My review for Sacramento Book Review:
I found it troubling and eerie at how much of today I see in the world Jackson Lears relates in his newest book Rebirth of a Nation, which chronicles the history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction to the end of World War I. Lears makes the similarities between then and now a theme throughout the book, pointing them out when they are especially telling. Rebirth of a Nation is not an important book because it paints a vivid picture of early modern American culture; it is a brilliant book because it reminds of how and why we have the federal government we do and the headaches and troubles earlier Americans faced to get us here. Various government institutions and policies (the FDA, for example) which we take for granted today, or worse denigrate, are explained in the context of which they were created, enlightening such issues as modern banking and its regulation, the Federal Reserve, the eight-hour workday, unions, a mixed economy, and more. Lears wraps all of that radical change in an American desire, both individual and societal, for a rebirth into a state akin to grace whether through war, social justice, or labor. Rebirth of a Nation is a must-read for lovers of American history.
If you’re a fan of history or the United States this is a great book that covers a pivotal period in US History as the country shifted from its original rural agrarian base to a urban industrial one.
So, if you’d like a free book. Just make a comment down below and you’ll be entered. One person, chosen at random, will win it next Friday.
How readable is this book? meaning, is it just dry lists or?
It’s very readable! Not dry or boring at all!
Now that I think about it, not only was it indeed a pivotal era, but it’s one about which I’m woefully under-informed. It sounds like a necessary book… and if it’s readable, so much the better!
It sounds like “Rebirth” is a history-junkie’s primer on the first skirmishes between conservative and liberal political camps. I wonder about the choice of title – why was the nation “reborn”?
Two things: I think he is riffing on the terribly racist silent film, “Birth of a Nation” that came out in 1915 and, he is referencing the transition from an agrarian culture to a industrial one.