Research Catalog

Title

Interpreting American history : Reconstruction / edited by John David Smith.

Publication

Kent, Ohio : The Kent State University Press, [2016]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Smith, John David, 1949-

Description

xi, 243 pages; 22 cm

Summary

Writing in 1935 in his brilliant and brooding Black Reconstruction, W.E.B. Du Bois lamented Americas post Civil War era as a missed opportunity to reconstruct the war-torn nation in deed as well as in word. If the Reconstruction of the Southern states, from slavery to free labor, and from aristocracy to industrial democracy, had been conceived as a major national program of America, whose accomplishment at any price was well worth the effort, wrote Du Bois, we should be living today in a different world. Interpreting American History: Reconstruction provides a primer on the often-contentious historical literature on Reconstruction, the period in American history from 1865 to 1877. As Du Bois noted, this critical period in U.S. history held much promise for African Americans transitioning from slavery to freedom and in redefining American nationality for all citizens. In topically arranged historiographical essays, eight historians focus on the changing interpretations of Reconstruction from the so-called Dunning School of the early twentieth century to the revisionists of the World War II era, the postrevisionists of the Vietnam era, and the most current post-postrevisionists writing on Reconstruction today. The essays treat the two main chronological periods of Reconstruction history, Presidential and Radical Reconstruction, and provide coverage of emancipation and race, national politics, intellectual life and historical memory, gender and labor, and Reconstructions transnational history. Interpreting American History: Reconstruction is an essential guidebook for students and scholars traversing the formidable terrain of Reconstruction historiography.

Series Statement

Interpreting American history series

Uniform Title

Interpreting American history series.

Alternative Title

Reconstruction

Subjects

• Southern States
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
• United States
• Southern States > History > 1865-1951
• History
• Southern States > Politics and government > 1865-1950
• Reconstruction (United States : 1865-1877)
• 1865-1951
• Politics and government

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-224) and index.

Contents

Introduction -- Reconstruction historiography : an overview / John David Smith -- Presidential Reconstruction / Kevin Adams -- Radical Reconstruction / Shepherd W. McKinley -- Reconstruction : emancipation and race / R. Blakeslee Gilpin -- Reconstruction : national politics, 1865-1877 / Edward O. Frantz -- Reconstruction : gender and labor / J. Vincent Lowery -- Reconstruction : intellectual life and historical memory / K. Stephen Prince -- Reconstruction : transnational history / Andrew Zimmerman.

Call Number

E668

ISBN

• 9781606352922
• 160635292X

LCCN

• 2015036113
• 40026297678

OCLC

930364115

Title

Interpreting American history : Reconstruction / edited by John David Smith.

Publisher

Kent, Ohio : The Kent State University Press, [2016]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Interpreting American history series

Interpreting American history series.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-224) and index.

Chronological Term

1865-1951

Added Author

Smith, John David, 1949- editor.

Other Standard Identifier

40026297678

Research Call Number

*R-USLHG E668 .I58 2016