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Rating: 
Summary: Smacks of the University
Review: First the good: Trachtenberg's style is good; a flowing historical narrative with plenty of personal voices from history. Well researched and, for the most part, well argued. As is fair in any Industrial Age analysis, Trachtenberg views the Gilded Age through a primarily socialist lense, giving a unique perspective on the situation.Now the problems. In general, the work is overly academic in several portions, philosophizing beyond what is rational. I recognize that any work on cultural trends will tend towards this problem; none-the-less the book reminds me of my father reading an article in the newspaper about this new fangled 'rap' phenomenon and speculating about all the repurcussions for the American people: it comes across as both overblown and speaking from a biased and not-with-it perspective. This philosophical bent exposes itself in Trachtenberg's fanatical devotion to writers and intellectuals of the time rather than the politicians who were actually getting things done. It's obvious that Trachtenberg is more interested in a fairy tale history he wished could happen rather than a serious analysis of how things might have worked out differently and for the better. As to the argument itself, Trachtenberg has, unfortunately, chosen to open his book with his weakest argument: that of Native American culture presenting a terrifying and pervasive cultural challenge to the Americans. That he has chosen to do so is no surprise: the back of the book states that he is a professor of the subject. However, it seems bizarre to start an argument with an opposing viewpoint. Moreover, the viewpoint is a tenuous one. It is a stretch to imagine most of America deeply troubled by ideological conflict with the American Indians, a stretch that becomes apparent when Trachtenberg resorts to using American ideas from the 1880's to explain a counter-ideology within America arising 20 years earlier. Again we have a logical fallacy: how can future events give rise to a counter movement in the past? Why couldn't he find contemporary examples to buttress his argument? Was it laziness or a lack of data to support his claims? I don't know. If an editor had convinced Trachtenberg to save this weaker argument for a later chapter, the organizational structure of the book and the credibility of the writer would increase greatly. Overall, worth reading for class or for fans of the age, otherwise there's no reason to pick it up.
Rating: 
Summary: Ignore the review up above; it has not a clue.
Review: This book revolutionized the debates on naturalism and realism of the later part of the nineteenth century. It is one of the best interpretations I have ever read about how the formation of corporations were inaugerated in the 1870s with growing mechanization, industrialization, labor strife, and depressions. I have no idea what the prior review means that Trachtenberg looks too much at literary history in that the book only devotes one out of its seven chapters to the writers of the times. The book is mainly concerned with showing the interactions between labor and capital, the formation of the new cities, the effects of Westward expansion (once again, I have no idea what the prior reviewer means by having the initial chapter play such a pivotal role since Trachtenberg does not make the claims that the reviewer makes), the growing of populism, and the 1893 Columbia Exposition. Regardless if one studies history or literature of the late nineteenth century, this book is one of the most important written about the times and offers a wide range of marginal perspective that are usually overlooked in such texts.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic of American Studies
Review: This is an early (well, mid year) front runner for best book I've read all year. It is also one of the first books I've read that I purchased solely based on an Amazon.com recommendation. Kudos to you Amazon.com, faceless computer program you may be, but you DO recommend good books. I'm quite sure I could have lived the entire rest of my life and never had any one recommend this book to me in causal (or non-casual) conversation. Trachtenburg, a Professor of American Studies, picks up where authors like Leo Marx and Henry Nash Smith left off: Trying to analyze the ways in which America became the nation it is today. Like Smith in "Virgin Land" and Marx in "The Machine in the Garden", Trachtenberg ranges across disciplines (literature, economics, sociology, etc.) to develop a nuanced thesis. Although he approaches his thesis ellipitcally (in true American Studies fashion), it is hard to deny the power of his observations. In its simplest terms, Trachtenberg attempts to show the way in which the corporation became the dominant force in shaping American identity. Importantly, he does not treat this development as a foregone conclusion. THrought the book, he develops the idea of a counter definition of America, one that draws on the tradition of Indian culture and American Populism, to show how much the corporation had to overcome in order to dominate America's definition of itself. Along the way, he tackles not only the history of the corporation itself, but the way business took over the political system and the way corporate america co-opted the artistic elite. It is this last observation, which Trachtenberg describes via his incredible analysis of the "White City" at the Chicago World's Fair, that I found most revelatory. Check this book out! And thanks to Amazon.com for recommending it to me!
Rating:
Summary: Classic of American Studies
Review: This is an early (well, mid year) front runner for best book I've read all year. It is also one of the first books I've read that I purchased solely based on an Amazon.com recommendation. Kudos to you Amazon.com, faceless computer program you may be, but you DO recommend good books. I'm quite sure I could have lived the entire rest of my life and never had any one recommend this book to me in causal (or non-casual) conversation. Trachtenburg, a Professor of American Studies, picks up where authors like Leo Marx and Henry Nash Smith left off: Trying to analyze the ways in which America became the nation it is today. Like Smith in "Virgin Land" and Marx in "The Machine in the Garden", Trachtenberg ranges across disciplines (literature, economics, sociology, etc.) to develop a nuanced thesis. Although he approaches his thesis ellipitcally (in true American Studies fashion), it is hard to deny the power of his observations. In its simplest terms, Trachtenberg attempts to show the way in which the corporation became the dominant force in shaping American identity. Importantly, he does not treat this development as a foregone conclusion. THrought the book, he develops the idea of a counter definition of America, one that draws on the tradition of Indian culture and American Populism, to show how much the corporation had to overcome in order to dominate America's definition of itself. Along the way, he tackles not only the history of the corporation itself, but the way business took over the political system and the way corporate america co-opted the artistic elite. It is this last observation, which Trachtenberg describes via his incredible analysis of the "White City" at the Chicago World's Fair, that I found most revelatory. Check this book out! And thanks to Amazon.com for recommending it to me!
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