Customer Reviews

Story of Reconstruction

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This fascinating and highly readable book tells of the political struggles in the South after the War of 1861-65 had ended. It details the attempts of the more radical Republican members of Congress to prevent most white Southerners from exercising their right to vote. By denying this right to the whites, these men expected to use the votes of the Southern blacks, along with Federal troops, to control the South, dominate Congress, and control the destiny of the nation. Their repeated attempts to do this are detailed in this book, as is their attempt to remove a President from office, simply because he disapproved of and would not support their plan. We read of the blacks who favored the Democrats, and of the native whites who sided with the radicals, seeing through them a way to personal power. This struggle, which began even as influential Southern whites were supporting the voting rights of blacks, ended with a desire on the part of most Southern whites to remove the possiblity of such struggles ever again convulsing their part of the nation, by effectively preventing most blacks from ever voting again. This book will be fascinating reading, whether you are a history buff, someone who is interested in politics, or just anyone who wants to read an entralling, riveting account of our nation's past.

Number of pages and Date: (Very Large Heavy Book) - 633 Pages. Date 1938.

Subject: The Reconstruction of American after the Civil War.

Chapters are as follows:

The Harder Part of War. Proper Practical Relations with the Union. Home to Desolation. Contrasts and Contradictions. Lincoln States. The Radicals Declare War. Johnson States. Government Helps and Hindrances. The Brief Era of Good Feeling. The First Convention. Political Ammunition. Constitution Writing. Mississippi Mistakes. Legislative Irritants. The Business of Living. Churches and Schools. The Joint Committee on Fifteen. Race Relations in Law and Living. The Great Amendment. Memories and Hopes. A Policy in Search of a Party. Congress goes Radical. The Sinful Ten. Congress is the People. Synthetic States. The Lasting Evil. Reconciliation and Rehabilitation. Loyalty Must Govern. A Season of Politics. Clipping the Court's Wings. More Writing of Constitutions. Seven Senators Save the Constitution. Six New States. Four States Still Out. The Campaign and Election of 1868. Suffrage and Amnesty. Stealing by Statute. From Virginia to Texas. The Last State Admitted. The Elections of 1870. Gains in Agriculture, Education, and Transportation. Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States. Division and Coalition. The Elections of 1982. Politics and Progress. War and the Touch of Reunion. The Landslide of 1874. Declare them Banditti. The Missippi Plan. The Last Campaign. The Struggle for the State Houses.

"Henry's account of reconstruction is an old one (originally published in 1938) and generally disregarded by historians today."

That's probably one of the best reasons to read this account. Henry was born in 1889 and this book was written at a time when many of those who lived during Reconstruction were still alive. He graduated from Vanderbilt in 1911 (A.B. and LL.B) and did post graduate work at Queens College in Cambridge, England and has written several histories of the Civil War and several more on the history of the railroads in the US.

In the year immediately after the war's end, most people of the South were concerned primarily with getting a crop in the ground, rebuilding and just staying alive. The reports from the Freeman's Bureau for this year were promising. But there were those in the Radical wing of the Republican Party, who for reasons of greed, self-righteousness and a desire to make the ascendancy of the Republican Party permanent, sought to plunder, control and punish the breakaway states. Henry tells the story of this group and the harm they did the country in general and the South in particular and how they managed to achieve it. Had Lincoln lived, it would have never happened.

Henry's account of reconstruction is an old one (originally published in 1938) and generally disregarded by historians today. He largely draws his material from conservative Northern and reactionary Southern newspapers, manuscript collections, and diaries. He doesn't consult the vast Freedman's Bureau or Military Department archives and, typical of the old Southern 'Bourbon' school, he slanders and maligns whatever non-conservative sources he does consult. Eric Foner's Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (published in 1988, still considered THE account) of the period is much better, but if you're looking for an account from the early 20th century, W.E.B. Du Bois' Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 is great.

No serious historian could cite this book without be laughed out of academia, and anyone who reads this in order to learn about Reconstruction (rather than merely compare historiography of the period) will be greatly misinformed. I was tempted to give the book another star or two and blame the scholarship of the era, but considering people like Du Bois and James Allen were able to write acceptable accounts in the 1930's, there's no reason to go easy on Henry.

Full disclosure: I have taken Eric Foner's class on the Civil War and Reconstruction, so perhaps I am biased towards his account. In any case, specialists on the topic still defer to him.