The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America's Most Progressive Era Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00HS1CSHW | Format: EPUB
The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America's Most Progressive Era Description
A groundbreaking new history, telling the stories of hundreds of African-American activists and officeholders who risked their lives for equality - in the face of murderous violence - in the years after the Civil War. By 1870, just five years after Confederate surrender and 13 years after the Dred Scott decision ruled blacks ineligible for citizenship, Congressional action had ended slavery and given the vote to black men. That same year, Hiram Revels and Joseph Hayne Rainey became the first African-American U.S. senator and congressman respectively. In South Carolina, only 20 years after the death of arch-secessionist John C. Calhoun, a black man, Jasper J. Wright, took a seat on the state's Supreme Court. Not even the most optimistic abolitionists thought such milestones would occur in their lifetimes. The brief years of Reconstruction marked the United States' most progressive moment prior to the civil rights movement. Previous histories of Reconstruction have focused on Washington politics. But in this sweeping, prodigiously researched narrative, Douglas Egerton brings a much bigger, even more dramatic story into view, exploring state and local politics and tracing the struggles of some 1,500 African-American officeholders, in both the North and South, who fought entrenched white resistance. Tragically, their movement was met by ruthless violence - not just riotous mobs, but also targeted assassination. With stark evidence, Egerton shows that Reconstruction, often cast as a "failure" or a doomed experiment, was rolled back by murderous force. The Wars of Reconstruction is a major and provocative contribution to American history.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 16 hours and 3 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Audible for Bloomsbury
- Audible.com Release Date: January 21, 2014
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00HS1CSHW
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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