After the Civil War, the United States became a nation of industrialized cities crisscrossed by a vast network of railroads. The changes in America were so dramatic that they transformed the social structure of the country and the nature of journalism.

After the War documents the evolution of post-Civil War America by examining its journalism, from coverage of politics and reconstruction to sensational reporting and images of the American people. As America changed, the media changed, and by the 1870s and 1880s new kinds of daily newspapers had developed. New Journalism...