What might I read to gain insight into the daily life of 19th-century Americans and Western Europeans?

by shostyscholar
skedaddle

There are several options here. How To Be A Victorian by Ruth Goodman does a nice job of capturing the routines and rhythms of everyday life in the nineteenth-century.

If you want to immerse yourself into nineteenth-century life and culture, there's really nothing better than reading loads of newspapers and magazines that were published at the time. British newspapers from this period are behind a paywall, but the American ones are free to browse online.