Saturday, August 15th, 2009
This lecture opens with a discussion of the myriad moments at which historians have declared an “end” to Reconstruction, before shifting to the myth and reality of “Carpetbag rule” in the Reconstruction South. Popularized by Lost Cause apologists and biased historians, this myth suggests that the southern governments of the Reconstruction era were dominated by unscrupulous and criminal Yankees who relied on the ignorant black vote to rob and despoil the innocent South. The reality, of course, diverges widely from this image. Among other accomplishments, the Radical state governments that came into existence after 1868 made important gains in African-American rights and public education. Professor Blight closes the lecture with the passage of the 15th Amendment, the waning radicalism of the Republican party after 1870, and the rise of white political terrorism across the South.
Ever wanna go to Yale? Well here ya go. Watch and learn.
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Sunday, February 1st, 2009
Eric Foner, author of Our Lincoln, talks about the era following the Civil War in which former slaves were promised equal rights and citizenship. Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University.
12 good minutes with Foner
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Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
It was over a lunch of Confederate fried steak in Columbia, S.C., that I realized something crucial about North and South. A passport ought to be required to travel from one to the other. Despite decades of economic and cultural homogenization, the regions remain as different as basketball and NASCAR. That thought occurred when my lunch partner, a man named Chris Sullivan, told me this: “To say the War Between the States was about slavery is like saying the Revolutionary War was about tea.” And he meant it, sure as the pear trees bloom in sun-washed Columbia, the South is rising once again…
The article
Response Sheet
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Thursday, July 17th, 2008
After the Civil War, the founders’ mistrust of strong federal government yielded to radical Republicans’ demands for a central government powerful enough to protect the newly-won liberties of freedmen.
Read James MacPherson’s: RECONSTRUCTION: THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION
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Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Reconstruction may be one of the most misunderstood eras in American history. Versions of the era like the early motion picture Birth of a Nation (1915) and the novel Gone With the Wind (1936) — which was made into one of the best-loved American movies of all time — popularized a view of the Old South as a genteel society of gallant aristocrats, a lost world shattered by Northern violence. These myths, of course, ignored the injustices of slavery, the era’s rampant racism, and the shocking violence of the time. They also missed the significance of the era’s advances in civil rights and justice.
Historians review some myths and misconceptions about the Reconstruction era.
Q&A: The Myths of Reconstruction
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