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aaronsandford's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Good comprehensive research. A superb work of history. However, it was pretty dry and not very gripping. Unless you're willing to devote a lot of concentrated brain power to the book, versus listening to the audiobook as you go through life, which I did, I might say this was more valuable as a reference resource then as a narrative account. I have done a bunch of reading about this era recently, having discovered to my shock and distaste that much of the history I had learned about this episode in American history was incorrect, and with the caveats of style I would recommend this book as a corrective for sure.
abeanbg's review against another edition
5.0
"During the killings, Dock Adams related, whites kept repeating 'This is the beginning of the redemption of South Carolina.'"
Even in an abridged form this is a comprehensive and damning examination of a moment when Americans tested the waters of black civil liberty and then utterly failed. The ideals and achievements of Radical Reconstruction are the first true flowering of progressive politics in America. Their ultimate, violent suppression set the country back for nearly a century. The reasons for this tragedy are complex and cross many sectional and party lines. But the end result was the shameful suppression of Jim Crow and the complex, insidious role of institutional racism in American society and politics.
Long story short, this is a great book.
Even in an abridged form this is a comprehensive and damning examination of a moment when Americans tested the waters of black civil liberty and then utterly failed. The ideals and achievements of Radical Reconstruction are the first true flowering of progressive politics in America. Their ultimate, violent suppression set the country back for nearly a century. The reasons for this tragedy are complex and cross many sectional and party lines. But the end result was the shameful suppression of Jim Crow and the complex, insidious role of institutional racism in American society and politics.
Long story short, this is a great book.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
4.0
Really good. Really important read to understand the period after the Civil War.
smcscot's review
5.0
One of the most direct and well written history books I have ever read. If you have interest in Lincoln, race relations, conservatism vs. liberalism, or the way the united states formed you must read this book. Reconstruction was the start of it all.
sethdmichaels's review
4.0
A condensed version of Foner's definitive big scholarly work on the period, and only "short" by comparison to it; it's a very detailed look at the years after emancipation. Harshly critical of the "lost cause" historians who first defined Reconstruction, the book looks at the ultimately failed struggle to create equality in the post-Civil War South. It's depressing and incisive; it helps explain so much about everything that came after in U.S. political history. An important segment of history to understand, little-discussed because it's such a bummer; this is definitely a history text by a scholar but it's always interesting.
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