The decade of the 1890s in the United States was a decade of innovation and conflict. Innovations have affected many aspects of life in America: industry, politics, economics, and society as a whole. The decade saw the emergence of multimillionaires such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan, the rise to power of organized labor, the progressive movement, and westward expansion. It was also a time of unrest in America, pitting unions against corporations and reformers against corrupt politicians. All this and more is what HW Brands tries to make sense of in his book, The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890's. In the book's prologue, Brands sets the stage for the rest of the story. In it, he draws comparisons between the 1990s and 1990s, and does so convincingly, comparing the lawlessness of Chicago in the 1890s to that of Los Angeles in the 1990s, or comparing the head of Tammany Hall Richard Croker to former Washington DC mayor Marion Barry, both of whom are populist heroes who rose to positions of power despite the obviousness of their corruption. It is within these comparisons that the reader can draw some of Brands' conclusions: that the late 19th and 20th centuries saw populist movements gain ground (the Progressives in the 1890s and the Conservative movement in the 1890s) that both those who saw America in a state of decline and those who thought the country had the potential to be prosperous during these time periods were right and that, ultimately, America had and still has a resilience that can lead the country through so many changes and adversities and still come out on top. The story begins in Oklahoma City in 1893 and details Fred Sutton's exploits as h...... middle of paper ......lippines as part of the armistice with Spain. The conclusion that can be drawn from The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s is that H.W. Brands got it right. America was and often is what Americans believe it to be. It is in a state of decline and is thriving. It has been a battleground between populist reformers and greedy, corrupt politicians. It saw unions and big industries clash and launch fierce battles over wages, the eight-hour day and working conditions. The country has fought for foreign lands and even against its own people. It saw advances in technology and industry unseen anywhere else in the world, and faced near economic ruin. The United States has been through stratospheric highs and epic lows, yet it continues to move forward. That was HW Brands' message in this book, and they got it right.