American Colossus

I just finished American Colossus by HW Brands, a book I picked up a few months ago on the gilded age and post-Civil War America.

It took me a little time to get into it--I guess ultimately, I find the tales of JP Morgan and Rockefeller and Carnegie more interesting in theory.  I guess I need to read separate biographies of each in order to really differentiate their accomplishments, because in books like this, they tend to blend together as larger than life capitalists. 

I most enjoyed Brands' tales of immigration, the railroad, late 19th century labor movements, the rise of Teddy Roosevelt, politics post War, and of course, the post-War South and what happened to the newly emancipated. I would like to read more about the South, reconstruction, and how "separate but equal" was created.

I wish Brands' would have followed up more with his immigrants, because those were unfinished stories. And I don't think he spent enough time talking about how new technologies of this time--the telephone, for example--affected ordinary Americans.

I did appreciate his conclusion...that the capitalists did change, ultimately for the better, the face of America. The hope and opportunities immigrants had derived almost directly from these entrepreneurs (as greedy as they were) of that era.

I had been seeking a one volume history of this era, and this book filled that gap. Now onward to something more on this subject, or do I tackle TR once again?