Customer Reviews

Victorian America, 1876 to 1913 (Almanacs of American Life)

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I bought this title thinking it was a university level textbook on the Victorian period in the United States. But it turned out to be something much different. There are about 100 pages, of this 400 page book, that are actual writings on a variety of political, cultural and economic topics related to Victorian American history. There are also some excellent photos as well as a number of fascinating written excerpts by ordinary Victorians on topics such as child labor, the union movement and bathing at Coney Island.

But, unfortunately, the vast majority of the book is devoted to charts, graphs and statistics. For example, there is "U.S Workforce, 1914" which breakdowns the exact number of people employed in 35 different industries or "Combined Totals of Persons Present In Local, State and Federal Correctional Facilities: 1880, 1890" which provides the number of people jailed, state by state, in these years. These are just two of the literally hundreds of similar charts in this book. If this sounds like dull reading - believe me it is. I did glance through at least some of the charts. But would have much preferred that these pages be devoted to actual writings about the the history of Victorian American. People looking for a textbook to study the era should probably look elsewhere.