For the most part the narrative follows a familiar pattern only this time the effects of Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction on the Western parts of the country are included. There's a problem loading this menu right now. It is incredibly researched and documented. Short Review: This is an era that I just didn't have much historical background on. This is the definitive memorandum of the Reconstruction Era. Fascinating stuff. His, “Frederick Douglass, who had encountered racism even within abolitionist ranks, considered Lincoln a fundamentally decent individual. In my view, it is essential to have a very good grasp of the Civil War prior to reading this, for it. Her specialties include history, wildlife, and popular culture. Be the first to ask a question about Reconstruction. All "ff" at the end of a word were transformed to "?" Except that it was the post-Civil War big government's investments in things like railroads, and distribution of land under the homestead Act, and bureaucracy bringing in new territorial government into states and emigration controls that. The war-torn South had to be rebuilt, and Americans, including 4 million former slaves, had to make peace with one another. While Reconstruction itself was a massively important and up heaving phenomena, i. I don't think the author wrote these words this way but must have been modified by the conversion to the kindle edition. While much of Richardson’s development in the book can be read as an intensification of Foner’s arguments that emphasize the fundamental role of Republican ideology concerning free labor, Richardson goes on to explain how this ideology adapted to what has commonly been referred to as the failure of Reconstruction. This book is a magnificent work. An interesting take on the idea of Reconstruction. She attempts to include the frontier lands of the Texas and the territories into this story. I became aware not long after leaving a public high school in Texas when my family moved to the San Francisco area where I complete high school that much of what I had been taught in Texas (this was in the late 1960s) about the Civil War and Reconstruction was distorted or outright false. Hailed at the time, Black Reconstruction in America 1860–1880 has justly been called a classic. All the things that the Civil War didn't resolve - what Emancipation means, what is the role of non-whites in civil society, how a society heals itself of a 250-year-history of moral depravity, how are traitors brought back into the civic fabric of the nation - weren't really resolved in Reconstruction, either. It is a book designed to appeal to real history buffs though. A period almost as polarized and contentious as any in American history. It is very detailed and trying to read it like a textbook was slow going. But you can tell that it's an academic tome, as the introduction is longer than most chapters, and the appendices take up 25% of the volume. The people for whom this would have the most impact would be the newly freed slaves. This book contains an exhaustive, inclusive, and thorough examination of the Reconstruction including the policies, the reactions of the North and the South, and the plight of the freedmen from the freedmen’s perspective. One of the best books on our American history, period. Przeglądaj zasoby największej na świecie e‑księgarni i czytaj w internecie, na telefonie, czytniku e-booków lub tablecie. Reconstruction may have been our nation's only chance to reckon with its slavery-based origins, and to fully make an accounting for our sins. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. A reminder that progress can be rolled back by reactionaries and vigilance and fighting these forces is not only necessary for gaining rights but also retaining them. The capstone of the revisionist interpretation of Reconstruction was Eric Foner’s 1989 work Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, fittingly replacing Dunning’s 1907 Reconstruction: Political and Economic in the updated round of works in the New American Nation series. It is incredibly researched and documented. The story of Reconstruction is not simply about the rebuilding of the South after the Civil War. It is a sad truth and no one can learn the reality of the times and not see in it the roots of our current divisions and discord. You may have seen this treatment in DW Driffith's classic film Birth of a Nation. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. Foner explains, in excruciating detail, how and why these efforts failed, but also the ways in which they succeeded, in each State. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. This new relationship between government and citizens meant that the question of who should have a voice in government took on great practical meaning. This new relationship between government and citizens meant that the question of who should have a voice in government took on great practical meaning. A fairly detailed history of the Reconstruction era in the south after the civil war. It was a time of struggle with competing interests and power relationships. The book is not limited to the political reconstruction in the South, but includes the economics of the US after the Civil War, studies of Presidents Johnson and Grant, Labor History, and the effect of reconstruction in the North. Stephanie Fitzgerald (Author) › Visit Amazon's Stephanie Fitzgerald Page. All "ff" at the end of a word were transformed to "?" It truly is an unfinished revolution. Heather Cox Richardson is a historian who is able to articulate much of the changes that have happened since the Civil War in clearly defined terms, even up to the present day. It was a time of struggle with competing interests and power relationships. I would have preferred a later edition because I would like to think some of the repetition and was cleaned up. An interesting take on the idea of Reconstruction. It is powerful and timely in so many ways, connecting our Revolutionary past and its devil like deal with slavery to the ultimate and necessary Civil War. Typically, we learn that Lincoln freed the slaves, United the Union once again, and we all lived happily ever after. She weaves an interesting tale of the Reconstruction of America and not just the South and how it lasted until 1901, but she makes many blanket statements about Teddy, about the middle-class's supposed hypocrisy for centralization and trying to compare the cowboy image of the 19th century to the 2004 election snare her book from better reviews and real research or analysis.