Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis and Compromise, 1848 – 1877

 

Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis and Compromise, 1848 – 1877 by Brenda Wineapple

I had no idea what to expect from this book.  Was this book mainly a historical narrative?  Was there any sort of focus?  Why was the focus on these particular years?  Who is Brenda Wineapple?  Well, the book popped up as a discount offering from many of the “book sale” e-mail lists I receive, so I figured I’d give it a go.  If I didn’t like it, it was cheap and could be easily dismissed and discarded.  Fortunately I did like it. I liked it a lot.  The book is quite big. It’s quite thick. Had it not been an e-book I may have shied away simply due to the volume.  Electronic books are so much less intimidating where size is concerned.

As I first started reading this book, the main focus seemed to be the persistent issue of slavery (often referred to as “that peculiar institution” in the 1800s) and how it divided the young nation of America more than any other issue.  I thought this was going to be the focus of the book. In a sense, it was; but that really wasn’t the intention.  It’s just that the 30-year time period that this book focuses on really can’t diverge too much from the topic since it was so prevalent in all of the headlines.  There really wasn’t that much else going on that warrants historical reflection.  Yes, this book does focus on other things, but those areas don’t feel as rich nor even necessary. Author Brenda Wineapple manages to be a consistent, linear storyteller, and even though there are multiple areas of focus, she never seems to lose the reader by jumping around too much.

Essentially this book is broken into three sections: Pre-Civil War, Civil War, and Post-Civil War. The book is basically peppered with various anecdotes of the times. There were many unfamiliar individuals that played a relevant part in history as well as many familiar faces that I managed to learn more about as I read the book. We read some about the literature of the time, the geography (mostly the still unexplored part of the continent), Women’s suffrage, and the unfortunate fate of the North American Indian.   Mostly, though, this book is about slavery, racism, and failed reconstruction attempts after the Civil War due to an incompetent commander in chief who abrasively got the job when his predecessor was killed at Ford’s Theatre.

Even though the focus itself tends to be somewhat narrow, the scope is quite large. There are a lot of stories to tell and a lot of moving parts within a young country. In other words, the author doesn’t just focus on the main movers and the shakers that we already have multiple biographies and histories that have been written and read.   I would almost ascertain that this book just might be a good textbook for classroom reading; or perhaps supplemental reading as part of a college syllabus. I can sincerely see a university class being offered with the years covered here making an excellent course. History teachers take note.  This time period was a very important and volatile part of the country’s history.

I have to sincerely say, though, that this book was not an easy read due to the country’s brutal treatment of non-white people. Although the author doesn’t specifically state so on the pages, a horrible lesson that our country learned is that even though we fought an incredibly bloody Civil War that eventually freed the slaves (and gave us 3 amendments around the issue), the victory ended up being very small and very minor, and many would argue we still haven’t received racial harmony 150 years after the fact.   I hear a lot of white (always conservative) people maintain that racism doesn’t exist anymore and that this was “such a long time ago”. But if one were completely honest, we’d have to maintain that change has come incredibly slowly, and even though this book ends in 1877, one can easily see just how slowly civil rights issues have taken effect.

I would highly recommend this book, yet it really is difficult to “pinpoint” a key area of focus. This book is for the history lover, and for anyone who simply wants to learn more about this particular time in American History. This book is an excellent place to start, as well as excellent supplemental reading for those who already know a bit.  Although it seemed quite long (again, hard to tell on an e-reader) it’s very well written and easy to understand and digest.  All time periods in history deserve such a comprehensive account as what is available here.