Reconstruction: A Concise History

Reconstruction was a time of political reunification after the Civil War, but it failed to address the issues of race relations and struggled to manage the Southern resistance towards a Northern free-labor economy. It laid the groundwork for renewed struggles for racial equality during the civil rights movement.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 192 pages
\n Publication date: 14 June 2018
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
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The era known as Reconstruction is one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. While it succeeded in reuniting the nation politically after the Civil War, it achieved little else. The conflict shifted from the battlefield to the Capitol, as Congress engaged in a bitter war with President Andrew Johnson over the future of the South. Johnson's plan of Presidential Reconstruction, which was sympathetic to the former Confederacy and included repressive measures such as the black codes, ultimately led to his impeachment and the establishment of Radical Reconstruction.

While Reconstruction saw the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments, which expanded the rights and suffrage of African Americans, it failed to chart a progressive course for race relations after the abolition of slavery and the rise of Jim Crow. It also struggled to manage the Southern resistance towards a Northern free-labor economy. However, these failures cannot overshadow a number of significant accomplishments with long-term consequences for American life. These include the Civil Rights Act, the election of the first African American representatives to Congress, and the avoidance of renewed civil war.

Reconstruction suffered from poor leadership and a lack of clear direction, but it also laid the groundwork for renewed struggles for racial equality during the civil rights movement. In this concise history, award-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo 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 the American social fabric.

\n Weight: 332g\n
Dimension: 212 x 159 x 20 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780190865696\n \n