945)

Timeline of the history of the United States (1860–1899)

Timeline of the history of the United States (1900–1929)

Timeline of the American Old West

Presidency of Abraham Lincoln

Presidency of Andrew Johnson

Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant

Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes

Presidency of James A. Garfield

Presidency of Chester A. Arthur

Presidency of Grover Cleveland

Presidency of Benjamin Harrison

Presidency of William McKinley

Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt

Presidency of William Howard Taft

Presidency of Woodrow Wilson

Carnes, Mark C., and , The American Nation: A History of the United States (14th ed. 2011); university and AP textbook

John A. Garraty

(2010). Outline of U.S. History. U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 2013-04-08.

Hamby, Alonzo L.

Divine, Robert A. et al. America Past and Present (8th ed. 2011), university textbook

. Give Me Liberty! An American History (3rd ed. 2011), university textbook

Foner, Eric

; Cohen, Lizabeth (2012). The American Pageant: A History of the Republic (15th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin., university textbook

Kennedy, David M.

Lynch, Timothy J., ed. (2013). . Oup USA. ISBN 978-0199759255.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History, 2 vol

Paxson, Frederic L. Recent History Of The United States 1865–1929 (1929) old survey by scholar

online

and David E. Shi. America: A Narrative History (8th ed. 2009), university textbook

Tindall, George B.

H-SHGAPE discussion forum for people studying the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Photographs of prominent politicians, 1861-1922; these are pre-1923 and out of copyright

Fordham University Links on American Imperialism

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Shapell Manuscript Foundation