Title:The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America’s Most Progressive Era

Previous histories of Reconstruction have focused on Washington politics, but in this sweeping, prodigiously researched narrative, a much bigger, even more dramatic story is brought into view. Explore state and local politics and trace the struggles of some fifteen hundred African-American officeholders, in both the North and South, who fought entrenched white resistance. A movement which, tragically, was met by ruthless violence — riotous mobs, targeted assassination. With stark evidence, Egerton shows that Reconstruction, often cast as a “failure” or a doomed experiment, was rolled back by murderous force.

Bloomsbury Press (2015)

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