Standing at Armageddon

A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era

By: Nell Irvin Painter

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Standing at Armageddon is a comprehensive and lively historical account of America's shift from a rural and agrarian society to an urban and industrial society.

©2008, 1987 Nell Irvin Painter (P)2020 Tantor

Great history of this era

I have read several books about the period(s) of American history covered in this book, and this is the best I’ve encountered. The level of detail is in a “just right” Goldilocks zone, placing vivid description of specific incidents alongside lucid explanations of political debates without giving so much detail that the overall narrative gets bogged down. If I were to recommend one book about the period of US History between Reconstruction and World War I, this would be it.

Informative, but plodding

This book covers a really important era in American history, where much of the progress on black civil rights was undone, the country transformed from an agrarian society into an industrial one, and major gains were made for labor and women's rights. That said, the book is almost myopically focused on the issues of labor and civil rights. The author excluded some topics I would have liked to hear more about, such as the impact of Spanish flu, monetary policy of the early Fed, and presidential policies not dealing with the labor movement. Despite being an incomplete history of the era, and despite the narrator having a robotically monotone voice, it's still highly educational and worth a listen.