The Era of Reconstruction: 1865-1877 - Paperback

by Kenneth M. Stampp (Author)

Stampp's classic work offers a revisionist explanation for the radical failure to achieve equality for blacks, and of the effect that Conservative rule had on the subsequent development of the South. Refuting former schools of thought, Stampp challenges the notions that slavery was somehow just a benign aspect of Southern culture, and how the failures during the reconstruction period created a ripple effect that is still seen today.

Praise for The Era of Reconstruction

" . . . This "brief political history of reconstruction" by a well-known Civil War authority is a thoughtful and detailed study of the reconstruction era and the distorted legends still clinging to it."--Kirkus Reviews

"It is to be hoped that this work reaches a large audience, especially among people of influence, and will thus help to dispel some of the myths about Reconstructions that hamper efforts in the civil rights field to this day."--Albert Castel, Western Michigan University

Back Jacket

This brief political history of reconstruction is an attempt to give more general currency to the findings of scholars during the past few decades. Based on accumulated material on reconstruction for lectures for college students.

Author Biography

Kenneth M. Stampp was an acclaimed scholar, teacher, and historian of the Civil War period. He is best known for The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Antebellum South and The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877, two books that staunchly challenged previous historians' romanticized depictions of slave-owner relationships and the state of the South during the Reconstruction. These works helped revolutionize the study of the period and remain staples of university classrooms. Stampp, who was the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley, died in 2009.