The construction of the transcontinental railroad (1865–1869) marked a milestone in United States history, symbolizing both the joining of the country’s two coasts and the taming of its frontier wilderness by modern technology. But it was through the power of images—and especially the photograph—that the railroad attained its iconic status. Iron Muse provides a unique look at the production, distribution, and publication of images of the transcontinental railroad: from their use as an official record by the railroad corporations, to their reproduction in the illustrated press and travel guides, and finally to their adaptation to direct sales and albums in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Tracing the complex relationships and occasional conflicts between photographer, publisher, and curator as they crafted the photographs’ different meanings over time, Willumson provides a comprehensive portrayal of the creation and evolution of an important slice of American visual culture.

A Christian Science Monitor best book of 2020 "Relentlessly accessible. . . . This is that rare history that tells what influential thinkers failed to think, what famous writers left unwritten." --Jill Leovy, The American Scholar By the bestselling author of American Nations, the story of how the myth of U.S. national unity was created and fought over in the nineteenth century--a myth that continues to affect us today Union tells the story of the struggle to create a national myth for the United States, one that could hold its rival regional cultures together and forge an American nationhood. On one hand, a small group of individuals--historians, political leaders, and novelists--fashioned and promoted the idea of America as nation that had a God-given mission to lead humanity toward freedom, equality, and self-government. But this emerging narrative was swiftly contested by another set of intellectuals and firebrands who argued that the United States was instead the homeland of the allegedly superior "Anglo-Saxon" race, upon whom divine and Darwinian favor shined. Colin Woodard tells the story of the genesis and epic confrontations between these visions of our nation's path and purpose through the lives of the key figures who created them, a cast of characters whose personal quirks and virtues, gifts and demons shaped the destiny of millions.

“Truly impressive. Travels uncharted terrain, moving deftly through a vast scholarship in two languages. The research is sound, the prose crisp and accessible, and the subject unquestionably important.”—W. Fitzhugh Brundage, author of The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory “Illuminates the enduring potency of memory in shaping postwar societies for generations after the fighting ceased, reminding us that both losers and victors often had powerful motives to remember—and to forget.”—Caroline E. Janney, author of Remembering the Civil War “Traces the dynamics of memory in the aftermath of the Spanish and American civil wars and demonstrates how similar processes of closure, willful blindness, and ideological inculcation worked out in the different contexts to produce sometimes similar but often radically different outcomes.” —Cillian McGrattan, author of Memory, Politics and Identity “With an engaging narrative and deep research, the book is a model of the benefits derived from a truly comparative study.”—David Goldfield, author of Still Fighting the Civil War Spain and the United States both experienced extremely bloody and divisive civil wars that left social and emotional wounds, many of which still endure today. In Uncommonly Savage, award-winning historian Paul Escott considers the impact of internecine violence on memory and ideology, politics, and process of reconciliation. He also examines debates over reparation or moral recognition, the rise of truth and reconciliation commissions, and the legal, psychological, and religious aspects of modern international law regarding amnesty.