Title Reconstructing reconstruction : the Supreme Court and the production of historical truth / Pamela Brandwein

Published Durham ; London : Duke University Press, 1999 ©1999

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 272 pages) Contents Slavery as an interpretive issue in the 39th reconstruction congress: the northern Democrats -- Republican slavery criticism -- The Supreme Court's official history -- Dueling histories: Charles Fairman and William Crosskey reconstruct "original understanding" -- Recipes for "acceptable" history -- History as an institutional resource: Warren Court debates over legislative apportionment -- Constitutional law as a "culture of argument": toward a sociology of constitutional law Summary Was slavery over when slaves gained formal emancipation? Was it over when the social, economic, and political situation for African Americans no longer mimicked the conditions of slavery? If the Thirteenth Amendment abolished it in 1865, why did most of the disputed points during the Reconstruction debates of 1866-75 concern issues of slavery? In this book Pamela Brandwein examines the post-Civil War struggle between competing political and legal interpretations of slavery and Reconstruction to reveal how accepted historical truth was established.Delving into the circumstances, assumptions, and rhetoric that shaped the "official" story of Reconstruction, Brandwein describes precisely how a dominant interpretation of events ultimately emerged and what its implications have been for twentieth-century judicial decisions, particularly for Supreme Court rulings on civil rights. While analyzing interpretive disputes about slavery, Brandwein offers a detailed rescoring of post-Civil War legislative and constitutional history, including analysis of the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment. She identifies the perspectives on Reconstruction that were endorsed or rejected by the Supreme Court. Explaining what it meant--theoretically and practically--to resolve Reconstruction debates with a particular definition of slavery, Brandwein recounts how the Northern Democratic definition of "ending" slavery was not the only definition, just the one that prevailed. Using a familiar historical moment to do new interpretive work, she outlines a sociology of constitutional law, showing how subjective narrative construction can solidify into opaque institutional memory Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-265) and index Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Online resource (HeinOnline, viewed February 22, 2018) SUBJECT USA Supreme Court gnd USA -- Oberster Gerichtshof. swd Subject Constitutional history -- United States. Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) Slavery -- United States -- History. Election law -- United States -- History Civil rights -- United States -- History LAW -- Constitutional. LAW -- Public. LAW -- Legal History. Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) Civil rights Constitutional history Election law Slavery Verfassungsrecht Geschichte Reconstruction (1865-1877) Juridische aspecten. Burgerrechten. Slavery -- United States. Election law -- United States. Civil rights -- United States -- History. Reconstruction -- United States -- 19th century. Constitutional history -- United States. United States of America. Supreme court. History. United States Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 98035155 ISBN 9780822397793 082239779X

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