FREE: Reconstruction After the Civil War, byJohn Hope Franklin

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Paperback, Like New condition
5 Out of 5 Stars: Very worth reading
Amazon Review By Metallurgist December 25, 2008
I completely disagree with those reviewers who found this book to be poorly written or confusing. In my opinion it is neither. I found this book to be very clear and well written. This is a short book that provides many interesting insights into a period of American history that is very often neglected in most history books. If one reviewer found the book confusing it is possibly because this is a very controversial and highly confusing period of American history. This book is a good antidote for those whose knowledge of reconstruction was obtained by the distortions and bigotry of films like Birth of a Nation or from the books written by revisionist southern historians. Dr. Franklin outlines the several stages of reconstruction: the initial confederate dominated governments that passed "black" laws that introduced de facto slavery, the reaction of congress and the passage of laws which helped install state governments that contained former slaves and northern "carpetbaggers", the southern reaction to this that was dominated by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and finally the readmission and rehabilitation of the Southern states that led to the political marginalization of the former slaves. Along the way he discusses the almost impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and the disputed election of Rutherford B. Hays. I found this extremely interesting as he shows that the oft cited reason for the Southern Democratic support for the Republican Hays was not primarily because of a deal to remove Federal troops from the three states that had not yet been rehabilitated. The Democrat Tilden had promised to remove these troops. Dr. Franklin cites studies that show that the deal by which the Southern Democrats switched their votes to Hays was motivated primarily by a deal concerning federal support for southern railways.