American History, 1877-1885. National Development (English Edition)

"The work of reconstructing the political standing of certain southern states, impaired by attempted secession, was well-nigh completed by 1877. In the decade following, the foundations were unconsciously laid for the national edifice which is the glory of the present age. Old precedents were gone, new industrial conditions were confronted, new routes of commerce were discovered, and new political policies were worked out. Modern accumulation of wealth and modern combinations of labor here found a beginning. The national credit, impaired by depreciated paper issues, was restored by the resumption of specie payments. Increased Asiatic immigration to California caused the first barriers to be erected against the admission of a foreign people; and conditions in Utah demanded federal regulation of a social question, thus establishing a new precedent... The result of the Civil War produced among other nations a renewed confidence in the perpetuity of the United States and inaugurated at home the active foreign policy characteristic of the present day. The peace policy of Grant towards the American Indians was fully developed and a beginning made of the final task of converting tribal nomads into self-supporting individuals... In this decade may be sought not only the beginnings of modern industrial and economic triumphs, but also a quickening of the higher sentiment which regards public service as a public trust and civic duty as akin to religious obligation. In 1884 the awakening brought about the election of a reform president for the first time in half a century, and appropriately rounded out the decade." - Edwin Erle Sparks

Contents: The New Spirit of '76 (1876-1877). The People and their Distribution (1877-1880). Invention and Discovery (1877-1885). Problems of Transportation (1875-1885). Industrial Problems (1875-1885). President Hayes and the South (1876-1877). Republican Dissensions (1877-1878). The Federal Election Laws (1876-1881). Currency and Fisheries (1877-1881). Civil Service Evils (1877-1880). Presidential Election of 1880 (1880-1881). Civil Service Reform (1881-1884). The Isthmian Canal (1877-1885). The Chinese Question (1879-1885). The Far West (1876-1888). The Indian Question (1877-1885). The Tariff of 1883 (1873-1883). Inland Commerce (1875-1885). The Election of 1884 (1882-1884).