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American History in the 1800s – 1809-1861 – Free History Books

American History in the 1800s. Mexican War 1846-1848. US War of 1812. Reasons for American Civil War. James K. Polk President.

American history in the 1800s. 1809-1861. US war of 1812. Reasons for American Civil War. Mexican War 1846-1848. Abolition in the US. United States Manifest Destiny. Abolition in the 1800s. James Monroe as President. James K. Polk President. All books are free.


Book Collections on American History from 1809-1861

U.S. Politics & Government 1783-1865 – Collection

Free online pdf books on United States Politics & Government 1783-1865. Be patient as the page loads. Some books: How the Constitution was Created, The Founding of America, The Papers of John Marshall, Calendar of the Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, Fifty Years of Party Warfare 1789-1837, The Origins of American Presidential Politics, The Portable Thomas Jefferson, Selected Writings of James Madison, Tenche Coxe and the Early Republic, The Washington Community 1800-1828, many more books on U.S. Politics and Government.

War of 1812 – Collection

Free online pdf books on United States War of 1812. Some topics are: the battles of the War of 1812, War of 1812 in Canada, War of 1812 naval, what happened in War of 1812, War of 1812 who fought.

U.S. Politics & Government 1815-1861 – Collection

Free online pdf books on United States History Politics & Government 1815-1861. Some titles and topics are: abolition slavery, The life of Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun and the price of Union: a biography, Slavery and the coming of the Civil War, 1831-1861, The great triumvirate : Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, John Tyler, The transformation of American politics, 1840-1860, Henry Clay the lawyer, A nation torn : the story of how the Civil War began, Martin Van Buren as president, Daniel Webster, “the completest man”.

U.S. Economic Conditions to 1865 – Collection

Free online pdf books on United States Economic Conditions to 1865. Some titles are: Development of the industrial U.S., America’s first Great Depression : economic crisis and political disorder after the Panic of 1837, The industrial revolution in America, The growth of the American economy to 1860, American economic development in historical perspective, The economy of colonial America, The economy of British America, 1607-1789, The elusive Republic : political economy in Jeffersonian America, Life during the industrial revolution, Adam Smith and the origins of American enterprise, The urban crucible : the northern seaports and the origins of the American Revolution, Work and labor in early America, Modernization : the transformation of American life, 1600-1865, John Jacob Astor : business and finance in the early republic.

U.S. Civilization 1783-1865 – Collection

Free online pdf books on United States Civilization 1783-1865. Some books: Ideology and Power in the Age of Jackson, Writing and Postcolonialism in the Early Republic, Notions of the Americans 1820-1860, The Life of the Mind in America from the Revolution to the Civil War, family Album for Americans, The Intellectual Construction of America, The Rising Glory of America, many more books on U.S. Civilization.

AntiSlavery Movement – Collection

Free online pdf books on Antislavery Movements. Some books: New Perspectives on the Abolitionists, The Abolition of American Slavery, The Story of the Abolitionists, Business and Slavery: the New York merchants, The Antislavery Appeal, Anti-Abolition Mobs in Jacksonian America, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, The Antislavery Vanguard, The Story of the Underground Railway, Slavery and the Struggle against It, many more books on Anti-Slavery Movements.

Mexican War 1846-1848 – Collection

Free online books on the Mexican War, 1846-1848. Some titles are: Army of Manifest Destiny : the American soldier in the Mexican War, 1846-1848, Texas and the war with Mexico, The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Zachary Taylor : soldier, planter, statesman of the old Southwest, The Mexican War, 1846-1848, Chronicles of the gringos: the U.S. Army in the Mexican War, 1846-1848; accounts of eyewitnesses & combatants, War with Mexico, To the halls of the Montezumas : the Mexican War in the American imagination.

More Collections of Free Books on US History 1809-1861 Topics

Suggested Books in American History 1809-1861

Message from the President of the United States Recommending an Immediate Declaration of War, Against Great Britain

Washington: 1812

President James Madison’s 12-page letter to Congress, dated June 1, 1812, explaining the reasons he considered it necessary to declare war against Great Britain. Published in 1812.

See the Menu at the top of every page for Directories of Free Online Fiction and NonFiction Books, Magazines, and more, on 400 pages like this at Century Past

A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation

Allgor, Catherine
Holt 2006 Dewey Dec. 973.5

“An extraordinary American comes to life in this vivid, groundbreaking portrait of the early days of the republic – and the birth of modern politics. Within a few years [of her arrival in Washington in 1812], she had mastered both the social and political intricacies of the city, and by her death in 1849 was the most celebrated person in Washington… Catherine Allgor reveals that while Dolley’s gender prevented her from openly playing politics, those very constraints of womanhood allowed her to construct an American democratic ruling style, and to achieve her husband’s political goals. And the way that she did so – by emphasizing cooperation over coercion, building bridges instead of bunkers – has left us with not only an important story about our past but a model for a modern form of politics.” -Publisher

Contents: Prologue — 1. Mrs. Madison goes to Washington — 2. Meeting Madison — 3. Lady about town — 4. Social work — 5. The merry affair — 6. Portrait of a lady — 7. Sex, lies, and the election of 1808 — 8. Lady presidentess — 9. Presiding genius — 10. “The great centre of attraction” — 11. Family matters — 12. The Republican Queen — 13. Affairs to remember — 14. “Mr. Madison’s war” — 15. Potomac phoenix — 16. To home and history — 17. Legacies — Epilogue.

Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government

Allgor, Catherine
University of Virginia 2000 Dewey Dec. 973.5

When Thomas Jefferson moved his Republican administration into the new capital city in 1801, one of his first acts was to abolish any formal receptions, except on specific holidays. However, without the face-to-face relationships and networks created in society, the American experiment in government could not function. Into this conundrum stepped women like Dolley Madison and Louisa Catherine Adams, women of political families who used the unofficial, social sphere to cement the relationships that politics needed to work. Constrained by the cultural taboos on “petticoat politicking,” women rarely wrote forthrightly about their ambitions and plans, preferring to cast their political work as an extension of virtuous family roles. But by analyzing their correspondence, gossip events, “etiquette wars,” and the material culture that surrounded them, Allgor finds that these women acted with conscious political intent. In the days before organized political parties, the social machine built by these early federal women helped to ease the transition from a failed republican experiment to a burgeoning democracy.

Contents: President Thomas Jefferson in Washington City — Dolley Madison takes command — Washington women in public — Louisa Catherine Adams campaigns for the presidency — The fall of Andrew Jackson’s cabinet.

Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk about their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation

Berlin, Ira, Favreau, Marc, and Miller, Steven F.
New Press 1998 Dewey Dec. 973.6

“Using excerpts from the thousands of interviews conducted with ex-slaves in the 1930s by researchers working with the Federal Writers’ Project, the astonishing audiotapes made available the only known recordings of people who actually experienced enslavement–recordings that had gathered dust in the Library of Congress until they were rendered audible for the first time specifically for this set… Includes a comprehensive introductory essay by preeminent slavery historian Ira Berlin, chapters on aspects of slave life, including relationships with owners, work, family culture, the Civil War, and Emancipation; complete transcript of the live recordings [packaged with the book], extensive additional interviews with former slaves; little-known period photographs, including some of the former slaves interviewed on the companion tapes.” Publisher.

Contents: Slavery as memory and history — The faces of power: slaves and owners — Work and slave life: “from can to can’t” — Family life in slavery: “our folks” — Slave culture: “honest and fair service to the Lord and all mankind everywhere” — Slaves no more: Civil War and the coming of freedom — Appendixes.

Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America

Bordewich, Fergus M
Amistad 2005 Dewey Dec. 973.6

Bound for Canaan tells the stories of men and women like David Ruggles, who invented the black underground in New York City; bold Quakers like Isaac Hopper and Levi Coffin, who risked their lives to build the Underground Railroad; and the inimitable Harriet Tubman. Interweaving thrilling personal stories with the politics of slavery and abolition, Bound for Canaan shows how the Underground Railroad gave birth to this country’s first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for social change.

Contents: pt. 1. Beginnings: 1800 to 1830. — An evil without remedy — The fate of millions unborn — A gadfly in Philadelphia — The hand of God in North Carolina — The spreading stain — pt. 2. Connections: The 1830s. — Free as sure as the Devil — Fanatics, disorganizers, and disturbers of the peace — The grandest revolution the world has ever seen — A whole-souled man — pt. 3. Confrontation: The 1840s. — Across the Ohio — The car of freedom — Our watchword is ONWARD — The saltwater underground — pt. 4. Victory: The 1850s. — A disease of the body politic — Do we call this the land of the free? — General Tubman — Laboratories of freedom — The last train.

Jacksonian and Antebellum Age: People and Perspectives

Cheathem, Mark Renfred, ed.
ABC-CLIO 2008

Spans the “age of the common man” by focusing on the everyday citizens who helped drive the big social changes of the times–or were simply caught up in them. The coverage takes readers into the lives of the frontiersmen, townspeople, women, children, religious groups, abolitionists, slaves, slave traders, and others who effected, and were affected by, the history of those times. 9 essays.

North America Divided; the Mexican War 1846-1848

Connor, Seymour V. and Faulk, Odie B.
Oxford University 1971 Dewey Dec. 973.6

“… too many scholars who have written about this war did so from a position of preconceived bias, placing emphasis on such vaguely related issues as the slavery conflict, American “imperialism,” the so-called Nueces boundary dispute, and the alleged intrigues of the much-maligned James K. Polk (to the extent that they forgot other important considerations). For example, historians have worried so endlessly about when Polk framed his war message (before or after receiving notice from Taylor about the Mexican attack on Thornton’s dragoons) that they have failed to note that Mexico already had declared war on the United States; they have argued the abstract concept of Manifest Destiny to the extent that they have forgotten the British desire for California; nor have they considered the British involvements in Mexico stemming from the English argument with the United States over the Oregon Territory.” – Author’s Preface

Contents: Origins of the war — Taylor’s campaign — New Mexico and Chihuahua — The far west — The decisive campaign — Nations divided — End of war.

The Crisis of 1830-1842 in Canadian-American Relations

Corey, Albert B.
New Haven: Yale University 1941 Dewey Dec. 973.5

Published for the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace. The crisis in question brought the U.S. and Great Britain extremely close to war, which was only avoided, according to the author, by the efforts of a handful of British and American statesmen; most notably Lord Durham. Not only did they prevent war, they earned some of the credit for the fact that the border between America and Canada remains relatively unguarded to this day.

Contents: The setting: countries and peoples – Before the rebellions – The border in ferment – Curbing the patriots – Rise of the secret societies – Crosscurrents of opinion – Military and naval problems: policy and practice – The hunters try again – The McLeod Case – National defense – The Webster Ashburton Treaty – Conclusion.

The Coming of the Civil War

Craven, Avery
NY: Scribern’s Sons 1942 Dewey Dec. 973.6

The author has tried to study the causes of the war as a scientist and not as a partisan. Recent scholars had “lost respect for simple explanations of the growth of sectional consciousness and sectional hatreds. Economic and social forces as well as political ones have been considered and the effort to fix blame has yielded to a desire to know why Americans only two generations away from the formation of their Union should have held positions so uncompromisable that only a war could alter them.” -Author’s Preface.

Contents: The National setting – A way of life – The rural depression, 1800-1832 – By the sweat of their faces – The cotton kingdom rises – The northern attack on slavery – The southern defense of slavery – Slavery and expansion – The politicians and slavery – Political revolt – The first crisis – The union on trial – The northwest gets excited – Sectional reactions to events – Building the Republican Party – The last crisis – The breakup of the union.

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