Reconstruction, Allen C. Guelzo
Reconstruction, Allen C. Guelzo
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Reconstruction
A Concise History

Author: Allen C. Guelzo

Narrator: Bob Souer

Unabridged: 4 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/06/2018

Synopsis

The era known as Reconstruction is one of the unhappiest times in American history. It succeeded in reuniting the nation politically after the Civil War but in little else. Conflict shifted from the battlefield to the Capitol as Congress warred with President Andrew Johnson over just what to do with the South. Johnson's plan of Presidential Reconstruction, which was sympathetic to the former Confederacy, would ultimately lead to his impeachment and the institution of Radical Reconstruction.

While Reconstruction saw the ratification of the fourteenth and fifteenth Amendments, expanding the rights and suffrage of African Americans, it largely failed to chart a progressive course for race relations after the abolition of slavery and the rise of Jim Crow. It also struggled to manage the Southern resistance towards a Northern free-labor economy. However, these failures cannot obscure a number of accomplishments with long-term consequences for American life, among them the Civil Rights Act, the election of the first African American representatives to Congress, and the avoidance of renewed civil war. Reconstruction suffered from poor leadership and uncertainty of direction, but it also laid the groundwork for renewed struggles for racial equality during the civil rights movement.

About Allen C. Guelzo

Allen C. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College. Three-time winner of the Lincoln Prize, he is the author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America, Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction, and Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Reviews

Goodreads review by robin on July 02, 2024

Reconstruction And Free Labor Allen Guelzo's "Reconstruction: A Concise History" (2018) offers a brief yet thoughtful look at the twelve-year period following the Civil War, 1865 -- 1877, an era which Guelzo finds can "reasonably be characterized as the ugly duckling of American history." The Henry L......more

Goodreads review by Mark on April 13, 2022

Very concise. Very sad—sad to see an opportunity for repentance squandered. The era was more fraught than I knew. Guelzo is a trusted guide. Appreciate his work on this.......more

Goodreads review by Mary Ann on May 28, 2021

This little book is certainly what the title claims: concise. It is an excellent overview of the Reconstruction years. Though brief, it covers a lot of material which makes the prose quite dense, so it takes longer to read and digest than one might think. I found myself running to maps and topics in......more

Goodreads review by John on April 13, 2020

This slim (130 pages) scholarly volume provides some good insights into the 12-year period after the Civil War, "the greatest missed opportunities Americans ever had to erase the treacherous impact of slavery and race in a reconstructed and unified nation." Andrew Jackson's lack of leadership follow......more

Goodreads review by Maxine on April 12, 2018

As stated in the publisher’s blurb to Reconstruction: A Concise History by Allen C. Guelzo, Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College, ‘the era known as Reconstruction is one of the unhappiest in American history’. It was meant to unite the country after the Civil War while advancing the......more

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