Product Review

From the €œpreeminent historian of Reconstruction€ (New York Times Book Review), a newly updated abridged edition of the prize-winning classic work on the post-Civil War period which shaped modern America.

In this updated edition of the abridged Reconstruction, Eric Foner redefines how the post-Civil War period was viewed.

Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans€"black and white€"responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the quest of emancipated slaves€ searching for economic autonomy and equal citizenship, and describes the remodeling of Southern society; the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations; and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and one committed, for a time, to the principle of equal rights for all Americans.

This €œmasterful treatment of one of the most complex periods of American history€ (New Republic) remains the standard work on the wrenching post-Civil War period€"an era whose legacy still reverberates in the United States today.