African American resources at Lancaster County Historical Society
The author, Eric Foner, is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, Reconstruction, and historiography, and has been a member of the faculty at the Columbia University Department of History since 1982. [wikipedia]
Contents
Chapters: The world the war made -- Rehearsals for reconstruction -- The meaning of freedom -- Ambiguities of labor -- The failure of presidential reconstruction -- The making of radical reconstruction -- Blueprints for a Republican south -- Reconstruction : political and economic -- The challenge of enforcement -- The reconstruction of the north -- The politics of depression -- Redemption and after
Summary
"Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans-black and white-responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the ways in which the emancipated slaves' quest for economic autonomy and equal citizenship shaped the political agenda of Reconstruction; the remodeling of Southern society and the place of planters, merchants, and small farmers within it; the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations; and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and committed, for a time, to the principle of equal rights for all Americans." [from the publisher]
Presents a biography of James Buchanan's niece who was the White House hostess during her uncle's presidency, helped create the National Gallery of Art, and started the first pediatrics hospital.
Party dynamics and the coming of the Civil War -- The second party system in operation -- Slavery, extension and the second party system, 1843-1848 -- Dynamics of the party system and the compromise of 1850 -- The second party system undermined, 1849-1853 -- Realignment, reorganization, and reform, 1854-1856 -- Slavery, republicanism, and the triumph of the Republican Party -- Politics, slavery, and southern secession.
