The Reckless Decade

The Reckless Decade, America in the 1890s by H.W. Brands

Category: History Grade: B-

If you've followed this blog, you know I read a lot of history. Typically, popular history focuses on either huge events (almost always wars) or huge personalities. Brands has taken a different approach here deciding to focus on the last decade of the 19th century, years that don't usually show up in most history books at all. Like most readers of popular history, I probably wouldn't ordinarily have picked up this book. However, Brands is the author of terrific historical biographies of Franklin and Teddy Roosevelt. In addition, he's an Austinite, although a professor at, gulp, Texas A&M. So I decided to give this one a try.

Almost by definition, since it covers a period where not many earth shaking things happened, the book disappoints a little. However, there was enough going on in this decade to make an interesting enough read. Put in to the perspective that this period is only a little over a hundred years ago and some of the things that happened become more fascinating.

The book opens with the massacre and Wounded Knee and the last of the land rushes where anybody, by getting to a claim first, could get access to free land in the west (the west at this time being Oklahoma). The closing of the frontier and the near complete defeat of Native Americans marked a major change in the mindset of the average American. The possibility of throwing everything to the winds and heading the frontier was ending. This intensified the regional distinctions between the west (agricultural) and the east (industrial and financial).

The surprising thing, to me at least, was how much violence grew out of this disparity. This was the age of the consolidation of both industry, under Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan, and the growth of both the union and populist movements. Time after time, the conflicts that arose ended up in pitched battles in the streets. There was during this time, a growing belief that the glory days of the United States were in fact past. In fact, the swing of a few thousand votes in the presidential elections of the 1890s probably mark the difference between the U.S. we know today and a country that would have headed a socialist path.

The other major themes of the book vary a lot in terms of capturing your attention. A lot of time, money and oratory in this period was spent debating about whether U.S. currency should be tied to a gold standard, a silver standard or both. This is something, frankly, I've never really understood so this section of the book was a little boring. On the other hand, the first stirrings of the civil rights movement, with the philosophical sparring of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois was far more interesting. The book then shifts back to America's growing international presence in the Spanish-American War and the debate over American imperialism surrounding the acquisition of the Philippines.

Ultimately, this is a history lovers book. If you found this review a little dry, you should avoid it.