This book describes how the telegraph, invented in the 1830's, became indispensable to the point that by 1851 there were more than 50 companies providing telegraphic service in the United States alone. The invention then became a principle factor in warfare beginning with the American Civil War, was a major part of the creation of the first large corporation in America, Western Union, and proved capable of fostering long distance communication with the laying of the Atlantic Cable. Even though its' basic impact was short lived since it was largely replaced by the telephone, the impact it created was huge and widespread.

In 1846, political economist Karl Marx wrote that ""without cotton, you have no modern industry."" Indeed, before the American Civil War, cotton brought wealth, power and prosperity to both America and Europe. Giant industries in the northern U.S., extensive shipping networks up and down the Atlantic Coast and to Europe, new inventions and revised applications of old machines all sprang from the success of King Cotton. This thoughtful study traces the impact of southern cotton on most of the important facets of life in antebellum America, including employment, international relations, agriculture, shipping, the U.S. economy, Native American relations and the subjugation of humans. This one plant, this volume demonstrates, fashioned the way of life of the South and profoundly affected the destiny of the entire American people.

Few topics are as pertinent to the American political scene as immigration. This timely book examines the attitude of American Evangelical Protestants towards immigration into the United States before the Immigration Act of 1924. Of particular interest are the effects, as seen by evangelicals, that immigration had in the cities, in education, in politics, and on one of the evangelical's basic quests: the prohibition of alcohol. It also addresses the rise of the 19th century evangelical's main ethnic opponent, the Irish immigrant, and the Irish dominance of the American Catholic Church. The text is based largely upon the writings, speeches, and sermons of evangelicalism.

Before the Civil War, Coney Island boasted a beach, a dozen small hotels with ramshackle bathhouses, some chowder stands and a few saloons. After the war, it was taken over by powerful individuals who made its 0.7 square miles a domain of the wealthy. By 1905, with the population of New York City at four million, the city's amusement park builders designed an entertainment wonderland on the island that even the poor could enjoy, creating a ""nickel empire,"" where visitors paid five cents for the subway, five cents for a Nathan's hot dog and five cents for a ride. In 1910, Coney Island saw 20 million visitors, more than Disney theme parks could claim 70 years later. Through the decades, the island has seen changes of fortune, floods and fires, cycles of decay and rehabilitation. Yet the ultimate power on the island was and is the government of the city of New York, which-for good or ill-has made Coney Island what it is today.

Friends sometimes have problems with one another, the reasons are myriad, because after all, they are human beings and therefore subject to all of humanities foibles, and since that is the case, if two people can have a disagreement, so can two nations. This book relates the situation between two of these countries, the United States and France. Twenty years before these problems became war, both nations were engaged in a conflict against Great Britain. The American colonies, were attempting to gain their independence and France was again continuing its battle against England that had begun with their invasion of Normandy in 1202. France, in an effort to assist another entity that was also fighting the English, entered into an agreement with the American colonies, which resulted in its supplying the colonies with the men and materials that were desperately needed to prosecute a war that most historians agreed would not have been won without this assistance. While the assistance was invaluable, the American colonies, now the United States, began trading with its benefactor which the French expected because of this assistance. Unfortunately, the exchange of goods was not only not beneficial to the United States, but worse, caused a continuation of American trade with Great Britain along with the signing of Jay's treaty which infuriated the French leading it into problems with the United States. This situation led to what has been called the Quasi-War, an odd conflict that was undeclared and fought entirely at sea between two nations, neither of whom wanted it.

By definition, a mercenary is a person who fights for personal gain or money instead of fighting for the ideological interests of a country. Since this individual also could serve in several foreign army's, he could also be considered a professional soldier. Gustave Cluseret does not fit into this classic definition. While, as a soldier he served in foreign armies, his professionalism came from his academic background at St. Cyr, rather than from battle. He did not fight for personal gain or money and he did fight for the ideological interests of the armies he joined. Throughout his military career, he fought for the good: with the Irish to gain their freedom from England, with Garibaldi to unify Italy, and with the North in the American Civil War in their struggle against secession and slavery. It was not that he was without ambition, he wished to command at the highest levels, he was trained for the task, and he was an excellent soldier. He was additionally a multifaceted individual. He was also: a newspaper editor, a writer, a spy, and finally an elected official. And all of this spanned much of the nineteenth century, from his birth in 1823 to his death in 1900.