The Shaping of Modern America

In the years between the Civil War and the First World War, Americans lived in a nation quite different from that of their parents, the values of a burgeoning industrial and urban society transforming traditional notions of democracy. At the same time, other far-reaching developments--the eclipsing of countryside and farm by city and factory, substantial changes in communications and transportation, revolutionary innovations in agriculture, a large wave of immigration, the rise of labour unions, and the emergence of the United States as a world power--gave these years a distinctive character and established the foundations of modern America. Revised to reflect the latest scholarship on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, this classic text remains a great choice as a core text for courses in the Gilded Age or as a highly useful supplement for the US history survey.