Reconstruction - (Guides to Historic Events in America) Annotated by Paul Teed & Melissa Teed (Hardcover)

About the Book

Providing an exciting narrative of Reconstruction based on current scholarship, historical sources, as well as interpretive essays on special topics, this book offers real insight into a controversial and critical period in American history.
Reconstruction: A Reference Guide covers the entire period of Reconstruction (1863-1877) with a special emphasis on the struggle for social and political equality in the post-Civil War South. The book's analytical essays, selection of primary documents, and biographies of key participants give readers an understanding of social, political, and economic changes that occurred during this important period as well as provide opportunities to explore more specific issues and debates.

Synthesizing and building on the work of recent scholars, the book documents how the central struggles of Reconstruction revolved around the meaning of freedom for former slaves. The essays describe how a new and sometimes deadly conflict over equal rights and racial justice raged throughout the South in the post-Civil War period and generated a constitutional crisis in the nation's capital as former slaves created alliances with sympathetic whites and sought to build a biracial democracy in the former Confederacy. Readers will not only understand the facts and events of the period, but will also be introduced to historical sources and key interpretive debates.

• Provides readers with an understanding of Reconstruction based on the most recent scholarship and analytical essays that promote critical thinking about important issues of this critical era
• Presents extensive primary source material that allows readers to interpret the period through the eyes of participants as well as dynamic visual images from the period accompanied by explanatory captions
• Contains biographical entries that provide insight into the lives of key people from the period
• Includes an extensive annotated bibliography that encourages readers to explore issues in more depth

Book Synopsis

Providing an exciting narrative of Reconstruction based on current scholarship, historical sources, as well as interpretive essays on special topics, this book offers real insight into a controversial and critical period in American history.

Reconstruction: A Reference Guide covers the entire period of Reconstruction (1863-1877) with a special emphasis on the struggle for social and political equality in the post-Civil War South. The book's analytical essays, selection of primary documents, and biographies of key participants give readers an understanding of social, political, and economic changes that occurred during this important period as well as provide opportunities to explore more specific issues and debates.

Synthesizing and building on the work of recent scholars, the book documents how the central struggles of Reconstruction revolved around the meaning of freedom for former slaves. The essays describe how a new and sometimes deadly conflict over equal rights and racial justice raged throughout the South in the post-Civil War period and generated a constitutional crisis in the nation's capital as former slaves created alliances with sympathetic whites and sought to build a biracial democracy in the former Confederacy. Readers will not only understand the facts and events of the period, but will also be introduced to historical sources and key interpretive debates.

Review Quotes

About the Author

Paul E. Teed, PhD, is professor of history at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan.

Melissa Ladd Teed, PhD, is professor of history at Saginaw Valley State University.