The Americans: A Social History of the United States, 1587-1914

by J.C. Furnas

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Prologue
The Big Water & the Big Woods
Outlandersland
At Home Abroad
Thirteen Prosper
The American, This New Man...
Ideas & the Almighty Dollar
A Chromo Civilization
The Midway Age
Notes
Quoted Sources
Index

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Sociology

1015 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Full name: Joseph Chamberlain Furnas.

Reviews

[Felisa Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of the author when I found "The Americans: A Social History of the United States, 1587-1914" tucked away on a bookshelf at the Goodwill in Florence, Oregon. This book contains 920 thin pages covered in small print. It was published in 1969. When I finished reading it, I was tempted to start back at the beginning and read it again. Furnas, who was born in 1906, writes sentences so tart and exquisitely elaborate that his writing is somehow reminiscent of Emily Post, though etiquette is but one of thousands of topics he revisits in this comprehensive and fascinating cultural history of the United States. To whit:

Furnas on early 20th C. journalism:

"Ambrose Bierce, a longtime fixture in Hearst's papers who combined high writing skill with the disposition of a molting rattlesnake, presently contributed to Hearst's current war on President McKinley some grimly tasteless verses..."

Furnas on 19th C. fashion:

"Changes in women's fashion were not so benign...The bizarre successor of the hoop was the bustle--a horsehair pad or wire frame tied on behind under the dress to make a lady's rear look like the rear view of a horse and rider. This not only gave the illusion of a really monstrous streatopygia but also prevented sitting comfortably on anything but a stool. In that era of jigsawed verandas and rococo hatstands, fashionable gowns were naturally more elaborate than they have ever been before or since--amazing complexes of overskirts, capes, flounces, trains, ruchings, jabots, cravats, frogs, pointless buttons, lace insertions--often in dark, heavy-rich materials dragging in the dirt unless the wearer confined herself to house and carriage."

On the history of refrigeration:
"But every plus implies a minus somewhere. Mechanical refrigeration also greatly heightened the breweries' capacity to age beer. Ensuing overproduction led to the consolidation of breweries into savagely competing giant concerns. Desperate for outlets, they set up chains of captive saloons owned outright or controlled by mortgages on building or fixtures and forced to sell only Brand X beer. Too many saloons per capita in large cities meant lowering what standards of decent operation there were and an increasingly blackened reputation for the enemies of the saloon to exploit. That had much to do with the success of the Anti-Saloon League's strategy of "The Saloon Must Go," which, embarked on in the late 1890s, led to the Eighteenth Amendment."


Highly recommended.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but not quite as good as the third volume of this trilogy sketching the social history of the United States of America, that being his Stormy Weather, read previously. The reasons may include (1) that this volume covers centuries, while the second and third cover less than two decades each; (2) that the third volume, covering the thirties, represents a period within the author's memory, while this, ending in 1914, was more distant.

Still, it was a good read for many of the same reasons that Stormy Weather was. Author Furnas is wittily opinionated. He covers social themes not normally addressed by histories, such things as clothing, health and eating fashions, things that everyone can relate to. Although it may well be argued that the attention to drinking habits in both volumes (I haven't obtained the second of them, the one covering WWI) is disproportionately thorough, that kind of idiosyncratic approach is part of the charm.

Unlike me, other readers are advised to begin at volume one of the series, with the confidence that it gets better as time rolls by.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

p. 127 “Only political history can hope for chronological neatness”

p. 355 “No American over 40 years old reared within the sound of a railroad will ever forgive the diesel for depriving the world of the American steam locomotive whistle, that most exhilarating, and yet saddest of sounds, so unlike the woman scream of European locomotives. From those exhaust rhythms and such whistles, the low maxes, outstanding authorities on American folk, music, derive ‘the blues… the stomps… boogie-woogie… hot jazz with it steady beat… What you hear back of the notes is the drive and thrust and demo of a locomotive. Of course there’s the African influence, the French influence of New Orleans, the Spanish influence from Cuba… B but in our estimation, the distinctive feeling of American hot music comes from the railroads. In another context, the travail of a heavy freight engine, slipping at the start, so familiar to urban high school pupils, became the basis of the locomotive school yell.”

[Trisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Americans is a book that has provided me with perspective for several years. In tackling the subject one has to admire the author. At the same time what fertile ground he had and he does use wide ranging bits that make for rich reading. The book is generally organized around a loose theme of how new Americans, mostly European, migrated across the continent, building homes, communities and towns. The ongoing industrial revolution, its affect on the people migrating, and on the growth of urban centers is frequently covered. Furnas also remarkably given when this was written, addresses the lives of women and the part they played in building the country.

The book does not follow the usual route of hanging history on the well known persons of the day, that is seen so often, which makes it a far better history in my mind. It mostly addresses what the bulk of common people were thinking and doing in daily life and how they reacted to their environment as well as how it shaped them, as they developed a national character. Furnas writes in an engaging way as he discusses the development of what would become "American peculiarities"and customs.