Reconstruction : a very short introduction
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Published
New York, NY, United States of America : Oxford University Press, [2020].
ISBN
9780190454791, 0190454792
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Description

The era known as Reconstruction is one of the unhappiest times in American history. It succeeded in reuniting the nation politically after the Civil War but in little else. Among its chief failures was the inability to chart a progressive course for race relations after the abolition of slavery and rise of Jim Crow. Reconstruction also struggled to successfully manage the Southern resistance towards a Northern, free-labor pattern. But the failures cannot obscure a number of notable accomplishments, with decisive long-term consequences for American life: the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, the election of the first African American representatives to the US Congress, and the avoidance of any renewed outbreak of civil war. Reconstruction suffered from poor leadership and uncertainty of direction, but it also laid the groundwork for renewed struggles for racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement. This Very Short Introduction delves into the constitutional, political, and social issues behind Reconstruction to provide a lucid and original account of a historical moment that left an indelible mark on American social fabric. Historian Allen C. Guelzo depicts Reconstruction as a "bourgeois revolution" -- as the attempted extension of the free-labor ideology embodied by Lincoln and the Republican Party to what was perceived as a Southern region gone astray from the Founders' intention in the pursuit of Romantic aristocracy.

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Eisenhower Public Library District - Stacks973.8 GUEOn Shelf
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Table of Contents

Introduction
Vengeance : April-December 1865
Alienation : December 1865-March 1867
Arrogance : March 1867-May 1868
Resistance : May 1868-March 1869
Distraction : March 1869-May 1872
Law : 1866-1876
Dissension : September 1872-April 1877
Epilogue
Timeline.

More Details

Published
New York, NY, United States of America : Oxford University Press, [2020].
Format
Book
Physical Desc
168 pages : illustrations ; 18 cm.
Language
English
ISBN
9780190454791, 0190454792

Notes

General Note
Published in hardcover as Reconstruction: a concise history, in 2018.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-160) and index.
Description
The era known as Reconstruction is one of the unhappiest times in American history. It succeeded in reuniting the nation politically after the Civil War but in little else. Among its chief failures was the inability to chart a progressive course for race relations after the abolition of slavery and rise of Jim Crow. Reconstruction also struggled to successfully manage the Southern resistance towards a Northern, free-labor pattern. But the failures cannot obscure a number of notable accomplishments, with decisive long-term consequences for American life: the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, the election of the first African American representatives to the US Congress, and the avoidance of any renewed outbreak of civil war. Reconstruction suffered from poor leadership and uncertainty of direction, but it also laid the groundwork for renewed struggles for racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement. This Very Short Introduction delves into the constitutional, political, and social issues behind Reconstruction to provide a lucid and original account of a historical moment that left an indelible mark on American social fabric. Historian Allen C. Guelzo depicts Reconstruction as a "bourgeois revolution" -- as the attempted extension of the free-labor ideology embodied by Lincoln and the Republican Party to what was perceived as a Southern region gone astray from the Founders' intention in the pursuit of Romantic aristocracy.

Published Reviews

Publisher's Weekly Review

According to Civil War historian Guelzo's concise and lucidly written study, the 12-year period popularly known as Reconstruction is the "ugly duckling of American history," representing to many a tragically missed opportunity to establish racial equality. The project was innately challenging, he argues, raising difficult questions about the meaning of the Confederate states' secession from the Union and the position of formerly enslaved people in the postbellum United States. Guelzo emphasizes that "not everything that should have been gained was gained in Reconstruction, but not everything was lost, either." Following a chronological approach, he briefly sketches out the methods, including overt political resistance and the substitution of "freedman" for "slave" in state legal codes, by which white Southerners tried to subvert the federal government's attempts to restructure Southern society to empower its black and poor white inhabitants. He concurs with Ulysses S. Grant that Reconstruction's goals could only have been accomplished through a significantly longer military occupation of the South, but most Northerners felt this "was not in accordance with our institutions." This reluctance resulted in strict limitations on the opportunities available to African-Americans. Guelzo's short book is highly informative for readers seeking a better understanding of a short but tumultuous era that continues to influence race relations in the United States. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Kirkus Book Review

Eminent Civil War historian Guelzo examines the many reasons the Reconstruction era, "the ugly duckling of American history," ended in failure.Reconstruction, the brainchild of Abraham Lincoln and carried outor notby successors Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant, was meant to rebuild the rebellious Southern states and reincorporate them into the Union while altering their political structure to allow for the suffrage and citizens' rights of former slaves. From 1865 to 1877, that federal project ground down before achieving its ambitions, though parts were put in place. As Guelzo (Director, Civil War Era Studies/Gettysburg Coll.; Redeeming the Great Emancipator, 2016, etc.) notes, there's something in Reconstruction for nearly everyone to hate but also something powerful by way of an object lesson: Much of the South's "Lost Cause" myth was born in the time, as a pointed morality tale in resisting a tyranny in which whites and not blacks were disenfranchised and the extraordinary levels of graft and corruption allowed do-gooders on all sides to point to the doomed effort with I-told-you-so smugness. For all that, Reconstruction had to grapple with large issues: Were the states formerly in rebellion still states? Who was responsible for paying Confederate debts? In the end, almost everyone concerned with the enterprise failed to press Reconstruction to its presumed end. Consequently, former slaveholders were restored to positions of power and influence that in turn subjected former slaves to peonage, which, as one former slave put it, "is not the condition of really freemen." As seems so often the case in American history, African-Americans emerge the losers in Guelzo's narrative. As he writes, it was not just property and economic freedom that fled them, but "what Southern blacks lost in wholesale amounts was political agency." Thus the rise of Jim Crow laws and the spectacle, 150 years after the end of the war, of continued disenfranchisement and de facto segregation.Essential reading for the historically minded in a time of ongoing struggle for civil rights. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Guelzo, A. C. (2020). Reconstruction: a very short introduction . Oxford University Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Guelzo, Allen C.. 2020. Reconstruction: A Very Short Introduction. New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Guelzo, Allen C.. Reconstruction: A Very Short Introduction New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Guelzo, A. C. (2020). Reconstruction: a very short introduction. New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Guelzo, Allen C.. Reconstruction: A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press, 2020.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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