We begin our first tome with 18 pages of black and white photographs from 1870-1900. They feature a bunch of white people. They are mostly men doing manly things, but there are some decorative females scattered among them in supporting roles.
Since I believe that I am not going to see any (out) gay people in this entire series and and am pretty sure that many of the representations of people of color are going to be problematic (spoiler - they are!) it seems that women are going to be getting most of the attention from Time Life (hereafter to be referred to as TL) as the least marginalized of the marginalized groups. Also, as a woman, this is the one group I can speak to the struggle of first hand. And oh my, I certainly do!
So I am going to mostly gloss over the decorative and marriageable women except when I have something funny or moving to say about them. (When in doubt, assume I am trying for funny.) If a woman accomplishes something on her own without a man's support I will count her as being "represented" otherwise, she is background noise at best and a representation of the unattainable (and in our modern times untenable) goal of perfect helpmeet with no personality of her own at worst. Okay, that seems harsh, but seriously - it's all kids, virgins, wives and mothers between those covers!
So many photos before page 25 and not a single non-white face. Our first chapter is NATION ON THE MOVE and we are up and at 'em! We've got ourselves a trans-continental railroad!
Before the TCR's completion, it took a month to get from New York to San Francisco by rail and stage. It took 5 months by wagon train from Missouri and you were already halfway there! I wonder if that explosion of movement from the TCR felt like the information superhighway? Interesting parallels, so much opportunity for wealth and oppression.
This would be a good place for TL to begin discussing the "Great Migration" of African-Americans from the postbellum south to the northern industrial cities. But they do not. Perhaps they had not yet read Isabel Wilkerson's masterwork THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS. It wasn't published until 50 years later, so I suppose that is their excuse.
It is mentioned that at this point in time, fewer than 2 per 100 “citizens” went to college. Is the number so low because women and blacks are not represented, or would it be even lower in that case? This book has no citations, which just made me very sad. There are photo credits which can help with some identification. I tried to find the numbers and did find a chart from the zippily named National Center for Education Statistics that matches that and does split it by male and female. But the numbers are so low (And the print so small!) that I couldn't distinguish by gender. There was no mention of race in the report from the last 120 years of American Education, because I am sure black and white education rates were similar because of the level playing field and everything...
I am going to end with a terrific and hopeful quote from journalist Josiah Gilbert Holland who was born in Belchertown, MA, wrote a solid Lincoln biography, helped found Scribner's Monthly, and was friends with Emily Dickinson. (I read the Wikipedia page so you don't have to!) “Progress cannot be reckoned in railroads and steamboats, or counted in money, or decided in any way by the census tables. Are we producing better children and better men and women? This is the question which decides everything." I like to believe that this is true, that the human condition is the struggle to be better. I think most people want to be decent, but there are so many factors that can get in the way. I really try to believe in the good in people, but greed and fear and hate are out there and they will have an impact.
Biographical Encyclopedia of Massachusetts of the Nineteenth Century. v.2. Boston: Metropolitan Publishing and Engraving Company, 1883. p. 180.
Snyder, Thomas D. 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Study. Washington, DC: US Department of Education, 1993.
Time-Life Books. This Fabulous Century 1870-1900. New York: Time-Life Books, 1970.
Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. New York: Random House, 2010.
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