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E-book
Author Smith, John David

Title Interpreting American History : Reconstruction
Published Ashland : Kent State University Press, ©2016

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Description 1 online resource (162 pages)
Series Interpreting American History Series
Interpreting American history series
Contents Halftitle Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Contents; Foreword: Interpreting American History Series; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Chapter One: Reconstruction Historiography: An Overview; Chapter Two: Presidential Reconstruction; Chapter Three: Radical Reconstruction; Chapter Four: Reconstruction: Emancipation and Race; Chapter Five: Reconstruction: National Politics, 1865-1877; Chapter Six: Reconstruction: Gender and Labor; Chapter Seven: Reconstruction: Intellectual Life and Historical Memory; Chapter Eight: Reconstruction: Transnational History; Bibliography; Contributors
Summary Writing in 1935 in his brilliant and brooding Black Reconstruction, W.E.B. Du Bois lamented America's post--Civil War era as a missed opportunity to reconstruct the war-torn nation in deed as well as in word. "If the Reconstruction of the Southern states, from slavery to free labor, and from aristocracy to industrial democracy, had been conceived as a major national program of America, whose accomplishment at any price was well worth the effort," wrote Du Bois, "we should be living today in a different world." Interpreting American History: Reconstruction provides a primer on the often-contentious historical literature on Reconstruction, the period in American history from 1865 to 1877. As Du Bois noted, this critical period in U.S. history held much promise for African Americans transitioning from slavery to freedom and in redefining American nationality for all citizens. In topically arranged historiographical essays, eight historians focus on the changing interpretations of Reconstruction from the so-called Dunning School of the early twentieth century to the "revisionists" of the World War II era, the "postrevisionists" of the Vietnam era, and the most current "post-postrevisionists" writing on Reconstruction today. The essays treat the two main chronological periods of Reconstruction history, Presidential and Radical Reconstruction, and provide coverage of emancipation and race, national politics, intellectual life and historical memory, gender and labor, and Reconstruction's transnational history. Interpreting American History: Reconstruction is an essential guidebook for students and scholars traversing the formidable terrain of Reconstruction historiography
Notes Includes index
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
Politics and government
SUBJECT Southern States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1950. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85125657
Southern States -- History -- 1865-1951. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85125649
Subject Southern States
United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781631012303
1631012304