The period of Reconstruction, following the Civil War, was one of the most tumultuous eras of U.S. history. From 1865-1877, the national government tried to reincorporate the former states of the Confederacy back into the Union and provide basic rights to the newly freed slaves. The halting, complicated efforts to accomplish those goals involved such political and social upheaval at the federal, state, and local levels that historians have long been challenged in how to summarize the era in an accurate but brief fashion. The era virtually defies simplification, and we have had relatively few historians even make the attempt. The groundbreaking work of Eric Foner (Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877 and A Short History of Reconstruction)—still easily the most recognized and the standard text for college courses around the country despite being over three decades old—are among the very few works on the subject which most readers of literature on the era have any familiarity. Allen Guelzo, author of Gettysburg: The Last Invasion and Fateful Lightening: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction, has attempted to explain these years in a new, brief, overview with the aptly titled Reconstruction, A Concise History. We commended him for the attempt sight unseen, and eagerly anticipated reading the book hoping it might help us and others make better sense of how and why Reconstruction unfolded as it did and where exactly its legacy fits in the continuum of American history.
Covering this topic is not easy. Doing it 130 pages of text seems impossible. But Guelzo manages to get it done admirably. We are not aware of another such dynamic and yet encompassing read with such brevity. (Even Foner’s Short History comes in at over 300 pages.) The author covers all the important topics in succinct and poignant fashion: Lincoln’s initial plans for a lenient readmission of the seceded states; Andrew Johnson’s designs on Reconstruction aimed at punishing the elite planters whom he blamed for war; Congressional, or “Radical,” reconstruction; Johnson’s impeachment; the passage of 14th and 15th amendments; the role of the courts; and finally, Reconstruction’s end with the presidential election of 1876.
Guelzo succeeds brilliantly in some areas but at times, the reader is left searching for more insight and information due to the brevity required in the undertaking, especially as it concerns differences in how events unfolded state by state. This book is inherently focused at the national level, a decision for which Guelzo can hardly be faulted and something that must be kept in mind in evaluating its strengths. Gulezo’s epilogue is in some ways the strongest part of the book. In it the author provides what amounts to a scorecard on Reconstruction, measuring its successes and failures in summary fashion with a brutally clear assessment of what it accomplished, what it did not, and how those outcomes influence us still today. Guelzo credits as among Reconstruction’s successes the restoration of the Union; the definitive determination that secession was invalid; the abolition of slavery; the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments; and the absence of summary executions of former Confederate leaders. The shortcomings of Reconstruction, and they are many according to Gulezo, can be blamed on the woeful unpreparedness of the national government to undertake the monumental task which it confronted. Not only was there a glaring lack of leadership in the wake of Lincoln’s assassination, but a contentious resurgence of a Northern Democratic party at odds with many of the aims of the Republican administration which muted its effectiveness at best and negated it entirely in others. These failures include the shortsightedness of the courts in ensuring former slaves were granted the rights they were allegedly assured and the unwillingness to undertake a true military occupation which might have squelched the wholesale and persistent resistance of the white South to the mandates being imposed on it from Washington. His elaboration of these points in just a few pages of clear and concise text helps tie everything together in convincing fashion.
As its title conveys, Reconstruction: A Concise History provides a concise overview of this complicated but critical period. Anyone wanting a place to start in learning about these years should read this book first before moving to other works discussing individual locations, events, and individuals in more detail.
CPW/JMB