Changes

==1865-1890==

==1865-1890==

In the 1865-75 period, most writers took the view that the ex-Confederates were traitors and Johnson was their ally who threatened to undo the Union's  Constitutional achievements.  In the 1870s and 1880s many writers argued that Johnson and his allies were not traitors but blundered badly in rejecting the 14th Amendment and setting the stage for Radical Reconstruction. <ref> Fletcher M. Green, "Walter Lynwood Fleming: Historian of Reconstruction," ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 2, No. 4. (Nov., 1936), pp. 497-521.</ref>   

In the 1865-75 period, most writers took the view that the ex-Confederates were traitors and Johnson was their ally who threatened to undo the Union's  Constitutional achievements.  In the 1870s and 1880s many writers argued that Johnson and his allies were not traitors but blundered badly in rejecting the 14th Amendment and setting the stage for Radical Reconstruction. <ref> Fletcher M. Green, "Walter Lynwood Fleming: Historian of Reconstruction," ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 2, No. 4. (Nov., 1936), pp. 497-521. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2192035  in JSTOR]</ref>   

==Black views==

==Black views==

Among black scholars [[Booker T. Washington]], who grew up in West Virginia during Reconstruction, concluded that, "the Reconstruction experiment in racial democracy failed because it began at the wrong end, emphasizing political means and civil rights acts rather than economic means and self-determination."<ref>Louis R. Harlan, ''Booker T. Washington in Perspective'' (1988) p. 164;  A. A. Taylor, "Historians of the Reconstruction," ''The Journal of Negro History'' Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1938), pp. 16-34.  </ref>  His solution was to concentrate on building the economic infrastructure of the black community.

Among black scholars [[Booker T. Washington]], who grew up in West Virginia during Reconstruction, concluded that, "the Reconstruction experiment in racial democracy failed because it began at the wrong end, emphasizing political means and civil rights acts rather than economic means and self-determination."<ref>Louis R. Harlan, ''Booker T. Washington in Perspective'' (1988) p. 164;  A. A. Taylor, "Historians of the Reconstruction," ''The Journal of Negro History'' Vol. 23, No. 1. (Jan., 1938), pp. 16-34 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2714704  in JSTOR].  </ref>  His solution was to concentrate on building the economic infrastructure of the black community.

==Southern whites: popular white==

==Southern whites: popular white==

In popular literature two novels by Thomas Dixon&mdash;''The Clansman'' and ''The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden — 1865–1900''&mdash;romanticized white resistance to Northern/black coercion, hailing vigilante action by the Ku Klux Klan. Other authors romanticized the benevolence of slavery and the happy world of the antebellum plantation. These sentiments were expressed on the screen in [[D.W. Griffith]]'s anti-Republican 1915 movie ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]''.  

In popular literature two novels by Thomas Dixon&mdash;''The Clansman'' and ''The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden — 1865–1900''&mdash;romanticized white resistance to Northern/black coercion, hailing vigilante action by the Ku Klux Klan. Other authors romanticized the benevolence of slavery and the happy world of the antebellum plantation. These sentiments were expressed on the screen in [[D.W. Griffith]]'s anti-Republican 1915 movie ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]''.  

The [[Dunning School]] of scholars based at the history department of Columbia University analyzed Reconstruction as a failure, at least after 1866, for quite different reasons. They claimed that it took freedoms and rights from qualified whites and gave them to unqualified blacks who were being duped by corrupt carpetbaggers and scalawags. As one scholar notes, "Reconstruction was a battle between two extremes: the Democrats, as the group which included the vast majority of the whites, standing for decent government and racial supremacy, versus the Republicans, the Negroes, alien carpetbaggers, and renegade scalawags, standing for dishonest government and alien ideals. These historians wrote literally in terms of white and black."<ref> Williams 1946 p. 473; Green (1936).</ref>

The [[Dunning School]] of scholars based at the history department of Columbia University analyzed Reconstruction as a failure, at least after 1866, for quite different reasons. They claimed that it took freedoms and rights from qualified whites and gave them to unqualified blacks who were being duped by corrupt carpetbaggers and scalawags. As one scholar notes, "Reconstruction was a battle between two extremes: the Democrats, as the group which included the vast majority of the whites, standing for decent government and racial supremacy, versus the Republicans, the Negroes, alien carpetbaggers, and renegade scalawags, standing for dishonest government and alien ideals. These historians wrote literally in terms of white and black."<ref> Williams 1946 p. 473; Green (1936).</ref>

==Revisionism==

==Revisionism==

In the 1930s, "revisionism" became popular among scholars. As disciples of [[Charles A. Beard]], revisionists focused on economics, downplaying politics and constitutional issues.  They argued that the Radical rhetoric of equal rights was mostly a smokescreen hiding the true motivation of Reconstruction's real backers. While conceding that a few men like Stevens and Sumner were thoroughly idealistic, Howard Beale argued Reconstruction was primarily a successful attempt by financiers, railroad builders and industrialists in the Northeast, using the Republican Party, to control the national government for its own selfish economic ends. Those ends were to continue the wartime high protective tariff, the new network of national banks, and to guarantee a "sound" currency. To succeed the business class had to remove the old ruling [[agrarian]] class of Southern planters and Midwestern farmers. This it did by inaugurating Reconstruction, which made the South Republican, and by selling its policies to the voters wrapped up in such attractive vote-getting packages as northern patriotism or the bloody shirt. Historian William Hesseltine added the point that the Northeastern businessmen wanted to control the South economically, which they did through ownership of the railroads.<ref>Williams 1946 p470</ref> However, historians in the 1950s and 1960s refuted Beale's economic causation by demonstrating that Northern businessmen were widely divergent on monetary or tariff policy, and seldom paid attention to Reconstruction issues.<ref>Foner 1982; Montgomery, ''vii–ix'')</ref>

In the 1930s, "revisionism" became popular among scholars. As disciples of [[Charles A. Beard]], revisionists focused on economics, downplaying politics and constitutional issues.  They argued that the Radical rhetoric of equal rights was mostly a smokescreen hiding the true motivation of Reconstruction's real backers. While conceding that a few men like Stevens and Sumner were thoroughly idealistic, Howard Beale argued Reconstruction was primarily a successful attempt by financiers, railroad builders and industrialists in the Northeast, using the Republican Party, to control the national government for its own selfish economic ends. Those ends were to continue the wartime high protective tariff, the new network of national banks, and to guarantee a "sound" currency. To succeed the business class had to remove the old ruling agrarian class of Southern planters and Midwestern farmers. This it did by inaugurating Reconstruction, which made the South Republican, and by selling its policies to the voters wrapped up in such attractive vote-getting packages as northern patriotism or the bloody shirt. Historian William Hesseltine added the point that the Northeastern businessmen wanted to control the South economically, which they did through ownership of the railroads.<ref>Williams 1946 p470</ref> However, historians in the 1950s and 1960s refuted Beale's economic causation by demonstrating that Northern businessmen were widely divergent on monetary or tariff policy, and seldom paid attention to Reconstruction issues.<ref>Foner 1982; Montgomery, ''vii–ix'')</ref>

==Neoabolitionists==

==Neoabolitionists==

In the 1960s, [[neoabolitionist]] historians emerged, led by [[John Hope Franklin]], [[Kenneth Stampp]] and [[Eric Foner]]. Strongly aligned with the [[American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)|Civil Rights Movement]], they rejected the Dunning school and found a great deal to praise in Radical Reconstruction. Foner, the primary advocate of this view, argued that it was never truly completed, and that a Second Reconstruction was needed in the late 20th century to complete the goal of full equality for African-Americans. The neo-abolitionists followed the revisionists in minimizing the corruption and waste created by Republican state governments, saying it was no worse than Boss Tweed's ring in New York City.<ref>Williams, 469; Foner p. ''xxii''</ref> Instead they emphasized that poor treatment of Freedmen was a worse scandal and a grave corruption of America's republican ideals. They argued that the real tragedy of Reconstruction was not that it failed because blacks were incapable of governing, but that it failed because the civil rights and equalities granted during this period were but a passing, temporary development. These rights were suspended in the South from the 1880s through 1964, but were restored by the Civil Rights Movement that is sometimes referred to as the "Second Reconstruction."

In the 1960s, [[neoabolitionist]] historians emerged, led by [[John Hope Franklin]], [[Kenneth Stampp]] and [[Eric Foner]]. Strongly aligned with the [[American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)|Civil Rights Movement]], they rejected the Dunning school and found a great deal to praise in Radical Reconstruction. Foner, the primary advocate of this view, argued that it was never truly completed, and that a Second Reconstruction was needed in the late 20th century to complete the goal of full equality for African-Americans. The neo-abolitionists followed the revisionists in minimizing the corruption and waste created by Republican state governments, saying it was no worse than Boss Tweed's ring in New York City.<ref>Williams, 469; Foner p. ''xxii''</ref> Instead they emphasized that poor treatment of Freedmen was a worse scandal and a grave corruption of America's republican ideals. They argued that the real tragedy of Reconstruction was not that it failed because blacks were incapable of governing, but that it failed because the civil rights and equalities granted during this period were but a passing, temporary development. These rights were suspended in the South from the 1880s through 1964, but were restored by the Civil Rights Movement that is sometimes referred to as the "Second Reconstruction."

* Brown, Thomas J., ed. ''Reconstructions: New Perspectives on Postbellum America'' (2006) essays by 8 scholars [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0195175956/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]  

* Brown, Thomas J., ed. ''Reconstructions: New Perspectives on Postbellum America'' (2006) essays by 8 scholars [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0195175956/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]  

* Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt. ''Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880'' (1935), 1998 reprint with introduction by David Levering Lewis ISBN 0-684-85657-3.) Explores the economics and politics of the era from Marxist perspective  

* Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt. ''Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880'' (1935), 1998 reprint with introduction by David Levering Lewis ISBN 0-684-85657-3.) Explores the economics and politics of the era from Marxist perspective  

* Du Bois, W.E.B. "Reconstruction and its Benefits," ''American Historical Review'', 15 (July, 1910), 781—99 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8762%28191007%2915%3A4%3C781%3ARAIB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T  JSTOR]

* Du Bois, W.E.B. "Reconstruction and its Benefits," ''American Historical Review'', 15 (July, 1910), 781—99 [http://learning.sec.hccs.edu/members/histreader/folder.2008-07-16.5873569485/folder.2008-07-16.2343253214/Reconstruction%20and%20Its%20Benefits%20by%20WEB%20DuBois%201910.pdf online]

* Dunning, William Archibald. ''Reconstruction: Political & Economic, 1865-1877'' (1905). Blames Carpetbaggers for failure of Reconstruction. [http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XgIOAAAAIAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=Dunning,+William+Archibald.+%27%27Reconstruction:+Political+%26+&ots=hfgL3IVGbC&sig=hJEGx4hCEmMeJr0FqSVkvr9ECPg online edition]

* Dunning, William Archibald. ''Reconstruction: Political & Economic, 1865-1877'' (1905). Blames Carpetbaggers for failure of Reconstruction. [http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XgIOAAAAIAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=Dunning,+William+Archibald.+%27%27Reconstruction:+Political+%26+&ots=hfgL3IVGbC&sig=hJEGx4hCEmMeJr0FqSVkvr9ECPg online edition]

* Fitzgerald, Michael W. ''Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South.'' (2007. xiv, 234 pp. isbn 978-1-56663-734-3.)

* Fitzgerald, Michael W. ''Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South.'' (2007). 250 pp.  

* Fitzgerald, Miachael W. ''Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South'' (2007), 224pp; [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1566637341/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]

* Fitzgerald, Miachael W. ''Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South'' (2007), 224pp; [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1566637341/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]

* [[Walter Lynwood Fleming]] [http://www.blackmask.com/books11c/sequelapdex.htm ''The Sequel of Appomattox, A Chronicle of the Reunion of the States''(1918)]. Popular summary of Dunning School by leading scholar.

* [[Walter Lynwood Fleming]] [http://www.blackmask.com/books11c/sequelapdex.htm ''The Sequel of Appomattox, A Chronicle of the Reunion of the States''(1918)]. Popular summary of Dunning School by leading scholar.

* Foner, Eric. "Reconstruction Revisited" in ''Reviews in American History'', Vol. 10, No. 4, ''The Promise of American History: Progress and Prospects'' (Dec., 1982), pp. 82-100, review of the historiography, online in Project MUSE

* Foner, Eric. "Reconstruction Revisited" in ''Reviews in American History'', Vol. 10, No. 4, ''The Promise of American History: Progress and Prospects'' (Dec., 1982), pp. 82-100, review of the historiography, online in Project MUSE

* Ford, Lacy K., ed.  ''A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction.'' Blackwell, 2005. 518 pp.   

* Ford, Lacy K., ed.  ''A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction.'' Blackwell, 2005. 518 pp.   

* Franklin, John Hop]. ''Reconstruction after the Civil War'' (1961), , 280 pages. ISBN-10: 0226260798. SHort survey by leading black scholar.  

* Franklin, John Hop]. ''Reconstruction after the Civil War'' (1961), , 280 pages. . Short survey by leading black scholar.  

* Henry, Robert Selph. ''The Story of Reconstruction'' (1938). detailed popular history

* Henry, Robert Selph. ''The Story of Reconstruction'' (1938). detailed popular history

* Jenkins, Wilbert L.  ''Climbing up to Glory: A Short History of African Americans during the Civil War and Reconstruction.'' SR Books, 2002. 285 pp.   

* Jenkins, Wilbert L.  ''Climbing up to Glory: A Short History of African Americans during the Civil War and Reconstruction.'' SR Books, 2002. 285 pp.   

* Stampp, Kenneth M. and Leon M. Litwack, eds. ''Reconstruction: An Anthology of Revisionist Writings," (1969), essays by neoabolitionist scholars

* Stampp, Kenneth M. and Leon M. Litwack, eds. ''Reconstruction: An Anthology of Revisionist Writings," (1969), essays by neoabolitionist scholars

* Trefousse, Hans L. ''Historical Dictionary of Reconstruction'' Greenwood (1991), 250 entries [http://books.google.com/books?id=jIEQr2ZLLhoC&dq=%22radical+reconstruction%22+sumner excerpt and text search]

* Trefousse, Hans L. ''Historical Dictionary of Reconstruction'' Greenwood (1991), 250 entries [http://books.google.com/books?id=jIEQr2ZLLhoC&dq=%22radical+reconstruction%22+sumner excerpt and text search]

* Williams, T. Harry.  "An Analysis of Some Reconstruction Attitudes" ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 12, No. 4. (Nov., 1946), pp. 469-486. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-4642%28194611%2912%3A4%3C469%3AAAOSRA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N JSTOR]

* Williams, T. Harry.  "An Analysis of Some Reconstruction Attitudes" ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 12, No. 4. (Nov., 1946), pp. 469-486. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2197687 in  JSTOR]

* [[Wilson, Woodrow]]. [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABK2934-0087-3 ''The Reconstruction of the Southern States'' (1901)]; interpretive essay by Wilson, written before his election as President in 1912.

* [[Wilson, Woodrow]]. [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABK2934-0087-3 ''The Reconstruction of the Southern States'' (1901)]; interpretive essay by Wilson, written before his election as President in 1912.

* Calhoun, Charles W. ''Conceiving a New Republic: The Republican Party and the Southern Question, 1869-1900.'' (2006). 347 pp.

* Calhoun, Charles W. ''Conceiving a New Republic: The Republican Party and the Southern Question, 1869-1900.'' (2006). 347 pp.

* Cox, LaWanda C. ''Politics, principle, and prejudice, 1865-1866: dilemma of Reconstruction America'' (1963) [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.00364 online in ACLS E-books]

* Cox, LaWanda C. ''Politics, principle, and prejudice, 1865-1866: dilemma of Reconstruction America'' (1963) [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.00364 online in ACLS E-books]

* Dunning, William A. "The Constitution of the United States in Reconstruction" in ''Political Science Quarterly'' Vol. 2, No. 4 (Dec., 1887), pp. 558-602 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-3195%28188712%292%3A4%3C558%3ATCOTUS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q JSTOR]

* Dunning, William A. "The Constitution of the United States in Reconstruction" in ''Political Science Quarterly'' Vol. 2, No. 4 (Dec., 1887), pp. 558-602 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2139470 in  JSTOR]

* Dunning, William A. "Military Government in the South During Reconstruction" ''Political Science Quarterly'' Vol. 12, No. 3 (Sep., 1897), pp. 381-406 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-3195%28189709%2912%3A3%3C381%3AMGITSD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P  JSTOR]

* Dunning, William A. "Military Government in the South During Reconstruction" ''Political Science Quarterly'' Vol. 12, No. 3 (Sep., 1897), pp. 381-406 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2139663 in JSTOR]

* Gambill, Edward. ''Conservative Ordeal: Northern Democrats and Reconstruction, 1865-1868.'' (1981).  

* Gambill, Edward. ''Conservative Ordeal: Northern Democrats and Reconstruction, 1865-1868.'' (1981).  

* Gillette, William. ''Retreat from Reconstruction, 1869-1879.'' (1979). Traces failure of Reconstruction to the power of Democrats, administrative inefficiencies, racism, and lack of commitment by northern Republicans.

* Gillette, William. ''Retreat from Reconstruction, 1869-1879.'' (1979). Traces failure of Reconstruction to the power of Democrats, administrative inefficiencies, racism, and lack of commitment by northern Republicans.