The Wars of Reconstruction

The Brief, Violent History of America's Most Progressive Era

By: Douglas R. Egerton

Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin

A groundbreaking new history, telling the stories of hundreds of African-American activists and officeholders who risked their lives for equality - in the face of murderous violence - in the years after the Civil War. By 1870, just five years after Confederate surrender and 13 years after the Dred Scott decision ruled blacks ineligible for citizenship, Congressional action had ended slavery and given the vote to black men. That same year, Hiram Revels and Joseph Hayne Rainey became the first African-American U.S. senator and congressman respectively. In South Carolina, only 20 years after the death of arch-secessionist John C. Calhoun, a black man, Jasper J. Wright, took a seat on the state’s Supreme Court. Not even the most optimistic abolitionists thought such milestones would occur in their lifetimes. The brief years of Reconstruction marked the United States’ most progressive moment prior to the civil rights movement. Previous histories of Reconstruction have focused on Washington politics. But in this sweeping, prodigiously researched narrative, Douglas Egerton brings a much bigger, even more dramatic story into view, exploring state and local politics and tracing the struggles of some 1,500 African-American officeholders, in both the North and South, who fought entrenched white resistance. Tragically, their movement was met by ruthless violence - not just riotous mobs, but also targeted assassination. With stark evidence, Egerton shows that Reconstruction, often cast as a “failure” or a doomed experiment, was rolled back by murderous force. The Wars of Reconstruction is a major and provocative contribution to American history.

©2014 Douglas R. Egerton (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"The history of [the] era [of Reconstruction] has rarely if ever been as well told as it is in Douglas R. Egerton's forcefully argued and crisply written The Wars of Reconstruction. Mr. Egerton presents a sometimes inspiring but more often deeply shocking story that reveals the nation at its best and worst." ( The Wall Street Journal)

"Egerton’s study is an adept exploration of a past era of monumental relevance to the present and is recommended for any student of political conflict, social upheaval, and the perennial struggle against oppression." ( Publishers Weekly)

"A richly detailed history…An illuminating view of an era whose reform spirit would live on in the 1960s civil rights movement." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Solid Effort with Great Last Chapter

Being a historian who has read much about Reconstruction in the past few years, I find Egerton to have done a clear, solid, and straightforward job with the period. His set up of the last period of the war and (no surprise, given some of his other work) of the approach and importance of black Union troops and veterans is very strong and provides good context for his detailed discussed of what another author has called "the war after the war." His argument that the Johnson administration frittered away a major opportunity to remake the country is well taken (if not original), as is his formulation of the post 1865 era in the South as a continuing of war by other means with no clear endpoint before the mid 20th Century Civil Rights era. Perhaps the most useful part of the book is the final chapter, which carries Reconstruction forward into the 20th Century and has a discussion of both white and African-American authored history, drama, and filmmaking that taught me a lot. I had no idea Black film pioneer Oscar Michaud made a film in 1920 in response to Griffith's Birth of a Nation and similarly racist films. The book is well worth reading for either general readers or historians of the era. Highly recommended.

Excellent

Rarely have I listened to a book this good. Thoroughly engaging and educational. So many heroes mentioned to research further. Worth listening to again.

Essential reading for all Americans.

Read it with The Half Has Never Been Told and Slavery By Another Name to completely alter and deepen your understanding of our history from the beginning of slavery to the present.

An Eye Opener

What did you love best about The Wars of Reconstruction?

The matter of fact approach the author used to tell the story of the darkest period in our nations history. He held nothing back, and for anyone wanting to connect the dots from 1865 to 1965 this book draws a straight line.

Who was your favorite character and why?

There is no favorite character, but many many despicable actors.

What about Eric Martin’s performance did you like?

Good pace, clear and easily understood.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, it was hard to listen to at times because of the nature of the atrocities committed by white southerners against former slaves and sympathetic whites.

Any additional comments?

This book told the story that, in my opinion, should be required telling in every history of the United States. I was only vaguely aware of what the 20 years following the end of the Civil War were like. It is clear that the war never really ended. Rather, the attitudes and mind set of those responsible for the hatred that prevailed then carried through to the civil rights struggles of the 1960's. Unfortunately, in 2018 it still persists.

Where is the director/producer? Mispronunciations!

This review is more about the production and direction of this book as an audiobook than about the book itself. Many others have made good comments about the value of the content of the book, and I agree with those. But I have to wonder where the director/producer was when this was being recorded? Is it not that person's job to make sure that names and places are pronounced properly? Here are just a few examples:

This audiobook narrator pronounces the name of the chief justice of the United States incorrectly---saying TANEY (with a long A as it's spelled) instead of TAWNY as it is properly pronounced. Is it really asking so much that someone look name pronunciations up? The narrator also several times mispronounces Mobile (as in Alabama) as mobile (as in phone). In one place, he even pronounces executor (as in the person who executes the provisions of a will) as execUtor (sounding like someone who has executed someone).

Although the narrator otherwise is fine (if, as some have said a bit flat), someone should have corrected these mispronunciations. It is not his fault. But someone was in charge of this production and should have recognized that mispronunciations like this are like static that get in the way of an otherwise good listen.

Counter to Fictional Accounts

This was a compelling story about Reconstruction. It does not touch much beyond the social issues of reconstruction and its effects on the South. What the story excels at is showing the promise of the post Civil War reforms and how those reforms were ultimately rolled back by the South still fighting for its old order. Rather than move forward from the Civil War, the South regressed back to many of its problems and put off true social change for 100 years.

Particularly helpful is the way the book went beyond the 1880's and includes how the historians and fictional writers of the early 20th century tried to rewrite Reconstruction as a vengeful act of a few northern Republicans. Civil rights were not revenge. They were a right for the southern citizens and this book explains how close we were to that change and then how it was all rolled back.

I enjoyed the book and learned more about the time period. I wish the author had spent some more time on the northern social issues during this time. To put little focus on them leaves out the southern argument that Reconstruction was imposing a social order on the South that the North did not have.

Great Read

Fast paced and immensely informative. Mr. Everton book should be required reading for anyone interested in American History.
The

Essential History

Would you consider the audio edition of The Wars of Reconstruction to be better than the print version?

No, unfortunately the performance would have benefitted from a redo. It wasn't a terrible performance by any means, but the book was so dense with information that the steady, even pace of the narrator made it difficult to process the prose in several parts of the book.

What aspect of Eric Martin’s performance would you have changed?

I think several chapters would have benefitted from a more dramatic reading--a wider variety of rhythm and emphasis to make it easier for the readers' ears to parse the prose as it whizzes by.

Any additional comments?

The substance of this book is absolutely essential for Americans to know, and this book dives into the details in ways that other history books wouldn't have time to. I learned about the struggles to build public schools in the post-war South, and keep teachers employed in communities so anti-Reconstruction that even teachers' landlords were shunned. I learned about the losing battle this history fought, for generations, against the romanticized view of the South in popular literature like Gone with the Wind and Song of the South.

Most importantly, I learned that Reconstruction and the America that led up to it and through it was not so long ago. That history is a living part of who we are as a country. Even though the details of Reconstruction have largely been forgotten, ignored, or rewritten and politically weaponized, it is possible to learn and face the hard truths of that era.

Having been lucky enough to stumble across this book, I'm taking away the lesson that it's possible, even with everything on your side (legions of activists, the law, the moral high ground, constitutional amendments, basic human decency, the White House, both houses of Congress, etc), to lose the fight for equality. It's a hard lesson to learn, but this all happened. And with the US struggling with the question of authoritarian rule in the age of Trump, it's an important thing to keep in mind.

Great book on a under analyzed part of our history

I really enjoyed this book and it opened my eyes to a part of our history that is not very well understood. You can still see some of the forces still at work today.

Great

Didn't appreciate the voices the narrator had... Otherwise, he did a fantastic job overall. Great book!