Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (Paperback) by Eric Foner

from kcshankd

I can't remember ever reading a book that made me so mad, over and over. I of course knew what to expect, and yet managed to be repeatedly horrified at our ancestors' failures. Political change is a grind it out, every day battle. Think Ho Chi Minh. There are no shortcuts. The Redeemers knew they...

from DarthDeverell

Eric Foner begins with an assessment of the historiography up to 1988. In the first decade of the 1900s, William Dunning and John W. Burgess articulated a history of Reconstruction that condemned Radical Republicans, Northern carpetbaggers, Southern scalawags, and freedmen. W.E.B. Du Bois, in 193...

from DarthDeverell

Eric Foner begins with an assessment of the historiography up to 1988. In the first decade of the 1900s, William Dunning and John W. Burgess articulated a history of Reconstruction that condemned Radical Republicans, Northern carpetbaggers, Southern scalawags, and freedmen. W.E.B. Du Bois, in 193...

from dougwood57

Eric Foner's essential work on the post-Civil War American South. I'm not a fan of alternate histories, but this book makes you ponder 'what could have been' if Reconstruction had been more successful. Much like the early days of the English revolution when "for a short time, ordinary people were...

from Scapegoats

It seems like the definitive work on post-Civil War reconstruction. It looks at every aspect, reading with more narrative than specific argument, this is essential for anyone looking at this era or, in my opinion, the Civil Rights movement, which is the legacy of Reconstruction.