Need Good History of Reconstruction (Vanity)

5/11/12 | Trailerpark Badass

[Trailerpark Badass]

Looking for a good, balanced (read "not leftist") survey of the period, both political/legislative & social/cultural developments.

Don't need anything with an agenda on either side.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Bonus for a recommendation of the same for the Progressive/Wilson era and any good critical bio of W wilson.

[Nervous Tick]

Reconstruction

[Maceman]

A really good book about the period from 1870-1920 is A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America by Michael McGerr. I disagree with the author's view that the Progressive Era ended in 1920 (in fact, I think the 20th century ought rightly to be called "The Progressive Century.") Still McGerr's history is a great read, and very enlightening.

Also a very interesting read is: The Great Tax Wars: Lincoln to Wilson -- The Fierce Battles over Money and Power That Transformed the Nation by Steven R. Weisman. This book tells the history of the imposition of an income tax on America.

Neither of these books is particularly agenda driven. But they are fascinating.

[achilles2000]

Virtually all of the historical writing on Reconstruction since the beginning of the New Deal has been devoted to sending what really happened during Reconstruction down the Memory Hole so that a more “useful” narrative could be put in its place. If you want something that will tell you what actually happened, read James Ford Rhodes. His work was generally considered more or less definitive until the left took over the history profession. Anyone who doubts what Rhodes has to say should pause and take a look at Detroit, New Orleans, Newark, etc. and consider the corrupt complicity of white liberals in the destruction and thievery going on in cities controlled by the black/liberal coalition.

[ClearCase_guy]

Declarations of Dependence: The Long Reconstruction of Popular Politics in the South, 1861-1908 by Gregory Downs

Explores how an un-American culture of dependency took root during Reconstruction and then became a dominant political belief during Progressivism.

[NoKoolAidforMe]

Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism by Ronald Pestritto

[BuffaloJack]

I did the Reconstruction Period thing about 10 or 12 years ago.
I found out that I could access newspapers from the 1850s to the present online, so I found 2 northern papers and 2 southern papers and read them going from the end of the war to about 1880. I figured that there would be a Yankee slant and a Confederate slant and that it would be up to me to read between the lines.
What I didn’t expect was that the north was far more intolerant of freed slaves going north than the south was of having them stay. What the northern labor unions did to migrating freedmen borders on being some of the worst atrocities in history.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Freepers dont disappoint!

Thanks for the pointers. I have the Great Tax Wars book already, so that's definitely one I'll be reading shortly, and the Rhodes 8 volume set looks fascinating, if I can get my hands on it.

[know-the-law]

sfl