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Radical Reconstruction

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Thaddeus Stevens

The Radicalism of Thaddeus Stevens

Thaddeus Stevens understood far better than most that fully uprooting slavery meant overthrowing the South’s economic system and challenging property rights.
by Matthew E. Stanley via Jacobin on March 1, 2021

When the South Was the Most Progressive Region in America

Elections in the late 1860s gave birth to real, if short-lived, interracial democracy—the likes of which America had never seen.
by Ethan J. Kytle, Blain Roberts via The Atlantic on January 17, 2018
Crowded and brightly-lit Beale Street in Memphis.

Memphis: The Roots of Rock in the Land of the Mississippians

Rising on the lands of an ancient agricultural system, Memphis has a long history of negotiating social conflict and change while singing the blues.
by Rob Crossan via JSTOR Daily on October 18, 2024

The Unreconstructed Radical

Thaddeus Stevens was a fierce opponent of the “odious” compromises in the Constitution, and of the North’s compromises after the Civil War.
by Richard Kreitner via The Baffler on May 13, 2021
A campaign illustration supporting Ulysses S. Grant for the Election of 1868.

A World “Transfixed”: The International Resonance of American Political Crises

The world's eyes are upon America as it struggles with racism and inequality. This is nothing new.
by Brooks Swett via Muster on July 24, 2020
A man plowing with a mule

Revisiting “Forty Acres and a Mule”

The backstory to the backstory of America’s mythic promise.
by Bennett Parten via We're History on June 15, 2020

An Unfinished Revolution

A new three-part PBS documentary explores the failure of Reconstruction and the Redemption of the South.
by James Oakes via New York Review of Books on November 21, 2019

The Legacy of Black Reconstruction

Du Bois's "Black Reconstruction in America" showed that the black freedom struggle has always been one for radical democracy.
by Robert Greene II via Jacobin on August 27, 2018
Ed Ayers next to the cover of his book, "The Thin Light of Freedom."
partner

The Thin Light of Freedom

On this episode of BackStory, Brian sits down with Ed to talk about a project of his that’s been twenty-five years in the making.
via BackStory on November 17, 2017
original

"What is Sport to You is Death to Us."

In 1867, African-Americans in Virginia stood up for their new political rights in the face of threats from their white neighbors.
by Ed Ayers on October 31, 2017

White Supremacists and the Rhetoric of "Tyranny"

White supremacists have long used fear of losing essential rights in their arguments.
by Livia Gershon, Marek D. Steedman via JSTOR Daily on August 31, 2017

How About Erecting Monuments to the Heroes of Reconstruction?

Americans should build this pivotal post–Civil War era into the new politics of historical memory.
by Richard Valelly via The American Prospect on August 23, 2017
Allegorical lithograph entitled "Reconstruction," by J. L. Giles in 1867.
partner

Why the Second American Revolution Deserves as Much Attention as the First

The first revolution articulated American ideals. The second enacted them.
by Gregory P. Downs via Made By History on July 19, 2017
Reconstruction era political cartoon.

The Political Cartoon That Explains the Battle Over Reconstruction

Take a deep dive into this drawing by famed illustrator Thomas Nast.
by Lorraine Boissoneault via Smithsonian on March 2, 2017

How Hillary Clinton Got On The Wrong Side of Liberals' Changing Theory of American History

What she doesn't get about race and the Civil War.
by Matthew Yglesias via Vox on January 26, 2016

Killing Reconstruction

During Reconstruction, elites used racist appeals to silence calls for redistribution and worker empowerment.
by Heather Cox Richardson via Jacobin on August 19, 2015
Lithograph of African Americans gathering the dead and wounded from the Colfax Massacre in Louisiana, on April 13, 1873, originally published in Harper's Weekly.

The 1873 Colfax Massacre Was a Racist Attack on Black People’s Democratic Rights

In northern Louisiana, white supremacists slaughtered 150 African Americans, brutally thwarting their hopes for autonomy and self-governance.
by Keri Leigh Merritt, Gwendolyn Midlo-Hall via Jacobin on April 13, 2023
Donald Trump supporters storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Failure of Reconstruction Is to Blame for the Weakness of American Democracy

A new book argues that the American right emerged out of a backlash to multiracial democracy following the Civil War.
by Matthew E. Stanley via Jacobin on December 8, 2022
Four members of House committee on Jan. 6. U.S. Capitol Riot, sitting in a hearing.
partner

What History Says About The Jan. 6 Committee Investigation

The importance of an unambiguous report that cannot be weaponized by Trump supporters.
by Stephen A. West via Made By History on March 13, 2022
Image interference of Tucker Carlson on Fox News.

3 Tropes of White Victimhood

Leading conservative pundits today are pounding themes that were popular among opponents of Reconstruction.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via The Atlantic on July 20, 2021
Deputy sheriff at county fair in Gonzales, Texas.

New Sheriff in Town

Law enforcement and the urban-rural divide.
by Jonathon Booth via The Drift on February 3, 2021

Frederick Douglass’s Vision for a Reborn America

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, he dreamed of a pluralist utopia.
by David W. Blight via The Atlantic on November 9, 2019
Senate trying Andrew Johnson for impeachment in 1868.
partner

Impeachment is the Right Call Even if the Senate Keeps President Trump in Office

Awaiting a Senate trial might curtail Trump's worst behaviors.
by Gregory P. Downs via Made By History on October 7, 2019

How the South Won the Civil War

During Reconstruction, true citizenship finally seemed in reach for black Americans. Then their dreams were dismantled.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on April 1, 2019

Fighting to Vote

Voting rights are often associated with the Civil Rights Movement, but this fight extends throughout American history.
by Michael Tomasky via New York Review of Books on October 22, 2018

The Struggle Over the Meaning of the 14th Amendment Continues

The fight over the 150-year old language in the Constitution is a battle for the very heart of the American republic.
by Garrett Epps via The Atlantic on July 10, 2018

When Congress Almost Ousted a Failing President

It’s Andrew Johnson, not Andrew Jackson, who provides the best model for Trump’s collapsing presidency.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on May 20, 2017

Mapping Occupation: Force, Freedom, and the Army in Reconstruction

A detailed look at when and where the U.S. Army was able to enforce the new rule of law in the years following the Civil War.
by Gregory P. Downs, Scott Nesbit via Mapping Occupation on March 1, 2015
Elder M. Andrew Robinson-Gaither demonstrates for reparations for slavery.

The Thirteenth Amendment and a Reparations Program

The amendment, which brought an end to slavery in the U.S., could be used to begin a national debate on reparations.
by Ramsin Canon via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on July 12, 2014

The Court & the Right to Vote: A Dissent

How the Supreme Court got it wrong.
by John Paul Stevens via New York Review of Books on August 15, 2013
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