Reconstruction

A Concise History

By: Allen C. Guelzo

Narrated by: Bob Souer

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 14th and 15th 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.

©2018 Oxford University Press (P)2018 Tantor

A Hard Listen

It’s not the writing or the reading that make this slender volume a hard listen – both are superb. It’s the story they tell. As Professor Guelzo says, Reconstruction is our nation’s great lost opportunity.

In a brisk, well-organized narrative he outlines the factors that precipitated that loss: from racism (north and south) to intransigent rebels to vengeful northern politicians to the massive physical and economic devastation visited by the war to unprecedented political and Constitutional questions that defied even the most sincere efforts at resolution. This is a great place to start to understand our post-Civil War story.

Excellent learning

I graduated high school 50 years ago. I wish this book had been available back then. I am a more educated person from having “read” it.

Succinct

Well written. Well narrated. I continue to be struck by the story of reconstruction. The obvious solution would have been the creation of a “sanctuary state” where the land, police power, and government was in the hands of the freedmen.

Very Well Done

I really enjoyed this book. It was quick and easy to read/listen to. I hope that everyone interested in the era reads it. I really like the thesis of describing Reconstruction as a conflict between middle class northern culture and a white southern aristocratic backlash to that bourgeois revolution. I am interested in the free labor ideology in the north and Guelzo showed how that impacted Reconstruction. Guelzo artfully presents a balanced view about the successes and failures of the era as well. Great work Dr. Guelzo.

And now, the rest of the story

Having just finished "Team of Rivals," I was left wondering WELL WHAT IN THE WORLD HAPPENED NEXT?! This concise overview by Allen Guelzo filled in the blanks, and gave me a good launching point to explore it's details further.

I enjoyed the narrator also. He sounded something like a radio newsman from 1950