What I already know about my topic

Age of realism in american literature; what do I know on this preticular topic?  Uh, nothing.  I know I heard of realism and realist somewhere before, but my mind is a blank as to any helpful information pertaining to the topic.  But if I did learn something about realism it is most likely I learnt it in history class.  I know for a fact that I will be researching it at lenght between the years 1880-1914.  The Civil War was in between that time frame....I think. I'm not sure I'm not so great with dates. So most likely the impact it was gonna have in literature is stuff dealing with Africa Americans right and a lot of polical stuff and racism and the new change of perspective for the U.S. people and economy.  Along that time there was alot of legal matters between businesses and the government, which would explain ecconomic changes. I not entirely sure on anything.