Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877
by Eric Foner
View on GoodreadsFoner's canonical 1988 history of the Reconstruction era, treating it as a genuinely revolutionary moment — a serious attempt at multiracial democracy — that was deliberately strangled by white supremacist violence, judicial retreat, and Northern abandonment.
Core ideas
- Reconstruction was not the corrupt failure of Dunning-school caricature; it produced Black officeholders, public schools, civil rights legislation, and constitutional amendments still in play today.
- The 14th and 15th Amendments rewrote the constitutional order — federal citizenship over state, equal protection, voting rights — but enforcement collapsed.
- The 1877 Compromise is treated less as an ending than as the start of the long retrenchment that produced Jim Crow.
Published1988
Pages690
ISBN9780060937164
ReadJan 2021
