The innocent optimism of the young
democratic nation gave way, after the
civil war, to a period of exhaustion.
American idealism remained but was rechanneled. Before
the war, idealists championed human rights, especially
the abolition of slavery; after the war, Americans
increasingly idealized progress and the self- made man.
Problems of urbanization and industrialization
appeared: poor and overcrowded housing, unsanitary
conditions, low pay (called “wage slavery”), difficult
working conditions, and inadequate restraints on
business. Labor unions grew, and strikes brought the
plight of working people to national awareness.
From 1860 to 1914, the United States was
transformed from a small, young, agricultural
ex-colony to a huge, modern, industrial nation.
People
Mark Twain /
Samuel Clemens
Grew up in Mississippi River
frontier town of Hannibal
Twain’s style, based on vigorous, realistic,
colloquial American speech, gave American
writers a new appreciation of their national voice.
For Twain and other American writers of the late 19th
century, realism was not merely a literary technique:
It was a way of speaking truth and exploding
worn-out conventions. Thus it was profoundly
liberating and potentially at odds with society
He wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
This novel was about Huckleberry Finn and the
adventures he and a runaway slave had
experience after he feigned his own death
Popular frontier humor and local color,
or “regionalism.” also rose as Mark Twain rose
From this slang was also introduced into
life as a new comical American words
Bret Harte
Harte is remembered as the author of adventurous
stories such as “The Luck of Roaring
Camp” and “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,”
set along the western mining frontier.
Harte for a brief time was perhaps the
best-known writer in America