In this new edition, Samuel P. Hays expands the scope of his pioneering
account of the ways in which Americans reacted to industrialism during
its early years from 1885 to 1914. Hays now deepens his coverage of
cultural transformations in a study well known for its concise treatment
of political and economic movements.
Hays draws on the vast knowledge of America's urban and social history
that has been developed over the last thirty-eight years to make the
second edition an unusually well-rounded study. He enhances the original
coverage of politics, labor, and business with new accounts of the
growth of cities, the rise of modern values, cultural conflicts with
Native Americans and foreign nations, and changing roles for women,
African-Americans, education, religion, medicine, law, and leisure. The
result is a tightly woven portrait of America in transition that
underscores the effects of impersonal market forces and greater personal
freedom on individuals and chronicles such changes as the rise of social
inequality, shifting power, in the legal system, the expansion of the
federal government, and the formation of the Populist, Progressive, and
Socialist parties.