Traces the impact of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" on a diverse group of writers, abolitionists, and social reformers, including Henry David Thoreau and Bronson Alcott, against a backdrop of growing tensions and transcendental idealism in 1860 America.

An examination of the actions of Ulysses S. Grant and Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Civil War and how they influenced one another's strategies.

From the author comes the story of the rise of American industry between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. It describes industry in America between the War of 1812 and the Civil War and how this period of growth in the first half of the century built the platform for Carnegie, Rockefeller and Morgan in the second half. In the thirty years after the Civil War, the United States blew by Great Britain to become the greatest economic power in world history....

"From an acclaimed, New York Times bestselling biographer, a timely reassessment of Abraham Lincoln's indispensable Secretary of the Treasury: a leading proponent for black rights both before and during his years in cabinet and later as Chief Justice of the United States. Salmon P. Chase is best remembered as a rival of Lincoln's for the Republican nomination in 1860-but there would not have been a national Republican Party, and Lincoln could not...

"The Patrons of Husbandry--or the Grange--is the longest-lived U.S. agricultural society and, since its founding shortly after the Civil War, has had immeasurable influence on social change as enacted by ordinary Americans. The Grange sought to relieve the struggles of small farmers by encouraging collaboration. Pathbreaking for its inclusion of women, the Grange is also well known for its association with Gilded-Age laws aimed at curbing the monopoly...