The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America's Most Progressive Era Author: Visit Amazon's Douglas R. Egerton Page | Language: English | ISBN:
160819566X | Format: PDF
The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America's Most Progressive Era Description
Review
"The history of [the] era [of Reconstruction] has rarely if ever been as well told as it is in Douglas R. Egerton's forcefully argued and crisply written The Wars of Reconstruction. Mr. Egerton presents a sometimes inspiring but more often deeply shocking story that reveals the nation at its best and worst…Mr. Egerton's prose…is readable and compelling...He moves his narrative forward with a fine eye for the drama of events, offering a chorus of contemporary voices along the way: those of ex-slaves, war veterans, do-gooders, opportunists, educators, churchmen and politicians of every stripe, among them defenders of racial privilege. He includes as well ex-Confederates such as the politically courageous James Longstreet, Robert E. Lee's senior corps commander, who after the war became a Republican and embraced biracial reform, and Northern black crusaders such as Octavius Catto of Philadelphia, who helped make the assertion of civil rights a national cause. Collectively these figures, speaking to us amid Mr. Egerton's always acute presentation of the intricacies of federal and state politics, bring to life the war that was taking place not just in the halls of government but also deep in the small towns, red-dirt hamlets and cotton fields, where the bloodiest combat of Reconstruction took place." –Wall Street Journal"The Wars of Reconstruction is one of the best and most readable studies of that era to appear in many years. Its emphasis on the active role that African Americans played in this crucial period is especially welcome. Douglas Egerton has given us another gripping, thoughtful, and deeply researched book about slavery and the fight for freedom." –Bruce Levin, author of The Fallof the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution that Transformed the South
“Key figures develop into rich characters, balancing Egerton’s own objective, wide-seeing perspective, which even explores the revisionist Reconstruction histories that informed the American consciousness, particularly the pernicious effects of influential racist cinema. All told, Egerton’s study is an adept exploration of a past era of monumental relevance to the present and is recommended for any student of political conflict, social upheaval, and the perennial struggle against oppression.”– Publishers Weekly
"A richly detailed history…An illuminating view of an era whose reform spirit would live on in the 1960s civil rights movement." –Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Douglas R. Egerton is a professor of history at LeMoyne College. He is the author of six books, including Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War, He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey, Gabriel's Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, and Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America. He lives near Syracuse, New York.
- Hardcover: 448 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Press (January 21, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 160819566X
- ISBN-13: 978-1608195664
- Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War remains one of the most controversial periods of American history. At one time, the predominant view was the Reconstruction was a tragic blunder forced upon a defeated, prostrate South by a vengeful Congress. Over the years, this understanding of Reconstruction has gradually given way as historians have emphasized Reconstruction as a way of implementing the purposes for which the Civil War was fought by protecting the economic and civil rights of the Freedpeople.
In his new book, "The Wars of Reconstruction: the Brief, Violent history of America's Most Progressive Era" (2014, Douglas Egerton strongly interprets Reconstruction in accordance with the second view. A Professor of History at Le Moyne College, Egerton has written widely on African American history in the Revolutionary, pre-Civil War, and Civil War eras. In addition to differences of interpretation, Reconstruction is a difficult subject to master due to its breadth and complexity: understanding Reconstruction requires consideration of Federal action, state and local governmental action, and the actvities of many individuals over the Reconstructed South.
This book does not have the character of nuance. Egerton advances his interpretation forcefully and strongly. This is not necessarily a flaw in a historical study, particularly in a study that counters a view that still has a wide following among lay people and probably among some scholars. Edgerton's book is meticulous, full of factual detail, and well documented in his extensive references. (Unfortunately, the book lacks a bibliography). The problem with the book is less in the strong interpretation it takes and more in the manner of presentation. In the early chapters, the book is dry, repetitive and unfocused.
Much of the story of the Reconstruction era is the battle between the Radical Republicans in Congress and President Andrew Johnson, a virtually illiterate tailor, former Unionist Governor from Tennessee whom Lincoln had selected as VP for his 1864 Presidential run because he needed to steal votes from his opponent George McClellan. Johnson was a virulent racist, neurotic, and basically unfit to be President. Though loyal to the Union, he was lauded by former Rebel generals / senior politicians in the South because of his blatant sympathies for Southern readmission. Reconstruction was a time of a series of legislative actions passed by Congress, then opposed by Johnson, including the 1866 Civil Rights Act turned creator of the Freedmen's Bureau for former slaves in the South, two Reconstruction Acts which established military zones in the former Confederacy despite Johnson's claim that 'all hostile action in the South has ceased and our former enemies are ready to return to the fold' (paraphrasing, not literal quote). The South eventually cut a deal when the Electoral College picked Rutherford B. Hayes in 18877 over Sam Tilden, with the understanding that all federal troops be withdrawn from the former Confederacy. Then, it became open season on former slaves by the KKK, the White League, and thre Red Shirt organizations who terrorized blacks who had only recently been granted formal citizenship and the franchise (voting rights), in addition to being set free. Anyone claiming that the Civil War was NOT fought over slavery need only read the history of the South from 1870 to 1960: blacks were subjected to every kind of terror, restriction, peonage, Black Code laws, and hostility intended to subjugate them, to return them to their former status as slaves.
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