Promotional Information

The violent aftermath of the Civil War comes to dramatic life in this sweeping new collection of firsthand writing.

About the Author

Brooks D. Simpson, editor, is Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University. He is the author ofLet Us Have Peace- Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861-1868andUlysses S. Grant- Triumph over Adversity, 1822-1865, editor ofThe Civil War- The Third Year Told by Those Who Lived It, and co-editor ofThe Civil War- The First Year Told by Those Who Lived ItandSherman's Civil War- Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-65.

Reviews

“Very, very good. . . . Reconstruction conveys the struggle for racial equality better than many other anthologies documenting the era . . . It cannot be read without a sigh for what might have been in post-Civil War America—for a republic not only restored geographically and politically but genuinely built, as Lincoln had hoped, around the principles of free-labor economics and constitutional equality.”
—Allen C. Guelzo, The Wall Street Journal

“For the men and women who lived it, Reconstruction was not an abstraction but an experiment in hope, in justice, in the very best of American principles. Generous, capacious, fresh and wide-ranging, this volume is indispensable for understanding the myriad voices of the nation. And it’s hard to put down.”
—Brenda Wineapple, author of Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848–1877

“Our most fiercely fought conflict over racial equality was not the Civil War—it was Reconstruction. This momentous and bloody period, highly pertinent to the present, is still far too obscure. Library of America has taken a major step toward correcting that with this superbly well-chosen collection.”
—Nicholas Lemann, author of Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War

“This is where modern America was made, and the diverse voices represented here capture the era in all its complexity and tragedy.”
—Aaron Sheehan-Dean, author of Why Confederates Fought: Family and Nation in Civil War Virginia