Reconstruction and Empire: The Legacies of Abolition and Union Victory for an Imperial Age

This book explores the historical connections between the United States Reconstruction and the country's emergence as a geopolitical power, tracing the biographical, ideological, and thematic linkages between the postbellum and imperial moments. It challenges familiar assumptions about the late nineteenth-century US and advances transnational approaches to understanding America's Reconstruction and the search for the ideological currents shaping American power abroad.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2022
Publisher: Fordham University Press

This comprehensive volume delves into the intricate web of historical connections between the United States Reconstruction and the subsequent emergence of the country as a formidable geopolitical force a few decades later. It explores how the processes unfolding during the postbellum decade shaped, influenced, and ultimately conditioned the United States' journey toward becoming an international empire and a dominant regional power. By seamlessly linking diverse topics such as abolition, diplomacy, Jim Crow, humanitarianism, and imperialism, the book establishes a profound connection between these two pivotal historical periods.

In 1935, the renowned African American intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois made a groundbreaking assertion in his seminal work, Black Reconstruction in America. He argued that the betrayal of the South's fledgling interracial democracy in the 1870s had profound consequences, placing reactionaries in control of a nation poised to assume global dominance. Working within the same chronological and geographical framework, the contributors to this volume present targeted case studies that trace the biographical, ideological, and thematic linkages that span the postbellum and imperial eras.

The volume is structured with an Introduction, eleven chapters, and an Afterword, providing a rich tapestry of perspectives based on original primary source research. The resulting composite picture presents a nuanced and multifaceted understanding of the late nineteenth-century United States, challenging conventional narratives that often portray it as solely the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Collectively, the contributions in this volume shed light on hitherto unexplored aspects of American history, advancing transnational approaches to understanding the complexities of the late 19th century.

Weight: 566g
Dimension: 152 x 227 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780823298655