Lecture 15:
Reconstruction
Reconstruction is
the word historians use to describe the process by which the seceded states,
the southern states, were made ready to re‑enter the Union
after the Civil War. The process of
putting the Union back together was
crucial. It shaped what America
would be like for its continuing history.
I think we should admit that as Americans, we didn’t do a very good
job at this.
Outline of Lecture
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The Struggle
Over Reconstruction
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The prospect of Reconstruction set off a great political
struggle between the moderates, who (including President Lincoln) would be
lenient on the South, and the Radicals, who wished to punish the
South. The outcome of this struggle
had great import for white ex-Confederates and even more for Negro
freedmen.
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Congressional
Reconstruction
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When the Radicals got control of Reconstruction, they
instituted military occupation of the South and also instituted programs
for civil rights and voting rights for blacks. This was to the political benefit of the Republicans, of
course. The reconstruction
governments of the southern states may have done much good, but they also
were plagued by problems of corruption.
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The
Unreconstructed South
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Despite the efforts of the Radical Republicans, southern
whites reasserted control in their states, ending hopes of blacks for
social or political justice. The
Compromise of 1877 officially ended reconstruction. Its legacies, however, continue to
affect modern American life.
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Assignments
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Tocqueville
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Chapter 25: “Some Characteristics of Historians in
Democratic Times.” We read this
chapter at the close of the course as a means of reflecting back and
thinking about how History is done.
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The main concept in this chapter has to do with what
historians call "causation," that is, how to explain why things
happened as they did. What sort of
explanations do aristocratic historians offer? What sort of explanations do democratic historians offer?
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Based on what you have heard in class, and on the ideas in
this chapter of Tocqueville, is the instructor of this course an
aristocratic historian or a democratic historian?
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WWW
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Genius serves base purposes as often as it does noble
ones. A work of cinematic genius was The Birth of a Nation,
by D.W. Griffith. Unfortunately, it
glorifies the Ku Klux Klan.
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HIST 103 Home Page
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