A good essay reminding us how vitally important W.E.B. DuBois’ slave general strike thesis that he delineated in Black Reconstruction remains today. Slaves freed themselves. With this majestic a
David Blight makes an important point about Reconstruction–that among other things, the Radical Republicans were spurred by a fervent belief in the efficacy of the federal government to write wr
I have said before that we are in a renaissance of excellent historical writing for a general public that wants to read something more than hagiographic narratives. Add Adam Rothman’s Beyond Fre
Ku Klux Klan member, Tennessee, 1868 This is a good piece summarizing the one area of U.S. history that the National Park Service has done a terrible job commemorating, which is, not surprisingly, Rec
An interesting hypothetical at Aeon: Which historical event would you undo? My first thought was that John C. Calhoun was not born. But upon further reflection, it’s fairly obvious from a U.S. h
Above: Lincoln’s funeral Ari Kelman and Jonathan Fetter-Vorm excerpt their new graphic novel on the Civil War. You should read it.
Eric Foner on why the Reconstruction era is still vitally important today. He gives us the short history we need for the most basic understanding of the issues at play and why historians changed their
The historian Gregory Downs and the historian and visual designer Scott Nesbit have put together a pretty fantastic visualization of the U.S. Army occupation of the South during Reconstruction. Lookin