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adamrshields's review against another edition
4.0
Short Review: This is an era that I just didn't have much historical background on. This was the book that several people recommended to me as the best starting place. I picked up the audiobook because that is what is most likely to get done quickly. The audiobook is the first edition. I would have preferred a later edition because I would like to think some of the repetition and was cleaned up. But I don't know.
The audiobook was poorly done. Lots of mispronounced words, bad editing and uneven sound quality. I got through it and it wasn't the worst audiobook I have listened to, but I certainly can't highly recommend it.
The main book was very helpful. The common perception is that Reconstruction was a failed experiment. But Foner suggests that it was cut short because of an inability for many Whites to put away their understanding of White Supremacy. Whether Whites supported slavery or not, many Whites assumed that former slaves were little better than animals and could not be fully equal.
In addition there was serious economic problems in the country as a result of the war, high government and personal debt, rampant economic speculation and government graft. The graft is largely assumed to be only on the Republican side, but it was on all sides. The Republicans were punished for it because they were in power, as they should have been. But the Democrats were not really interested in putting an end to graft but getting into power.
And there was reluctance to enforce Black voting right, especially after the rise of the KKK. So while many Northern Whites said they were for Black voting rights, there was not any interest in federal enforcement of Black voting rights so effectively, political violence was the final nail in the coffin of Reconstruction.
There is far more here than I can easily summarize. But this was very helpful and gave me a number of areas to explore further.
My 2000 word review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/reconstruction/
The audiobook was poorly done. Lots of mispronounced words, bad editing and uneven sound quality. I got through it and it wasn't the worst audiobook I have listened to, but I certainly can't highly recommend it.
The main book was very helpful. The common perception is that Reconstruction was a failed experiment. But Foner suggests that it was cut short because of an inability for many Whites to put away their understanding of White Supremacy. Whether Whites supported slavery or not, many Whites assumed that former slaves were little better than animals and could not be fully equal.
In addition there was serious economic problems in the country as a result of the war, high government and personal debt, rampant economic speculation and government graft. The graft is largely assumed to be only on the Republican side, but it was on all sides. The Republicans were punished for it because they were in power, as they should have been. But the Democrats were not really interested in putting an end to graft but getting into power.
And there was reluctance to enforce Black voting right, especially after the rise of the KKK. So while many Northern Whites said they were for Black voting rights, there was not any interest in federal enforcement of Black voting rights so effectively, political violence was the final nail in the coffin of Reconstruction.
There is far more here than I can easily summarize. But this was very helpful and gave me a number of areas to explore further.
My 2000 word review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/reconstruction/
jordanjones's review against another edition
5.0
This is by far the best and most influential book on a critical period that has been politically interpreted and reinterpreted several times. Foner has the goods. He's done the research and shows how reconstruction showed that a multi-racial America was possible. He also shows how white supremacy not only reasserted itself with black laws and Jim Crow, but how it attempted to re-write the history of reconstruction as a period of utter failure, and a proof of racist theories.
This should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the attempt to get to racial justice in America. It should also be read by anyone who hears, "Slavery wasn't the cause of the Civil War, states' rights was," or some other counter-factual nonsense trying to justify the South's position in the Civil War and mollify people now (150 years later), who still can't come to grips with what America was up to from its inception until the Emancipation Proclamation and from that proclamation to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
This should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the attempt to get to racial justice in America. It should also be read by anyone who hears, "Slavery wasn't the cause of the Civil War, states' rights was," or some other counter-factual nonsense trying to justify the South's position in the Civil War and mollify people now (150 years later), who still can't come to grips with what America was up to from its inception until the Emancipation Proclamation and from that proclamation to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
tellikat's review
5.0
A necessary and important read. For anyone who is a fan of Eric Foner, reading his seminal work is a must.
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