<DIV>1776, 1945, 1968 . . . some years take on an identity of their own, and live on in the nation's memory as watersheds or turning points in our collective history. 1877, in contrast—a year no less pivotal—marked a time many Americans longed to forget.<br><BR>In the book <I>Publishers Weekly</I> called a ?solid, deeply informed history,” historian Michael A. Bellesiles brilliantly recaptures one of the most tumultuous years in U.S. history—describing a time of nearly unimaginable violence and upheaval. Amid the messy aftermath of the Civil War, the country was gripped by a deep depression. White supremacist mobs swept across the South, killing and driving out the last of the Reconstruction state governments. A strike involving millions of railroad workers turned violent as it spread from coast to coast, and for a moment seemed close to toppling the nation's economic structure. And, following a highly contested presidential election, it looked as though the country would not have a president by inauguration day, March 5, 1877.<br><BR>This entertaining and richly documented tale is related through the lives of famous and little-known Americans, including Chief Joseph, Walt Whitman, Billy the Kid, The Molly Maguires, Jacob Riis, Allan Pinkerton, and Booker T. Washington.<br><BR>Published in hardcover to nation-wide attention, <I>1877</I> is a new story of America at the dawn of its modern era, one that will forever alter our understanding of the forces shaping our politics, our culture, and our national identity.<br></DIV>