A sweeping history of the United States from the era of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, this engaging book stretches the boundaries of our understanding of Reconstruction. Historian Heather Cox Richardson ties the North and West into the post–Civil War story that usually focuses narrowly on the South, encompassing the significant people and events of this profoundly important era.
Gregory P. Downs, [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674743989/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0674743989&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=3a09ee41b81655e20af0511223e1e7d0 After Appomattox : Military Occupation and the Ends of War] (Harvard University Press, 2015)On April 8, 1865, after four years of civil war, General Robert E. Lee wrote to General Ulysses S. Grant asking for peace. Peace was beyond his authority to negotiate, Grant replied, but surrender terms he would discuss. As Gregory Downs reveals in this gripping history of post–Civil War America, Grant’s distinction proved prophetic, for peace would elude the South for years after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
“Capitol Men: The Epic Story After Appomattox argues that the war did not end with Confederate capitulation in 1865. Instead, a second phase commenced which lasted until 1871―not the project euphemistically called Reconstruction but a state of Reconstruction Through genuine belligerency whose mission was to shape the Lives terms of peace. Using its war powers, the First Black Congressmen” (MarinerU.S. Army oversaw an ambitious occupation, 2010)stationing tens of thousands of troops in hundreds of outposts across the defeated South. This groundbreaking study of the post-surrender occupation makes clear that its purpose was to crush slavery and to create meaningful civil and political rights for freed people in the face of rebels’ bold resistance.
Michael WPhilip Dray, <i>[https://www.amazon. Fitzgerald, “Splendid Failurecom/gp/product/0547247974/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0547247974&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=54c548c6381713dafa9a3d13001ade7b Capitol Men: Postwar The Epic Story of Reconstruction in Through the American South” Lives of the First Black Congressmen]</i> (Ivan R. DeeMariner, 20072010)
“The Reconstruction was a time of idealism and sweeping change, as the victorious Union created citizenship rights for the freed slaves and granted the vote to black men. Sixteen black Southerners, elected to the U.S. Congress, arrived in Washington to advocate reforms such as public education, equal rights, land distribution, and the suppression of the Ku Klux Klan.But these men faced astounding odds. They were belittled as corrupt and inadequate by their white political opponents, who used legislative trickery, libel, bribery, and the brutal intimidation of their constituents to rob them of their base of support. Despite their status as congressmen, they were made to endure the worst humiliations of racial prejudice. And they have been largely forgotten—often neglected or maligned by standard histories of the period. Michael W. Fitzgerald, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1566637392/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1566637392&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=1f53b894867cdefdaaeadc19c3ed7208 Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South]</i> (Ivan R. Dee, 2007) Michael W. Fitzgerald's new interpretation of Reconstruction shows how the internal dynamics of this first freedom movement played into the hands of white racist reactionaries in the South. Splendid Failure recounts how postwar financial missteps and other governance problems quickly soured idealistic Northerners on the practical consequences of the Radical Republican plan, and set the stage for the explosion that swept Southern Republicans from power and resulted in Northern acquiescence to the bloody repression of voting rights. The failed strategy offers a chastening example to present-day proponents of racial equality. James Alex Baggett, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807130141/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0807130141&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=c8a12d4c42fb31a5845b36d778f1a95b The Scalawags: Southern Dissenters in the Civil War and Reconstruction” Reconstruction]</i> (Louisiana State University, 2003) In The Scalawags, James Alex Baggett ambitiously uncovers the genesis of scalawag leaders throughout the former Confederacy. Using a collective biography approach, Baggett profiles 742 white southerners who supported Congressional Reconstruction and the Republican Party. He then compares and contrasts the scalawags with 666 redeemer-Democrats who opposed and eventually replaced them. Significantly, he analyzes this rich data by region -- the Upper South, the Southeast, and the Southwest -- as well as for the South as a whole. Baggett follows the life of each scalawag before, during, and after the war, revealing real personalities and not mere statistics. Examining such features as birthplace, vocation, estate, slaveholding status, education, political antecedents and experience, stand on secession, war record, and postwar political activities, he finds striking uniformity among scalawags. This is the first Southwide study of the scalawags, its scope and astounding wealth in quantity and quality of sources make it the definitive work on the subject. [[Category:Wikis]][[Category:United States History]] [[Category:19th Century History]] [[Category:Political History]] [[Category:African American History]] [[Category:Boolists]]
