After the War

After the War presents a panoramic view of social, political, and economic change in post-Civil War America by examining its journalism, from coverage of politics and Reconstruction to sensational reporting and images of the American people. The changes in America during this time were so dramatic that they transformed the social structure of the country and the nature of journalism. By the 1870s and 1880s, new kinds of daily newspapers had developed. New Journalism eventually gave rise to Yellow Journalism, resulting in big-city newspapers that were increasingly sensationalistic, entertaining, and designed to attract everyone. The images of the nation's people as seen through journalistic eyes, from coverage of immigrants to stories about African American "Black fiends" and Native American "savages," tell a vibrant story that will engage scholars and students of history, journalism, and media studies.

David B. Sachsman holds the George R. West, Jr. Chair of Excellence in Communication and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he also serves as director of the annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression. He is the editor of A Press Divided: Newspaper Coverage of the Civil War (2014) and Sensationalism: Murder, Mayhem, Mudslinging, Scandals, and Disasters in 19th-Century Reporting (2013).

List of Images, Illustrations, and Tables Preface - David B. Sachsman Introduction - David B. Sachsman Part I. Press, Politics, and Restoration 1 Rebel Yells and Idle Vaporings: The Lost Cause Rises and Dissipates in the Chicago Tribune, the Atlanta Constitution, and the New York Times, 1860-1914 Thomas C. Terry and Donald L. Shaw 2 The New Departure: The Northern Democratic Press and Reconstruction, 1868-1876 Erik B. Alexander 3 The Forgotten Issue: The Little Bighorn and the Election of 1876 James E. Mueller 4 Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, and the Election of 1876 William E. Huntzicker 5 The President's Private Life: A New Explanation for "The Right to Privacy" Patricia Ferrier 6 "Always to be the 'Tocsin'": Josephus Daniels, the News & Observer, and the Rise of Jim Crow Thomas C. Terry and Donald L. Shaw Part II. Journalism in the Gilded Age: Entertaining the Masses, Serving the Public, and Raking the Muck 7 Haunted Times? Ghosts in Crime Stories Printed by the New York Times, 1851-1901 Paulette D. Kilmer 8 The Rocky Mountains, Yosemite, and Other Natural Wonders: Western Landscape in Travel Correspondence of the Post-Civil War Press Katrina J. Quinn 9 Consuelo, the Duke, and the Press: Celebrity and Sensationalism in the Gilded Age Wallace B. Eberhard 10 Are You Going to the Hanging? Georgia Editors and the Movement to End Public Hangings Wallace B. Eberhard 11 Abolishing Wage Slavery in the Gilded Age: John Swinton and the American Labor Movement's Memory of the Civil War Maryan Soliman 12 Babies as Breadwinners: Child Labor Prior to Federal Reform in the Industrial North and the Industrializing South, 1890-1899 Amber Welch Part III. Images of Immigrants, Race, and Gender 13 Sickness from Abroad: How Media Framing of New Immigrants and Disease Fueled the Immigration Debate, 1891-1893 Harriet Moore 14 Changes in the News: Characterizing Immigration, 1850-1890 Timothy L. Moran 15 Riot, Race, and Placing Blame: Press Coverage of the 1885 Rock Springs Chinese Massacre Rich Shumate 16 "Black Fiends" and "Atrocious Murders": Redefining "Sensationalism" through Coverage of Interracial Crime in the Nineteenth-Century Press Lee Jolliffe 17 Ida B. Wells and Coverage of Lynchings and Antilynching Efforts in Selected Mainstream Newspapers, 1892-1894 Aleen J. Ratzlaff 18 Custer and the "Savages": Newspaper Coverage of the Indian War, Summer 1876 Thomas C. Terry and Donald L. Shaw 19 A Moral Panic on the Plains? Press Culpability and the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee Brian Gabrial 20 Why Women Dared to Make Journalism Their Calling Paulette D. Kilmer 21 "They'd Vote for What is Pure and Good": Representations of Women in the Gilded Age Press Jennifer E. Moore 22 The New Woman as Athlete: Coverage of the Sporting Woman in the Gilded Age Press Amber Roessner About the Editor Contributors Index