Southern Reconstruction

Philip Leigh

Book - 2017

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Subjects
Published
Yardley, Pennsylvania : Westholme [2017]
Language
English
Main Author
Philip Leigh (author)
Physical Description
xviii, 229 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-220) and index.
ISBN
9781594162763
  • Introduction
  • 1. Foundation of Change
  • 2. Wartime Reconstruction
  • 3. Ruination
  • 4. "Joshua" Johnson
  • 5. Carpetbagged
  • 6. Railroaded
  • 7. Corrupted
  • 8. Southern Reparations
  • 9. Sharecropped
  • 10. Redeemed
  • 11. Divorced
  • 12. Racial Adjustment
  • 13. Protracted Consequences
  • Conclusion
  • Appendix: Monetary Supply Theory During Reconstruction
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

Leigh interprets Reconstruction as more than a simple political effort to reintegrate former Confederate states into the Union following the Civil War. His study reveals that the event left legacies affecting black and white, Northern and Southern Americans. The author's careful analysis of Civil War and Reconstruction laws approved by Congress illustrates how they established a platform on which the Gilded Age alliance of government and business was built. That legislation not only failed to benefit the South, it deliberately kept Southern businesses from developing and trapped Southern farmers in the crop lien economic system, which helped lead to former Confederate states even now being some of the poorest in the country. In addition, Reconstruction legislation led to African American voters in the South being used crassly to bolster Republican governments during Reconstruction, then exploited as a threat that kept potential white populist voters safely voting for Democrats during the late 19th century. Leigh expands understanding of this crucial period in US history by showing how its focus extended far beyond the issues of race that some interpretations stress. A welcome addition to Reconstruction historiography. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All public and academic levels/libraries. --Jerry Purvis Sanson, Louisiana State University at Alexandria

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Reconstruction remains an emotionally fraught topic, but Leigh (Lee's Lost Dispatch) explains here how Reconstruction efforts devastated the war-ravaged South and does so without downplaying American racism. Leigh meticulously details the ways that corruption from President Johnson's impeachment debacle and Grant's "scandal-ridden tenure" trickled down to the local level, with rampant plundering of economically devastated former Confederate states lengthening the South's fiscal and emotional recovery. Leigh's fondness for his native South is clear, but he also resolutely describes its racism, classism, and other failings both before and after the war. Though race is not Leigh's primary focus, he never ignores it. He also effectively argues that wealthy whites subverted a Southern populist movement that sought to bring poor whites and newly freed slaves together in a multiracial economic coalition. There were a few black men who attained political positions as legislators and lieutenant governors-P.B.S. Pinchback's brief turn as Louisiana governor goes curiously unmentioned-but high rates of illiteracy and unemployment and patronizing attitudes toward the newly freed slaves in both the North and South made it nearly impossible for African-Americans to achieve true equality, despite the 14th Amendment. Leigh's thoughtful examination of the Reconstruction era delves into its very real costs, both monetary and in terms of morale, to the South as a whole, shedding light on why generations of Southerners continue to spiritually fight a long-settled war. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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