The Gilded Age and Progressive Era
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Christmas Past
Ep. 10
How did Americans celebrate Christmas in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era? This episode has a festive feel as I ask Thomas Ruys Smith about his new book Christmas Past: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Nineteenth Century America. We'll talk about household names such as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, as well as stories you may have never heard from slaves, immigrants, Native Americans, and non-Christians.
Essential Reading:
Recommended Reading:
Penn Restad, Christmas in America: A History (1995).
Karal Ann Marling, Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday (2000).
Tara Moore, Victorian Christmas in Print (2009).
Robert May, Yuletide in Dixie: Slavery, Christmas, and Southern Memory (2019).