Book Description
The story of Reconstruction is not simply about the rebuilding of the South after the Civil War. Instead, the late nineteenth century defined modern America, as Southerners, Northerners, and Westerners gradually hammered out a national identity that united three regions into a country that could become a world power. Ultimately, the story of Reconstruction is about how a middle class formed in America and how its members defined what the nation would stand for, both at home and abroad, for the next century and beyond.
A sweeping history of the United States from the era of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, this engaging book stretches the boundaries of our understanding of Reconstruction. Historian Heather Cox Richardson ties the North and West into the post–Civil War story that usually focuses narrowly on the South, encompassing the significant people and events of this profoundly important era.
By weaving together the experiences of real individuals—from a plantation mistress, a Native American warrior, and a labor organizer to Andrew Carnegie, Julia Ward Howe, Booker T. Washington, and Sitting Bull—who lived during the decades following the Civil War and who left records in their own words, Richardson tells a story about the creation of modern America.
Customer Reviews:
wonderful addition to the literature.......2007-10-02
I am not going to say much because I agree with all the positive comments made by the other reviewers... after reading this excellent book I had a much better understanding of present day history and how it unfolded after the Civil War.
Reconstruction.......2007-09-27
Heather Cox Rrichardson conludes her book, "West From Appomattox," with the statement, "Ultimately, the story of reconstruction is about how a middle class formed in America and how its members define what a nation would stand for." The book is not an easy read but it outlines clearly how this middle class was formed and how its influence grew. Since we are, most of us, members of the middle class it is important to understand the process and its implications. The book's focus is on the period of reconstruction following the Civil War with emphasis on western expansion. It is recommended that the reader first read Owen Wister's book, "The Virginian" as the author alludes to it often. Richardson's book is chuck full of food for thought and should be studied as well as read. Much contained therein suggests an intimate understanding of today's events. The book is for the serious student of American history and the rewards for time spent are great.
Well researched and very thoughtful.......2007-08-24
Ms. Richardson's breadth of knowledge is truly impressive, and a history of this era written from a woman's eyes is unique.
She is, in fact, quite a good writer, in that she is able to encapsulate some unusual concepts in prose that is easy to understand. Her writing is not for those who to be spoonfed, however. But then, I suspect that was not her goal.
Good review of Reconstruction and westward expansion.......2007-07-01
Heather Cox Richardson's West from Appomattox covers a period of history that has been seemingly rather ignored by contemporary historians, namely the Reconstruction period and westward expansion in the mid to late 1800s. Cox synthesizes much history and puts it into its broader context quite well. Much of her writing is academic in nature and not of the narrative form many readers of recent historical accounts have come to expect. Specifically, Richardson studied under the master of this period, David Herbert Donald. While the breadth of her research and knowledge is as impressive as any, her ability to convey the information in a way that brings in any person with even a passing interest in the topic is not her strength. I think she has much to say and, should she want to write history in a form other than a graduate text level, she would be well served to read how David Kennedy, David Herbert Donald, James McPherson or even Doris Kearns Goodwin actually write. That said, those who would like to really bone up on what changes the United States went through from 1865 to 1900, predominately politically and somewhat economically, would be well advised to read this book.
Thought provoking and unique.......2007-04-19
Conventional history teaches that Reconstruction failed due to racism and apathy, while viewing it as a Southern issue. Heather Cox Richardson moves Reconstruction into mainstream America, viewing it not as a Southern issue but as part of national development and westward expansion. Doing this transforms the thin gruel of reconstruction history into a complex, layered dish full of unexpected and very new treats. Reconstruction changes from a fight between President and Congress, to an issue that challenges America's ideals and is national in scope.
This book links Reconstruction, westward expansion, questions on suffrage, controlling business, tariffs and the development of the middle class into one coherent movement. This is modern inclusive history, as it should be written! Nat Love, child of ex-slaves, cowboy and Pullman porter, Samuel Gompers, Andrew Carnegie, Julia Ward Howe, Wade Hampton, Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull and many others populate the book. They are included not to be inclusive but because they have something to say. In every case, they help with the narration by personalizing history and making the national problem a personal one. The result is a fuller richer picture of America and the development of American ideals from 1865 to 1901.
The author, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts, is not the conservative member of the university staff. Her politics show up as sympathy for the labor movement, African Americans and/or Native Americans. For the most part, this is neither excessive nor detracts from the fairness of the narration. The exception is in the Epilogue where she attacks the policies of Presidents Regan and Bush. If you share her liberal politics, this will be the highpoint of the book for you. If you do not, stop reading when you reach the Epilogue and close the book. You will have read a very thought provoking history presenting a detailed and unique view of America and Reconstruction.
Book Description
This volume makes available some of the most exciting research currently underway into Greek society after Liberation. Together, its essays map a new social history of Greece in the 1940s and 1950s, a period in which the country grappled--bloodily--with foreign occupation and intense civil conflict.
Extending innovative historical approaches to Greece, the contributors explore how war and civil war affected the family, the law, and the state. They examine how people led their lives, as communities and individuals, at a time of political polarization in a country on the front line of the Cold War's division of Europe. And they advance the ongoing reassessment of what happened in postwar Europe by including regional and village histories and by examining long-running issues of nationalism and ethnicity. Previously neglected subjects--from children and women in the resistance and in prisons to the state use of pageantry--yield fresh insights.
By focusing on episodes such as the problems of Jewish survivors in Salonika, memories of the Bulgarian occupation of northern Greece, and the controversial arrest of a war criminal, these scholars begin to answer persistent questions about war and its repercussions. How do people respond to repression? How deep are ethnic divisions? Which forms of power emerge under a weakened state? When forced to choose, will parents sacrifice family or ideology? How do ordinary people surmount wartime grievances to live together?
In addition to the editor, the contributors are Eleni Haidia, Procopis Papastratis, Polymeris Voglis, Mando Dalianis, Tassoula Vervenioti, Riki van Boeschoten, John Sakkas, Lee Sarafis, Stathis N. Kalyvas, Anastasia Karakasidou, Bea Lefkowicz, Xanthippi Kotzageorgi-Zymari, Tassos Hadjianastassiou, and Susanne-Sophia Spiliotis.
Customer Reviews:
History on the ground.......2001-01-29
Mazower's previous book on Greece in the 1940s was outstanding for providing a clear picture of life "on the ground" in occupied Greece. Several of the essays in this new book similarly provide a texture of life during the civil war, while others provide a texture of Greek life after the insurrection ended. I don't see this as a book favoring either the left or right (a formulation that would mean little now anyway), but as showing the difficult decisions that ordinary Greeks had to make at that time. If you are tired of books about the Greek civil war that revolve around the actions of the King, Churchill, Truman and Stalin, this book is a must.
Crimes of "Greeks" against Greeks........2001-01-17
This book simply includes a few "leftist" accounts of what happened after the war was over. That is, about the naive Greeks putting into action new things they learned during the war, and, specifically, what the British Secret Operations Executive trained them to do: "set Greece ablaze, by fire an Axle." But, the book is worth having for the following simple reason: to see how a contemporary "historian" translates the name E.L.A.S. E.L.A.S. was the Communist militant organization that the S.O.E. financed in order to commit crimes against the German solders. Since the E.L.A.S. militants were cowards and feared the Germans, they concentrated their criminal efforts on fellow Greeks. No Greek can make any sense out of the British policy towards them because it was not meant to make sense. On page 4 of this book, the "historian" author, Mazower, translates E.L.A.S., (Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos) as Greek People's Liberation Army. How about, National Socialist Liberation Army? But, what do the words "national" and "liberation" have to do with Marxism? Mazower cannot answer this; it is a question for real historians and those who really know what is behind British policy.
Customer Reviews:
Fine overview.......2006-04-12
Texas After the Civil War could have been a stronger book if it had utilized primary sources more. Nonetheless, Carl Moneyhon's work is a fine overview of the Period between 1865 and 1872 when Democrats regained the state government. Many old Texas histories claim that Reconstruction was an awful experience, marred by bayonet-rule, outrageous behavior by black militia units, and suppression of basic democracy. Moneyhon shows that was not quite the case; interestingly noting that the fall of white voter participation came not from official disenfranchisement, but from unwillingness to participate in post-Confederate government.
Politics are covered most thoroughly, but Moneyhon also give space to Republican attempts to develop the Texas economy. The first decade of black freedom is also discussed at some length. Less space is devoted to postwar life for former Confederates.
Worth checking out for anyone interested in Texas history or Reconstruction.
Book Description
Ever since its original publication in 1961, Reconstruction after the Civil War has been praised for cutting through the controversial scholarship and popular myths of the time to provide an accurate account of the role of former slaves during this period in American history.
Now Franklin has updated his work to acknowledge the enormous body of research and scholarship that followed in the wake of the first edition. New are Franklin’s references to important, later texts that enrich the original narrative. In addition, the extensive bibliography has been thoroughly revised.
What has not changed, however, is the foundation Franklin has laid. Still compelling are his arguments concerning the brevity of the North’s military occupation of the South, the limited amount of power wielded by former slaves, the influence of moderate southerners, the flaws of the constitutions drawn up by the Radical state governments, and the reasons for the downfall of Reconstruction.
Customer Reviews:
Is it really a great book?.......2005-03-20
The fact that Dr. Franklin is a very accomplished African American does not automatically ordain him a great writer who is above criticism. The sources in this text are substantial; however, it is still poorly written. I still plan on attending a conference next Thursday at U of South Carolina in order to hear him speak.
A Classic Work.......2004-12-13
It's appalling that previous reviewers have denigrated this classic work by one of our counry's most distinguished historians. Born in 1915, Franklin was subject to the ugly aftermath of Reconstruction and wrote many definitive works on African-American history and the history of race relations. He has won innumerable honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and has chaired the American Historical Society, Phi Beta Kappa, the American Studies Association, the Southern Historical Association, and the President's Commission on Race (1997). Reviews that accuse him of being a poor writer or offering nothing beyond a high school history text (which would not have been written without his pioneering scholarship) only display the ignorance of the reviewers. Read this book, and Franklin's others!
Very Confusing!!!!!!!!.......2004-09-22
This book is very confusing, perhaps Franklin should stop writing books and attend a few writting classes. Franklin repeats facts 2 or 3 times in different chapters and often sets off on wild tangents the can leave the reader utterly befuddled. The only reason I gave this book 1 star is due to Franklins fair treatment of the reconstruction period. Franklin places the blame for the mistakes and horrors of the post civil war era on both Northern and Southern forces; however, due to the utterly incompetent writing of franklin, I can not recomend this book.
A somewhat confused account of the Reconstruction era.......2003-03-28
This short book focuses on what is an oft ignored segment of American History--the Reconstruction effort after the Civil War. Usually, Reconstruction is treated as a final chapter or sort of epilogue to many works on the war, but here Franklin attempts to devote an entire book to the various challenges presented to the North in the matter of reconstructing the shattered Union.
I'm not quite sure Franklin achieves his purpose here. The greater part of this book is confusing and difficult to follow, and in fact seems to state the same facts and cite the same incidents three or four different times. The picture Franklin paints of the post-war South is one of violence and depredations committed by such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan against a poor and defenseless African American class. He also portrays the Radical Republicans as trying to restore order and reconstruct the states, but also as just giving up ten years after the war and the election of Hayes. In between, there is a jumble of facts and incidents which show the inability of both parties (which I agree with) to successfully reconstruct the South. If this was an attempt to expose the injustices done to the Negroes by the ex-Confederate ruling class, I think the book achieved its purpose. If, however, it truly was meant to be a book on Reconstruction as a whole, it falls short. In fact, there is little of historical value that one could not gain by the final chapters in a good Civil War text.
If you are interested in black studies, this book will prove to be very useful. But, if you are seeking a thorough and well-written account of the post Civil War era, I recommend you keep looking.
Product Description
Detailed history of the Reconstruction of the former Confederacy from 1865 to 1877. Author views the process as a combination of farce and tragedy, with emphasis on Radical Reconstruction, violent reactions in the South, predations of carpetbaggers, the corruption of the Grant administration, and so forth.
Book Description
Did the federal government mete out justice or revenge in response to Lincoln's assassination?
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was murdered by John Wilkes Booth, and Secretary of State William H. Seward was brutally stabbed. Clearly a conspiracy was afoot. Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt was put in charge of the investigation and trial. He first set out to punish all of Booth's accomplices and then wanted to go after Jefferson Davis, whom he felt had instigated the assassination—despite stern opposition, not least of all from Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson.
Elizabeth D. Leonard tells for the first time the full story of the two assassination trials. She explores the questions that made these trials pivotal in American history: Were they to be used to make the South pay for secession? Were they to be fair trials based on the evidence? Or were they to be points of reconciliation, with the South forgiven at all costs to create a solid union? 36 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent, Objective Account of the Assasination Trial, Its Main Characters and Its Place in American History.......2007-02-06
What many of us know about Lincoln's assasination is probably limited to the following: he was killed by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater while attending a play. This book enlarges that knowledge from the point of view of Judge Advocate Joseph Holt, who made it his personal mission to bring anyone involved in the assasination to justice. In addition, Holt's goal was also to bring the highest leaders of the Confederacy to justice, including former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Professor Leonard also places the events following assasination, especially the trial of the first eight, and subsequent attempts to bring others to justice, in the context of Reconstruction and the division among the victorius Union about how to effect it, particularly whether to do so punitively or with mercy. The reader has a clear sense of all the forces at play and how they interacted and influenced events in such a way to impact US political and racial developments for a long time to come.
The personal stories are gripping, not only of Holt but especially that of Mary Surrat, one of the eight co-conspirators tried and one of the four who was executed by hanging. The details of the story leave one wondering whether Mary Surrat was ultimately guilty or not, and to Leonard's credit, she presents only the historical evidence, without attempting to sway the reader one way or another.
If you want to learn more about this pivotal event in American history, this is a good book with which to start.
Enjoyable read!.......2005-12-18
This book definitely adds new information to the usual renditions of the Lincoln assassination, by focusing on the conspirators' trial and especially Joseph Holt's role in that event. The book is well researched, objective, and good at placing events within the context of the 19th-century mindset and values that prevailed in the wake of Lincoln's death.
Lincoln's Death as the Beginning of a New Period.......2005-07-08
Elizabeth D. Leonard's Lincoln's Avengers is a different sort of Lincoln murder book. It does have all the usual suspects and covers all of their details adequately, particulary the issues surrounding Mary Surratt. The book's strength, however, is to look at the events through the eyes of Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt as a way to see the tragedy not so much as the last gasp of the Civil War but as the first shot in the battle over Reconstruction. If nothing else, and there is much else, it gives the reader a chance to clearly glimpse a lesser known figure of history in Holt. The most riveting sections of the book involve his determinatin to avenge the murder, as well as all the other injustices he saw from the civil war, as Andrew Johnson devises an entirely different plan for the South. A powerful and important addition to books on the this fascinating period of time.
Prelude to Reconstruction.......2004-05-23
The shock and deep mourning our nation went into in April 1865 is something we have never really gotten over. The first presidential assassination, that of Abraham Lincoln, has prompted countless books ever since, and endless questions of what our nation would have been like had he lived. It might be thought that all the details have been covered, but Elizabeth D. Leonard, a professor of history at Colby College, has found a flawed hero who supervised the hunt and prosecution of the conspirators that killed Lincoln; his story is told in her book _Lincoln's Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion after the Civil War_ (Norton). Of course the plotters' dirty work is covered here, and their prosecution and sentencing; it may be familiar, but it is told with vivid detail. What is different in Leonard's book is that she shows how the political and national mood after the Civil War changed the outcome of those proceedings, which in turn had effects on Reconstruction itself.
Leonard tells this story by examining the life and work of Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, a former slaveholder who during the civil war was in charge of thousands of military commissions to prosecute both soldiers and civilians. The day after Lincoln's assassination, Holt took charge of the detection of the conspirators and their prosecution. It was only a matter of months before the military commission tried the conspirators, found all of them guilty, hanged four (including Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the federal government) and imprisoned the others. Many histories of these events end there, but Holt thought he was just getting started. He had concluded that the assassination plot was instigated by Confederate leaders, including Jefferson Davis, and he was eager to pursue military commissions against them as well. However, his support from President Johnson waned. Setting up conflicts that would eventually get him impeached, Johnson pardoned thousands of Confederate leaders, and having declared the war officially over, removed any possibility that military commissions could continue. He transferred Davis from military to civilian custody in Virginia, where he was released on bail. The Supreme Court, in the famous _Ex Parte Milligan_ decision, overturned the military commission's conviction of civilian Confederate sympathizers. Davis would never be brought before Holt's military commission.
There was the possibility that Davis might be tried in a civilian court, but Holt never got the hard evidence that would have been needed for a conviction. Holt was led to bad judgements such as reliance on dubious, venal witnesses. After a couple of years, Davis was completely free. In 1867, Holt had a chance for a conviction (in civilian court) of Mary Surratt's son who had been captured overseas, but the divided jury, reflecting the divisions of the nation, did not convict. Holt's further vengeance would never come, but his efforts, as written about by Leonard in this well-researched volume, will be satisfying reading for anyone interested in the Civil War and the troubling era of Reconstruction thereafter.
Average customer rating:
|
Reconstruction: America After the Civil War (Young Reader's Hist- Civil War)
Zak Mettger
Manufacturer: Dutton Juvenile
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Teens
| Subjects
| Books
| Audiobooks
| Authors, A-Z
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Health, Mind & Body
| History & Historical Fiction
| Horror
| Literature & Fiction
| Manga
| Mysteries
| Reference
| Religion & Spirituality
| School & Sports
| Science & Technology
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Series
| Social Issues
1800s
| United States
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 052567490X |
Book Description
The secession of the southern states marked the beginning of the trial of Confederate nationalism. The slaveholding elite that had led the South out of the Union now had to solidify its support among nonslaveholding small farmers, a class that constituted the bulk of the white population. Jefferson Davis and his new government were greatly hampered in their bid for widespread public support, partially because of the same force that had resulted in seccession--the strong states' rights predisposition of many southerners and their opposition to a strong central government--and partially because of the great social and economic gap that separated the governed from the governors. In After Secession, Paul D. Escott focuses on the challenges the South's political ideals presented to Davis in wartime and on the ways in which growing class resentments among citizens in the countryside affected the war effort. Escott examines Davis' policies, offering thought-provoking new interpretations of the Confederate government's means of decision making and its failure to respond to the needs of ordinary citizens. The result is both a fresh look at the pivotal role that strong leadership plays in the establishment of a new nation and a revealing study of how Jefferson Davis' frustrations increasingly affected the quality of his presidency.
Customer Reviews:
Escott blames the wrong person.......2006-01-20
Paul D. Escott's well researched book refutes its own thesis--that Jefferson Davis was largely responsible for the failure of the Confederacy to coalesce into unified country. What one ultimately realizes is that Escott wanted to blame Davis and disregarded what his own evidence told him, that governors such as Thomas Cobb of Georgia were actively undermining the Confederacy in an attempt to increase their own power over their states.
I give the book three stars because it is an excellent resource; anyone seeking a book from which to begin a literature search would be well served to start here. The book gets no higher ranking because of the weakness of his thesis in light of the evidence presented in this book. Indeed, rewriting the first chapter to blame the governors and unwilling citizens of the Confederacy would automatically earn the book five stars.
Insight to a Leader.......2000-03-30
Paul D. Escott shines a light on the President of the Confederacy and reveils new information about why the Civil War ended in the maner in which it did. Escott focuses on the attempts to strengthen Confederate Nationalism, particularly focusing on the efforts of Jefferson Davis. Davis' characteristics and attitudes are respectful analized by Escott to determine how they affected the survival of the Confederate States of America. Escott also looks at Davis' attitudes towards his generals and cabinet members, compairing them to that of Abraham Lincoln. This book particularly appeals to those that enjoy the Civil War, but is also enjoyable to those that would just like to know more about this aspect of American history.
Books:
- A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature
- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
- A Secret History of the IRA
- Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible
- Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, And Assyrians (People of the Ancient World)
- Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris
- Bernadotte: Napoleon's Marshal, Sweden's King
- Birds Without Wings
- Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books)
- Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Terra: Struggle of the Landless
- High Noon
- 21st Century Hotel
- Bilharzia: A History of Imperial Tropical Medicine
- Concepts of Genetics
- Information Systems Today: Why IS Matters
- Decider
- 50 Favorite Rooms By Frank Lloyd Wright
- Alvaro Siza: Private Houses
- Pests and Pathogens: Plant Responses to Foliar Attack
The Road to Disunion, Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant 1854-1861
What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War
Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900
This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War
The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War
