Richard White begins his history of the United States from Reconstruction to the end of the nineteenth century by claiming that this period is “flyover country” for most American historians. While the antebellum era to the Civil War and the Progressive era receive a great deal of attention, our coverage of the last 35 years of the nineteenth century is a bit spotty. While White is correct in noting this, part of the problem is the period itself. Reconstruction, the expansion of federal authority, the integration of the American economy, the expanding role of the press, extension of the franchise, intense racial conflict, Indian Wars, changing political ideologies and alliances, the western push of the American empire, the foundation of the American labor movement, and changes in corporate policy and governance each deserve their own detailed histories. The problem White faced in crafting a narrative of this time period, which contains so many compelling and competing sub-narratives, cannot be overstated. This period of American history has resisted an overarching theme. There is no presidency, no one issue, no idea that galvanizes to succinctly summaries this time period. As such, it is easy to craft a cataloging of important points, but White has created a truly distinguished narrative of this time period that is a major contribution to American history.

White lays out some strong connective tissue that binds the narrative together, but he is adept at noting the distinctive application of the themes to each of the various topics covered. The first theme is the expansion of federal power and the odd bedfellows it created on a wide array of issues. Everything from public assistance to railroad construction to voting to land policy underwent increasing and/or subsequent decreasing intervention. White first addresses this issue as it relates to Reconstruction, and ends with labor and antitrust law. Federal power was seen as necessary to protect the rights of newly freed people and to establish new social relations—until it wasn’t. Expanding federal policy was also needed to encourage investment in railroads, where land policy combined with subsidies for the creation of an intercontinental railroad. White blends the economic and political forces at play in the expansion of the size of the United States, and in the fact that this government policy expanded the scope of markets and, he argues, created a strong internal market for goods. Federal policy was also key at turning land over to those who would make productive use of it, through the Homestead Act and its similars. White is correct in noting the myth of these polices in terms of creating a large class of small landowners, but they fit well under this theme. In terms of antitrust law, the United States faced a decision in how to protect consumers or allow a nearly complete laizze faire approach to economic development.

White is careful to note that the politics of the time created interesting questions which trouble the United States to this day. While the Homestead Act saw fit to redistribute land captured from others and turn it over to American citizens, this was not applied to Freedmen, who sought land confiscated from Confederates. Federal authority could also be constrained by the courts, who wrestled with a Constitutional structure whose meaning was being reinterpreted during this time. Finally, federal authority could not fully solve the problems created by labor strife. White sees this as intimately related to antitrust policy—where arguments in favor of unions went against the heart of the free labor movement which had been championed by Lincoln and for which the United States, in 1865, at least, had settled the matter. Placing all of these seemingly disparate issues under one theme allows White to explore the fact that U.S. policy has often been more nimble and context-specific than typical broad brushes of history have been.

A second theme is defense of the home, which covered everything from Comstock laws to racist policies against the Chinese in California. The defense of home was not only related to the creation of homes (see Homestead Act) but in upholding a gender order which allowed saloons, and later alcohol itself, to be seen as a threat to the heart of the nation. Home also had to be defended, and although international conflict was rare at this time, the influx of those from southern and eastern Europe came to be defined as “other” homes. Chinese immigrants threatened the home and were therefore subject to exclusion and discrimination. Native Americans did not have homes that whites were bound to respect, and therefore their homes could be created by the government. African American homes were not allowed to be sites under the domain of black women because their labor was needed in the field. This definition of home was not only racial but was religious as well. Catholics, Jews, and others had homes which could not be trusted to make appropriate decisions for children, work, and integration into American society. One striking argument in White’s history is the way home as a contested space touched nearly every area of policy and the economy during this period.

The third theme is the creation of homogeneous citizenship. The very question of what it meant to be an American was addressed in westward movement (and changing policies and attitudes towards Native Americans), in the rights of Freedmen, in the rights of immigrants, and in the rights of workers. This extends far beyond voting and political participation, according to White. This goes to the ability to petition the government, to be allowed protection, and to seek aid. Citizenship could be at odds with other goals. Part of citizenship was the ability to provide labor freely, but when that went against the norms that forbade collective organization, the conflict forced the hands of the government to cling to the individualism that defined the times. Suffice to say that homogeneous citizenship is the weakest theme here because it was the most difficult to actualize and also the first jettisoned for other concerns. Due process may be enshrined in Constitutional amendments forged in this period, but White shows that homogeneous citizenship is an ideal not yet realized.

Throughout, White weaves tales of individuals both well-known and obscure to highlight the narrative. This is typically effective, but in a book of nearly 1,000 pages individuals can sometimes get lost. White is very careful to pay attention to subjects which fall outside of the major themes but he avoids the trap of diverting the reader’s interest from the story, which is largely told chronologically. For example, when considering both the Panics of 1873 and 1893 White is careful to note a multitude of causes, but also the political fallout to action (or inaction) in response to depressed output. White also describes the vigorous debates about trade policy, where high tariffs (to some, an expansion of government power given their size) were used to finance generous pensions (which fortified homes, so central to the American Republic). White does link the Panic of 1893 to the election of 1896, and does so through the idea that class conflict (advocated by Bryan) lost out to a more moderate approach of McKinley which was grounded in major themes of home and limited intervention by federal authorities. To White, however, this was a continuation of debates which had raged for both Republicans and Democrats and which finally led the parties to greater ideological distinction by the end of the century.

The book has several other strengths. White is careful to pay attention to issues of gender in this narrative, which is a welcome addition from studies which typically feature only men and the political discussions which concern them. White is careful to note that the prominent place of the home in American society allowed women limited opportunity to impact policy as the sphere of the home gave them authority to identify threats. These threats depended on the women in question, however. While Protestant white women found significant sway over policy, African American women such as Ida B. Wells were not nearly as successful. White also adds much more to the narrative about Native Americans and Chinese Americans, reflecting new research in these areas. His narrative of Reconstruction reflects the best of the new scholarship, highlighting the role of violence and the national racist tendencies which brought the promise of Reconstruction to an end. White pulls no punches in discussing labor movements—everything from the ethno-nationalism that needed to be overcome to build a labor movement to the failure to inspire organized workers in the South.

I was surprised to see a strong interaction with the work of economic historians, which is much more than I had expected. This went far beyond the typical use of economic statistics (although it was comforting to see White caution against using annual estimates of GNP for the late nineteenth century), but added the interpretations that economic historians brought to a variety of issues. In discussing health, White cites the most contemporary research in economics of nutrition and mortality. He notes the contributions that economic historians have made to our understanding of banking policy, corporate governance, trade, and the effects of public policy. For all of the handwringing in the profession about the divide between economic historians and traditional historians, White offers a balanced path forward which shows the value of economic history in charting out the 30 years after the Civil War. White also weaves in a surprising amount of economic intellectual history—showing how the marginalists revolution altered the way that legislators thought about trade policy, labor, and consumption versus production.

This book is a worthwhile addition to The Oxford History of the United States series. White has produced a book that is certain to be the first that scholars and the lay public would turn to to understand any feature of this time. White is an able guide—he provides a treasure trove of additional sources in addition to a concise bibliographic essay. But history is not about the footnotes. White has crafted an extremely well-written account of the “flyover” years of American history. Like many parts of flyover country today, if you skip it, you are missing out on something truly special.