Allen, The Big Change: America Transforms Itself: 1900-1950 (1952)

Frederick Lewis Allen.
The Big Change: America Transforms Itself: 1900-1950.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952.
New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
London: Routledge, 1993.

Book Information: Publisher, Routledge; Google Books; Amazon.com.

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Author Information:

• Frederick Lewis Allen (1890–1954), Wikipedia.
• Frederick Lewis Allen, Harper's Magazine (subscription required).
• Frederick Lewis Allen. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s. New York: Harper & Row, 1931. New York: HarperCollins, 2010.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Frederick Lewis Allen. The Lords of Creation. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935. Open Road Media, 2014.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Frederick Lewis Allen. Since Yesterday: The 1930's in America, September 3, 1929 to September 3, 1939. New York: Harper & Row, 1940. New York: HarperCollins, 1986.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Frederick Lewis Allen. The Great Pierpont Morgan. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949. Open Road Media, 2016.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Audio: Frederick Lewis Allen

• Eleanor Ruggles, Maurice Herzog, and Frederick Lewis Allen, "Book and Author Luncheon," New York Herald Tribune and the American Booksellers Association, The NYPR Archive Collections, WNYC, 10 March 1953.
  Mr. Allen's talk begins around time 34:30.
  • Eleanor Ruggles (1916–2008), Wikipedia (German).
  • Gloria Negri, "Eleanor O'Leary, 92; was biographer, book reviewer," The Boston Globe, 20 July 2008.
  • Eleanor Ruggles. Prince of Players: Edwin Booth. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1953.
    [Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Maurice Herzog (1919–2012), Wikipedia.
  • Maurice Herzog. Annapurna. 1951. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1952.
    [Wikipedia; Google Books, 1952; Amazon.com, 2010.]

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Wikipedia Articles:

• History of the United States: 20th century.
• Economic history of the United States: Early 20th century.

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The author Frederick Lewis Allen is best known today for his popular histories of the 1920s and 1930s in Only Yesterday and Since Yesterday. However, The Big Change is not like those previous books.

Two aspects of the The Big Change stand out for me. First, the book focuses on the contrast between 1900 and 1950. History usually tells a story of the path between points A and B, rather than just describing conditions at A and B. The Big Change does not go into much detail about how various social changes, political reforms, business developments, and technological innovations occurred. While the character of life in 1900 and the dramatic changes visible by 1950 are well described by Allen and very interesting to me, I found this part of the book unsatisfying.

Second, the historical change in the United States between 1900 and 1950 is subordinate to another aspect of the book. I dislike the following phrase, but it concisely, and I think accurately, describes The Big Change: "Cold War propaganda". Recall that the book was published in 1952 and Cold War pressures clearly influenced Allen in writing the book. You can hear this in Allen's talk at the "Book and Author Luncheon" (link above). The primary objective of The Big Change is to instruct Cold War critics of the United States, foreign and domestic, about the positive aspects American society. As much as I may agree with Allen, nevertheless, reading this book 65 years after its publication and 26 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this defensive aspect of the book seems awkward.

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Dennett, The South As It Is: 1865-1866 (2010)

John Richard Dennett.
The South As It Is: 1865-1866.
Edited and with a New Introduction by Caroline E. Janney.
Tuscaloosa: University Alabama Press, 2010.

Book Information: Publisher, 2010; Google Books, 2010; Amazon.com, 2010.

Previously published as:
John Richard Dennett.
The South as It Is: 1865-1866.
Edited, and with an Introduction, by Henry M. Christman.
New York: Viking Press, 1965.
Reprinted: Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995.

The book is a collection of 36 articles published in the Nation magazine from 08 July 1865 through 11 April 1866.

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Author Information:

• John Richard Dennett (1838-1874).
• Obituary of John Richard Dennett, The New York Times, 29 November 1874.
  (Subscription required to view obituary online.)
• "The Class Poets," The Harvard Register: An Illustrated Monthly, Volume 3, Number 7, Pages 426-428, July 1881.
  [Google Books, Michigan copy; Google Books, California copy.]
• "John Richard Dennett," The Fifth Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1862 of Harvard College, Pages 136-138, December 1882.
  [Google Books.]
• The only information I found for the author is in the editor's introduction by Caroline Janney. I obtained the above references from her introduction.

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Editor Information:

• Caroline E. Janney, Department of History, Purdue University.
• Caroline E. Janney, C-SPAN.

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Other Contemporary Accounts of the Post Civil War South:

• Carl Schurz (1829–1906), "The Condition of the South: Extracts from the Report of Major-General Carl Schurz, on the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana: Addressed to the President," 1865.
  [Archive.org.]
  Reprinted: Carl Schurz, "Report on the Condition of the South," Pages 279-374, in Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1: 1852-1870. Edited by Frederic Bancroft. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1913.
  [Google Books; Archive.org, California; Archive.org, Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection; Archive.org, Toronto.]
  Reprinted: Carl Schurz. Report on the Condition of the South. Arno Press and The New York Times, 1969.
  [Google Books.]
• Sidney Andrews (1837-1880). The South Since the War. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866.
  [Archive.org, Wellesley College.]
  Reprinted: Sidney Andrews. The South since the War. Abridged with a new Introduction by Heather Cox Richardson. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Whitelaw Reid (1837–1912). After the War: A Southern Tour. May 1, 1865, to May 1, 1866. New York: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1866. London: Sampson Low, Son & Co., 1866.
  [Archive.org.]
  Reprinted: Whitelaw Reid. After the War: A Tour of the Southern States, 1865-1866. Edited by C. Vann Woodward. New York: Harper Torchbooks (Harper & Row), 1965.
  [Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• J. T. Trowbridge (1827–1916). The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities, A Journey Through the Desolated States, and Talks with the People. Hartford, Conn.: L. Stebbins, 1866.
  [Archive.org, Library of Congress; Archive.org, Northeastern University.]
  Reprinted: John Townsend Trowbridge. The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities, A Journey Through the Desolated States, and Talks with the People, 1867. J.H. Segars, editor. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2006.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• J. T. Trowbridge (1827–1916). A Picture of the Desolated States; and the Work of Restoration. 1865-1868. Hartford, Conn.: L. Stebbins, 1868.
  [Archive.org, Library of Congress; Archive.org, Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection; Archive.org, New York Public Library; Archive.org, Toronto.]
• George Washington Cable (1844–1925). The Silent South together with The Freedman's Case in Equity and The Convict Lease System. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1885.
  [Archive.org, California; Archive.org, Toronto.]
• Alexander K. McClure (1828–1909). The South: Its Industrial, Financial, and Political Condition. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1886.
  [Archive.org, Library of Congress; Archive.org, Toronto.]
• Lewis H. Blair (1834–1916). The Prosperity of the South Dependent Upon the Elevation of the Negro. Richmond, Va.: Everett Waddey, 1889.
  [Google Books; Archive.org, NYPL.]
  Reprinted: Lewis H. Blair. A Southern Prophecy: The Prosperity of the South Dependent Upon the Elevation of the Negro. Edited with an Introduction by C. Vann Woodward. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1964.
  [Google Books; Archive.org; Amazon.com.]
• George Washington Cable (1844–1925). The Southern Struggle for Pure Government: An Address. Boston: Press of Samuel Usher, 1890.
  [Archive.org, Emory.]
• Ida B. Wells (1862–1931). Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. New York: The New York Age Printers, 1892.
  [Archive.org, Project Gutenberg.]
  Reprinted: Ida B. Wells. Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, Second Edition. Edited with an Introduction by Jacqueline Jones Royster. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martins (Macmillan), 2016.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  Reprinted: Ida B. Wells. The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Mia Bay. New York: Penguin Classics, 2014.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Kate Cumming (1830–1909). Gleanings from Southland: Sketches of Life and Manners of the People of the South before, during and after the War of Secession, with Extracts from the Author's Journal and Epitome of the New South. Birmingham [Ala.]: Roberts & Son, 1895.
  [Archive.org, Library of Congress.]
• Booker T. Washington (1856–1915). Up from Slavery. New York: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1901.
  [Wikipedia; Archive.org, Wellesley College; Archive.org, North Carolina; Archive.org, Toronto.]
  Reprinted: Booker T. Washington. Up from Slavery. With an Introduction and Notes by Louis R. Harlan. Penguin Classics, 1986.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  Reprinted: Booker T. Washington. Up from Slavery. (Dover Thrift Editions.) Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1995.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  Reprinted: Booker T. Washington. Up from Slavery. (Norton Critical Editions.) Edited by William L. Andrews. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  Reprinted: Booker T. Washington. Up from Slavery: with Related Documents. (Bedford Series in History & Culture.) Edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's (Macmillan), 2002.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Edgar Gardner Murphy (1869–1913). Problems of the Present South: A Discussion of Certain of the Educational, Industrial and Political Issues in the Southern States. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904.
  [Archive.org, California; Archive.org, Library of Congress.]
• [Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas (1834-1907).] The Secret Eye: The Journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Edited by Virginia Ingraham Burr. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Wikipedia Articles:

• History of the Southern United States: Reconstruction (1863–1877).
• History of the Southern United States: Origins of the New South (1877–1913).

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Gilmore & Sugrue, These United States: A Nation in the Making, 1890 to the Present (2015)

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore and Thomas J. Sugrue.
These United States: A Nation in the Making, 1890 to the Present.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

There are also textbook versions of this book:

• These United States: A Nation in the Making: 1890 to the Present.
• These United States: A Nation in the Making: 1945 to the Present.

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Book Reviews:

• David M. Kennedy, "‘These United States,’ by Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore and Thomas J. Sugrue," The New York Times, 20 November 2015.
  READ KENNEDY'S BOOK REVIEW.
• David Gordon, "Gilmore and Sugrue On American History," Mises Wire, 14 November 2015.
• Patricia A. Schechter, "Review," Journal of Southern History, Volume 83, Number 3, Pages 722-723, August 2017.
• Eric Herschthal, "The Unmaking of America," The Slate Book Review, Slate.com, November 2015.

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Video: Gilmore & Sugrue

• Glenda Gilmore and Thomas Sugrue, "These United States," Labyrinth Books, Princeton, New Jersey, BookTV, C-SPAN, 20 November 2015.
  • Labyrinth Books, Princeton, New Jersey.

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Author Information: Glenda Gilmore

• Glenda Gilmore, Department of History, Yale University.
• Glenda Gilmore, Wikipedia.
• Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore. Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore. Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Author Information: Thomas J. Sugrue

• Thomas J. Sugrue, New York University.
• Thomas J. Sugrue, personal website.
• Thomas Sugrue, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
• Thomas J. Sugrue, Distinguished Lectureship Program, Organization of American Historians.
• Thomas J. Sugrue, C-SPAN.
• Thomas Sugrue (b. 1962), Wikipedia.
• Thomas J. Sugrue. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, Updated Edition. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996; 2014.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Kevin M. Kruse and Thomas J. Sugrue, editors. The New Suburban History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Thomas J. Sugrue. Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North. New York: Random House, 2008.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Thomas J. Sugrue. Not Even Past: Barack Obama and the Burden of Race. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Video and Audio: Glenda Gilmore

• Glenda Gilmore, "Defying Dixie," Georgia Center for the Book, Atlanta, Georgia, WGBHForum, 2008?
• Glenda Gilmore and Gus T. Renegade, "The C.O.W.S w: Dr. Glenda Gilmore, North Carolina, Gender and Jim Crow," The Context of White Supremacy, 27 December 2016.
  (I recommend you continue listening to the discussion that follows after Prof. Gilmore leaves the program.)

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Video and Audio: Thomas J. Sugrue

• Thomas Sugrue, "Jim Crow's Last Stand: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Suburban North," Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities "Cityscapes" Lecture Series, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 18 October 2007.
  • Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, Case Western Reserve University.
• Thomas Sugrue and Claudia J. Coulton, "A Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities Interview," Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, October 2007.
• Thomas J. Sugrue, "Michael Harrington and the Political Economy of Post-War America," The Other America: Then and Now, McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, 22 March 2012.
  • The Other America: Then and Now, Conferences, McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, College of the Holy Cross.
  • Michael Harrington (1928–1989). The Other America: Poverty in the United States. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• Thomas J. Sugrue, "Beyond the Catholic Ghetto: Integrating Catholicism in Modern American History," 2016 Cushwa Center Lecture, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, 28 April 2016.
  • Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame.
• Tom Sugrue, "Detroit Rising?: Crisis, Bankruptcy, and the Future of the City," American Association for State and Local History and the Michigan Museum Association, Detroit, Michigan, September 2016.
• Thomas Sugrue and Robert Johnson, "What Caused Detroit’s Demise?" Institute for New Economic Thinking, 2016.
  • Institute for New Economic Thinking.
• Thomas Sugrue and Douglas Blackmon, "American Forum: The First Days of a Great Presidency," WVPT, Virginia, December 2016.
  
  • WVPT Public Media, WVPT Shenandoah Valley Educational Television Corporation.
  • Miller Center's American Forum, WVPT Public Media.
  • Douglas A. Blackmon, Wikipedia.
  • Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name.
• Thomas J. Sugrue, "To Understand Race and Economics in America, Study Detroit," Institute for New Economic Thinking, 2017.
  • Institute for New Economic Thinking.

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Wikipedia Articles:

• History of the United States.
• Economic history of the United States.

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Instead of, or in addition to, These United States, I recommend seeking other more detailed (and probably less overtly leftist than Gilmore and Sugrue) books on twentieth century U.S. history. This is not to say that These United States is devoid of details; the 1960s era receives a disproportionate three chapters plus part of a fourth. Meanwhile Gilmore and Sugrue treat the politics and/or events of some other decades with great brevity. Hence the compulsion I feel to name other histories.

Oxford History of the United States [Publisher; Wikipedia]:

• Bruce Schulman. Are We a Nation: The Birth of Modern America, 1896-1929. New York: Oxford University Press, not yet published.
• David M. Kennedy. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
• James T. Patterson. Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  My post on Grand Expectations is here.
• James T. Patterson. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  My post on Restless Giant is here.

The Norton Twentieth Century America Series, W. W. Norton & Company:

• John Milton Cooper, Jr. Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1990.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  My post on Pivotal Decades is here.
• Michael E. Parrish. Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920-1941. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  My post on Anxious Decades is here.
• John Patrick Diggins. The Proud Decades: America in War and Peace, 1941-1960. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  My post on The Proud Decades is here.
• John Morton Blum. Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961-1974. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  My post on Years of Discord is here.

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