Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (New American Nation Series) [Hardcover]

Eric Foner (Author), Henry Steele Commager (Editor), Richard B. Morris (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With the Confederacy's defeat, Reconstruction seemed like the dawn of a new era to blacks and progressive whites, but it was not to be. The Panic of 1873 (called "the Great Depression" until the 1930s) shattered hopes for a modernized and prosperous Southern economy. By 1870 the Ku Klux Klan had entrenched itself in nearly every Southern state, targeting black schools and churches. Many Northern philanthropists vigorously opposed integration; politicos rose to power by playing upon voters' prejudices; patronage, racism and corruption were rampant. Despite its failures, Reconstruction initiated a massive experiment in interracial democracy, and as Foner demonstrates, blacks, far from being passive victims, helped set the political and economic agenda. This invaluable, definitive history re-creates the post-Civil War period as a pivotal drama in which ordinary people get equal billing with politicians and wheelers and dealers. Foner, who teaches at Columbia, is author of Nothing but Freedom and editor of America's Black Past.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 736 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (April 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060158514
• ISBN-13: 978-0060158514
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #299,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Staggering, December 27, 2010

By 

Richard Ostrow (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (New American Nation Series) (Hardcover)

I was led to this book by a persistent layman's desire to understand what exactly happened after the Civil War and why Reconstruction so notoriously "failed." This monumental book was so much more than I bargained for. It is not only a study of the post-War South, but also of the forces unleashed during the War itself, of the post-War North, of the growing frontier West and, most importantly, of the modernizing forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution, the growth of Northern capitalism and the national state required to direct it. Though distinctly Marxist in his approach, Foner never falls prey to the rhetoric, reductionism or false inevitability that mars so much Marxist historiography. This book is instead full of the interplay of flawed humans, honest and corrupt, and of societal forces, moderning and reactionary, that dueled so fiercely for control of the post-War nation. The completeness of the research leads to a sure-handed analysis that seems to leave nothing unexamined. I can see why this book won the Parkman Prize in 1988.