The American civil rights movement represents one of the most remarkable social revolutions in all of world history. While no one would discount the significance of the leadership of Martin Luther King and others, we should also recognize that the fight could not have been waged without the countless foot soldiers in the trenches. As an important corrective to the traditional "great man" studies, these essays emphasize the importance of grassroots actions and individual agency in the effort to bring about national civil renewal. These biographies assert the importance of individuals on the local level working towards civil rights and the influence that this primarily African-American movement had on others including La Raza, the Native American Movement, feminism, and gay rights. Through engaging biographies of such varied individuals as Abraham Galloway, Ida B. Wells, James K. Vardaman, Jose Angel Gutierrez, and Sylvia Rivera, Glisson widens the scope of most Civil Rights studies beyond the 1954-1965 time frame to include its full history since the Civil War. By widening the time frame studied, these essays underscore the difficult, often unrewarded and generational nature of social change.

The American civil rights movement represents one of the most remarkable social revolutions in all of world history. While no one would discount the significance of the leadership of Martin Luther King and others, we should also recognize that the fight could not have been waged without the countless foot soldiers in the trenches. As an important corrective to the traditional "great man" studies, these essays emphasize the importance of grassroots actions and individual agency in the effort to bring about national civil renewal. These biographies assert the importance of individuals on the local level working towards civil rights and the influence that this primarily African-American movement had on others including La Raza, the Native American Movement, feminism, and gay rights. Through engaging biographies of such varied individuals as Abraham Galloway, Ida B. Wells, James K. Vardaman, Jose Angel Gutierrez, and Sylvia Rivera, Glisson widens the scope of most Civil Rights studies beyond the 1954 1965 time frame to include its full history since the Civil War. By widening the time frame studied, these essays underscore the difficult, often unrewarded and generational nature of social change."

The United States that entered the twentieth century was vastly different from the nation that emerged from the Civil War. Industrialization, mass immigration, the growing presence of women in the work force, and the rapid advance of the cities had transformed American society. Broad in scope, The Gilded Age brings together sixteen original essays that offer lively syntheses of modern scholarship while making their own interpretive arguments. These engaging pieces allow students to consider the various societal, cultural and political factors that make studying the Gilded Age crucial to our understanding of America today. Charles W. Calhoun connects all of these essays with a comprehensive introduction that places each article in an understandable historical context. For the second edition of this successful book, each essay was revised and three new pieces have been added that explore technology, consumerism, intellectual life, and race in late nineteenth century America.

The United States that entered the twentieth century was vastly different from the nation that emerged from the Civil War. Industrialization, mass immigration, the growing presence of women in the work force, and the rapid advance of the cities had transformed American society. Broad in scope, The Gilded Age brings together sixteen original essays that offer lively syntheses of modern scholarship while making their own interpretive arguments. These engaging pieces allow students to consider the various societal, cultural and political factors that make studying the Gilded Age crucial to our understanding of America today. Charles W. Calhoun connects all of these essays with a comprehensive introduction that places each article in an understandable historical context. For the second edition of this successful book, each essay was revised and three new pieces have been added that explore technology, consumerism, intellectual life, and race in late nineteenth century America.

From the time the first tracks were laid in the early nineteenth century, the railroad has occupied a crucial place in America's historical imagination. Now, for the first time, Eric Arnesen gives us an untold piece of that vital American institution--the story of African Americans on the railroad. African Americans have been a part of the railroad from its inception, but today they are largely remembered as Pullman porters and track layers. The real history is far richer, a tale of endless struggle, perseverance, and partial victory. In a sweeping narrative, Arnesen re-creates the heroic efforts by black locomotive firemen, brakemen, porters, dining car waiters, and redcaps to fight a pervasive system of racism and job discrimination fostered by their employers, white co-workers, and the unions that legally represented them even while barring them from membership. Decades before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the mid-1950s, black railroaders forged their own brand of civil rights activism, organizing their own associations, challenging white trade unions, and pursuing legal redress through state and federal courts. In recapturing black railroaders' voices, aspirations, and challenges, Arnesen helps to recast the history of black protest and American labor in the twentieth century.