Mid 19th Century America

In the middle of the nineteenth century, modern life is being born: the marvels of photography, the telegraph, and railroads; a flood of show business spectacles and newspapers; rampant sex, drugs and drink and moral crusades against all three. Wall Street is awash with money. Then, during a single portentous month at the beginning of 1848, America wins its war of manifest destiny against Mexico, gold is discovered in newly won California, and revolutions sweep across Europe, events that effectively birthed our modern world. Kurt Anderson's new novel, Heyday: A Novel (Random House), is a tale of America's boisterous coming of age. Anderson, who co-founded Spy magazine and has been a columnist and critic for The New Yorker and Time joins Larry Mantle to talk about his portrait of an era surprisingly reminiscent of our own.