The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln [Paperback]

Claude G. Bowers (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1931541493 | ISBN-13: 978-1931541497 | Publication Date: December 1, 2001

Never have American public men in responsible positions, directing the destiny of the Nation, been so brutal, hypocritical and corrupt than in the period between 1865 and 1877. This is the detailed story of that tragic era.

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Simon Publications (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931541493
• ISBN-13: 978-1931541497
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,349,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written history, questionable view, February 25, 2005

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln (Paperback)

This book deals with the Reconstruction period, 1865-77. Bowers is of the older school that found the Radical Republicans, led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, with their ideas of punishing the South for seceeding and forcing equality for blacks in the South, especially at the polls, were disastrous for the South. This view has been hotly debated; for a revisionist view see Stampp's "The Era of Reconstruction." Bowers, despite his controversial views, is an interesting historian: his style is personal and flamboyant. His emphasis is on tragedy, and his tone echoes that sentiment. To him Andrew Johnson was fighting the good fight of A. Lincoln and sought moderation in black suffrage and ease at allowing Southerners to become US citizens again; Stevens et. al. were evil monsters. An interesting book, nowhere dull.

32 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and politically incorrect history, August 7, 2004

By 

G. F Gori "Jeffersonian libertarian" (Manteca, ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln (Hardcover)

Claude Bowers, The Tragic Era, is a brilliant politically incorrect history of the most corrupt time in the history of the United States. Bowers starts with the assumption of the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, a heroic but much maligned man in history. Johnson was a staunch Unionist and patriot, but he was also an avid believer in Jeffersonian government. He correctly saw the centralization of power by the Republican Party as dangerous to freedom.

Next Bowers delves into the "Radical Republicans" led by Thaddeus Stevens, a vicious fanatic and a man who despised white Southerners. Stevens, an ardent aboitionist and crusader for negro equality, hated the South and it's white population. He wanted "Reconstruction" to be as harsh and unforgiving as could be. Overall a true scoundrel. Next we see the abolitionist fanaticism of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. Sumner,as radical as Stevens also hated southern whites and was a fanatic for negro equality. Sumner, like all Radical Republicans, wanted immediate equality of the races, negro voting( even when most could not read or write), disenfanchisement of all whites, and Southern governments dominated by carpetbaggers and negroes. These carpetbaggers, along with negroes and southern "scalawags" plundered the South.

Also exposed is the lunacy and fanaticism of the abolitionists. Beloved today, they were seen as a threat to southern whites and as proponents of a bloody race war. William Lloyd Garrison, a modern hero, was Puritan of the worst stripe. He called the US Constitution a "covenant with death" and encouraged blacks to rise against the whites. Left out of modern histories of the era is the scandalous and sick call for extermination, not just of slaveholders, but of all southern whites. New England clergymen were the main culprits. This was borne out of religious fanaticism of the most extreme fundamentalist type: uncomprimising, violent, and hateful.

The phony politically motivated impeachment of Johnson, the military governing of the South, the bribery, corruption, and violence perpetrated on southern whites shows a time of disgrace and despotism. The instigating of race tensions and war by Republican governors, and their lies, and promises to freed slaves that they would give whites land to them caused innumerable tensions throughout the South.

Lastly the stolen election of 1876 where the votes of three states, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina were manipulated causing the election of Rutherford B. Hayes. The Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, won the popular vote by 260,000 votes and more than likely the real electoral votes. In order to make a comprimise the Republican Party ended Reconstruction,and pulled federal troops out of the South.

This is a very politically incorrect, but accurate history, unlike the deconstructionist and anti-southern histories of today. It also shows that the Republican Party began as a party of Big Government and looking at today, still is.

Overall, a great read.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is nothing new under the sun!, June 15, 2009

By 

Larry L. Burton "Unreconstructed Confederate" (West Point, Kentucky, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln (Hardcover)

I can only say that it is difficult reading, due to the over whelming amount of graft and political corruption of that era. They made some of today's political corruptions seem mild by comparison! I have a personal letter from one of Kentucky's Representatives of that era, and he compares much of what was going on in Washington, D.C., to a cesspool of coruption. Mr. Lincoln's war to change the voluntary confederated union of sovereign states into a consolidated "Nation" of people en masse, opened the door, and the Radical Republicans (who made today's liberal Democrats look good)were only too glad to pour through it! They went far beyond what Lincoln had in mind, and we are not likely to ever get over it! Actually, some historians seem to suggest that opposition to their extreme policies might have contributed to his assasination, as well as the impeachment of President Johnson! Interesting to ponder on, to say the least! An important book about a subject which many would prefer to keep behind the closet door, so to speak.