As with all of our booklists, if you disagree with this expert booklist you can create a new and better one.
#Richard Hofstader, ''[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394700953/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0394700953&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=AVH6X5SXHXAV7KCA The Age of Reform]'' (Vintage Books, 1955) - Richard Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize winning was the best synthesis of the Populist and Progressive movements when it was published in 1955. Hofstader focused on the ideas that drove social movements that defined the era. It showed how people's ideas guided the reform organizations that sought to remake America.
#Nell Painter, ''[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393024059/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393024059&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=Y37274JA6D3R4Q2J Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919]'' (W.W. Norton & Company, 1987) Award winning historian Nell Irvin Painter's book describes how America began to shift from an agrarian to an urban society. Painter focuses on the lives of working people and wonderfully integrates African Americans and women into her narrative. Her book is a beautifully written synthesis of this era.
#Charles Postel, ''[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195384717/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0195384717&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=UHEUDVTP3QHKEU7E The Populist Vision]'' (Oxford University Press) The Populist Vision is probably the best single volume narrative on the creation of populism. Postel describes how populism started in the fields and slowly migrated into urban areas. Postel's book is a perfect counterbalance to Hofstader's Age of Reform.
#Michael McGerr, ''[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195183657/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0195183657&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=EYLEHBBYOFZZANVG A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920]'' (Oxford University Press, 2005) McGerr's book shows how Progressive reformers walked a fine line balancing between advancing the social good and individual liberty. She describes how conservatives eventually slowed the tide of social reform and pushed back against the increasingly liberal use of governmental power.
W. H. Brands, ''[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307386775/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307386775&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=PAB2ZVB6OJGNZRSX American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900]'' (Random House, 2010) American Colossus describes the rise of capitalist titans such J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Brands places these titans at the center of a tale to show how capitalism connected to Reconstruction, the Indian Wars, the urban labor and agraian populists. In addition to being an outstanding historian, American Colossus is the work of extraordinary storyteller.