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Britain and America in the 19th Century? A complete bibliography would be daunting, and I make no claim to provide one. But I did think it might be useful to note some of the books I have consulted in preparing this course, random though they may be, and offer a few notes on each, together with AMAZON links and prices for those that are still in print. At the time of writing, this list contains mainly general books, but I have kept adding to it as I moved into particular topics on the syllabus.

If I were to pick three books that I have been most thrilled to come upon while working on this course, they would be Jan Morris on the British Empire, Gail Collins on American women, and Richard Crawford on American music. Jess McHugh's offbeat AmeriCanon has also been surprisingly helpful in suggesting different ways of looking at things. rb.

There are numerous histories of each Britain and America individualy, but most of them have two problems for my purpose. First, virtually none of them treat the two countries in tandem; this is why I include the old book by Winston Churchill—and also the newer one by Paul Johnson, a history of America written by an opinionated Englishman. The second isssue is that most of the books concentrate on legislation and government; few of them spend much time on ordinary social life in each country, and even less on the state of the arts. Which has made the preparation of this course a bit of a challenge, though it also suggests that it was a niche needing to be filled! For a single book on each country, I would go with Lepore on America and Cannadine on Britain.


Ackroyd, Peter: Dominion: the Battle of Waterloo to Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. St. Martin's 2021.
AMAZON $18
	Peter Ackroyd is a novelist, and writes well even when recounting dry history. And a lot of this is dry: the fluctuations between Whig and Tory governments, the various Reform Acts, and so on. But every so often he has a chapter dealing with aspects of everyday life—such as "Steam and Speed" (8) or "City Lights" (11)—and these are superb.


Boyer, Paul (ed.): *The Oxford Companion to United States History*. Oxford 2001.
AMAZON $13
	A weighty reference book that contains a fairly detailed entry on just about everything I have wanted to look up so far.


Cannadine, David: Victorious Century: The United Kingdom, 1800–1906. Penguin 2019.
AMAZON $21
	A thorough but always readable volume in the authoritative Penguin History of Britain Series. Cannadine covers much the same ground as the Ackroyd book above. The main difference between them is that Cannadine includes substantial sections on social life in each of his long chapters, rather than splitting them off as Ackroyd does.


Churchill, Winston: History of the English Speaking Peoples — Volume 3. The Age of Revolution. — Volume 4. The Great Democracies. Cassell 1958.
	Churchill was the son of an English aristocrat and an American heiress; this, his last major work, is a unique history of the two countries (and many more) side-by side. The third volume deals with the American Revolution and (briefly) the War of 1812. Fully a third of the fourth volume covers American topics, including a very detailed account of the Civil War. Some of Churchill's writing, for example on Gettysburg or Abraham Lincoln, is vivid to this day; after all, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. And when he is writing about the political fortunes of Pitt or Disraeli, it is impossible to forget that he knows their world from the inside; he has been in their shoes. There are various editions on Amazon, but beware: the most modern ones are abridged.


Johnson, Paul: A History of the American people. Harper 1999.
AMAZON $16
	This is a big thousand-page book, straighter than the Lepore volume below, yet also more opinionated. It is straighter in that he does not pursue the ramifications of a single thesis, but ranges widely over a vast range of topics. But he is proudly unafraid to air his opinions; the reviews on the back cover say things like "either annoyingly or endearingly cranky" or "arresting contentions and fascinating oddball information." Adding to the value of Johnson's transatlantic perspective for me is the vividness of his style, and the fact that, as the title suggests, he writes about the people, not just the Constitution.


Lepore, Jill: These Truths: a History of the United States. Norton 2019.
AMAZON $12
	As compared to the equally hefty Johnson book above, Lepore's history is primarily about the Constitution and, before that, the central flaw built into the Declaration of Independence: that the phrase "All men are created equal" excluded women, persons of color, and (at least at the beginning) people who did not own property. It is thus a history of the many reasons why the Founding Fathers and leaders of subsequent generations were forced to compromise on their principles—an issue that persists to the present day. The reviews use words like "honest," "sobering," and "moving." Also "epic," "sweeping and propulsive," and "beautifully written." I agree with all of this—though I also felt a strong need to counteract it with a history that did not have so obvious an axe to grind (a need only partially filled by the Johnson).


Zinn, Howard: A People's History of the United Statess. Harper 2015 (originally 1980).
AMAZON $10
	As it deals with people rather than Presidents, I orginally classified this book under "Social History." But no, it is political through and through. Growing up listening to Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez, Zinn wondered whether mass protest movements such as those occasioned by Vietnam, Civil Rights, and the ERA were a new phenomenon, so he wrote a book to find out. The result is a ground-breaking history of the attempts by the many to influence the few (and all too often vice-versa), telling the stories of the disenfranchised and oppressed, and the steps they took, not always successfully, to rectify that situation.

Social and cultural history is the study of life as experienced by ordinary people, as opposed to the grand affairs of Kings, Presidents, Constitutions, and wars. As such, it is obviously more relevant to the themes of this particular course, but it can be hard to winkle out. Nonetheless, I have got something of value from all the books listed.


Avila, Eric: American Cultural History: a Very Short Intoduction. Oxford 2018.
AMAZON $12
	The marvelous Oxford Very Short Introduction series is just that: a wealth of pithy information crammed into postcard-sized books of about 125 pages each. Or half that in this case, for at page 63 Avila reaches the 20th Century. But those first three chapters have been immensely valuable, dealing with American life in ordinary villages and cities, quite removed from the halls of Washington DC.


Briggs, Asa: A Social History of England. Weidenfeld 1994.
AMAZON $5 (used)
	The subtitle of the book is From the Ice Age to the Channel Tunnel, so only three of its thirteen chapters deal with the 19th century: "The Experience of Industrialization" (8), "Webs of Communication (9), and "Victorianism: Prelude, Expression, Aftermath" (10), amounting to some 65 pages in all. But these are excellently written—Briggs is an academic with a gift for popular communication—and copiously illustrated. Chapter 10 in particular is exceptional. There is a lot else by Briggs out there, including a trilogy on Victorian Cities, People, and Things, but this book is the most accessible and least expensive.


Burns, Ken et al.: Our America: a Photographic History. Knopf 2022.
AMAZON $46
	This is a monster of a book, one foot square and weighing in at six pounds, but Burns' eye for the telling photograph is well known. Each of these pictures tells a story to those that have the knowledge to put it is context, and there are copious note, but you have to work to make them into a cohernt narrative. So this is something you might want to get from the library rather than buy, especially since fewer than 30% of the photos actually deal with the 19th Century.


McHugh, Jess: AmeriCanon: an unexpected U.S. history in thirteen bestselling books. Norton 2019.
AMAZON $18
	McHugh had the brilliant idea of looking at a number of popular books, from the Old Farmer's Almanac to the Betty Crocker Cookbook and Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, and demonstrating what each shows of the tenor of its times. Who would have thought that Noah Webster's Dictionary, and the series of school spellers he issued before that, could have had such an important role in eliminating regional and ethnic differences and making the people of the new Republic speak with a single unambiguous voice?


Trevelyan, GM: Illustrated English Social History, volume 4: The 19th Century. Longmans 1952.
	It seems that Trevelyan is considered too old to merit a modern edition (I bought this set before my freshman year at college), and yet he is easy to read and well worthwhile; he was a pioneer of the field. The actual text is short (only 125 pages in this volume), but the illustrations, though old, are well-chosen and superbly annotated. I thought this might be superceded by the Briggs above, but find that I enjoy Trevelyan's style rather more, perhaps because of his manner of viewing history from a loftier perspective.

This section of the list is only a place-holder for now; I will add more as we go. However, I would recommend one website here, The Victorian Web, an immensely valuable resource for the British side of things.


Franklin, Benjamin: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. 2022 (originally 1793).
AMAZON $8
	Class 1: Declaration. Although published posthumously (first in French, later in English), this is the book through which most early Americans assessed the legacy of Benjamin Franklin. There are numerous editions out there, and the book con even be obtained free on Gutenberg.


Lawrence DH: Studies in Classic American Literature. 2023 (originally 1923).
AMAZON $15
	Classes 1 and 5: Declaration/Dickens. Lawrence wrote this in 1922 in Taos NM, wondering what kind of country he had emigrated to. He considers Franklin, Crèvecoeur, Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Dana, and Melville. This edition (the only one in print) has a self-published feel that does no favors to Lawrence's random-jotting style—but those jottings are highly personal, frequently acerbic, and often very funny. His basic complaint is that few classic American writers have lived up to the potential for wildness of spirit in the country they claimed as their own.


Tocqueville, Alexis de: Democracy in America, translated by Gerald Bevan. Penguin 2003.
AMAZON $15
	Class 4: Industry, and passim. The humorist Russell Baker once said, "Of the great unread writers I believe Tocqueville to be the most widely quoted." I now see what he means. I bought the book because I hadn't read it, and thought that I should. But it is over 900 pages and, though well written and well translated, difficult to read for long stretches at a time. However, as Baker might have predicted, numerous pithy Tocqueville quotations are available online; I thought I might use the book to put some of these into context. Which is easier said than done, as most of those out there are paraphrased and lack references. Wikiquote is an exception, though, in giving chapter references and in many cases the original French text, so I shall be using it as my navigation guide through the book.


Dickens, Charles American Notes. Penguin 2000 (originally 1842).
AMAZON $10
	Class 5: Dickens. This is the text on which "Dickens in America," will be based. It is very readable and not long. Dickens treats even his travails and disappointments with engaging humor—except in those sections where he is denouncing slavery.


Scanlon, Padraic X: Slave Empire: how Slavery Built Modern Britain. Robinson 2020.
AMAZON $18
	Class 6: Slavery. This is a dense and closely-argued book that turns out to be more useful in concept than in detail. I bought it because it develops a point that British boosters would prefer to sweep under the rug. Yes, Britain led the world in the Abolitionist movement of William Wilberforce, but Britain was by far the largest exporter of slaves from Africa in the years leading up to it, and, as Scanlon points out, "Modern Britain has inherited the legacies and contradictions of a liberal empire built on slavery."


*Stowe, Harriet Beecher: Uncle Tom's Cabin.* Penguin 1981 (originally 1852).
AMAZON $10
	Class 6: Slavery. There are of course numerous editions of this classic novel. It may have got a bad rap as being melodramatic and sentimental, but you can equally say that of Dickens. Not only was it a vital contribution to the Abolition movement in America, it is a surprisingly compelling novel in its own terms.


Morris, Jan: Pax Britannica: the Climax of an Empire. Faber 1968.
AMAZON $20 (2012 edition)
	Class 7: Empire. This may be the best single book I have encountered during my entire research for this class. It is the middle volume of a trilogy on the British Empire that James Morris (as she was then) wrote in 1968; it is the one that deals specifically with the Victorian era. I could not imagine a better treatment of the subject. Morris picks themes and treats them mainly by examples and anecdotes that read like literature rather than history; although the facts are cited with precision, they never get in the way of the narrative. It is clear that I shall be using this for more than just its treatment of the Empire.


Pasquier, Michael: Religion in America: the basics. Routledge 2023.
AMAZON $25
	Class 8: Values. A high price for a paperback of only 175 pages. But its slimness is also its advantage, for so complex and multi-branched is the history of all the different religious denominations in America (not all of them Christian) that there is a real need for a book that can map out some clear paths through the thicket.


Crawford, Richard: America's Musical Life: a History. Norton 2001.
	Class 9: Music. A truly excellent book on American music. For further details, see below.


Collins, Gail: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. Morrow 2009.
AMAZON $13
	Class 10: Women. I wish I had found this earlier, but I am glad to have it now. Those who follow Gail Collins in the New York Times will know her ability to address major topics with clarity and passion, and a history of the changing roles of women in America is certainly a major topic; her subtitle gives an excellent idea of its scope. Although written in an informal style that grabs the interest and won't let go, the text is backed up by meticulous notes and a substantial bibliography.


McCann, Hannah (ed.): *The Feminism Book*. DK (Penguin Random House) 2022.
AMAZON $20
	Class 10: Women. Many colleges now offer PhD programs in Women's Studies, and I doubt that this popular paperback has a place in any of them! But I am particularly fond of DK books, because they show me ways of doing what I aim for in all my classes: addressing often-complex subjects in ways that are entertaining, free of jargon, and visually based. Although only the first 75 pages are relevant to this course, I found myself eagerly reading on, because femininist history presented so clearly is both a fascination and a challenge.


Cruea, Susan M.: Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the Nineteenth-Century Woman Movement. Bowling Green State University, 2005.
FREE DOWNLOAD
	Class 10: Women. In contrast to the above, this indeed is an academic article (16 pages, plus footnotes) with all the expected jargon and apparatus. Yet I found her division of images of womanhood during the century into four phases—True Woman, Real Woman, Public Woman, and New Woman—most illuminating. [Of course, she is only talking about the upper-middle-class white women who were at the forefront of these changes, but that's the history.]


Vamplew, Wray: Games People Played: a Global History of Sport. Reaktion Books, 2021.
AMAZON $23
	Class 11: Leisure. A very readable book about sport history, sport ethics and economics, and a wide variety of actual sports. No, it is not global, although Vamplew is amply qualified, as editor of the compendious six-volume Cultural History of Sport. Many countries are mentioned, but Vandlew has a definite British perspective, a special interest in Australia, and a distinct suspicion of America. Set against this, however, is his refreshing tendency to distrust myths and debunk false claims, whether about his own country or any other.

One superb book on American music—all kinds of music—plus one much older (but still valuable) book on American art. There must surely be others on British music and art, but I have not yet found or had need for them.


Crawford, Richard: America's Musical Life: a History. Norton 2001.
AMAZON $4+ (used)
	An excellent book that I came upon only recently, and have not yet read in full. As it covers all centuries from the colonial period to the late 20th century, and all genres from shape-note hymns to hard rock, it promises to be a first-rate resource. Crawford's writing style is immediately accessible, shifting smoothly from overview to detailed analysis. The book is illustrated, with both documentary images and score samples. A must!


Prown, Jules David: American Painting: from its Beginnings to the Armory Show. Skira 1970.
AMAZON $25
	The price above is incredibly cheap for the two-volume set you will get: this and a continuation of the story up to the mid-1960s by Barbara Rose. Wonderful though Rose is, her book has been superceded, but I know of nothing that does what Prown does with anything like the magnificence of these big Skira volumes with their large color plates printed separately and pasted in. It is a coffee-table book to die for, but don't be fooled; Prown's text is well up to the quality of the illustrations.

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