The Wars of Reconstruction

Archival Summary & Scope

During the radical post-Civil War years, Black men achieved unprecedented political gains, rising to power as U.S. Senator Hiram Revels, Congressman Joseph Hayne Rainey, and state Supreme Court Justice Jasper J. Wright. Douglas Egerton's *The Wars of Reconstruction* moves beyond Washington politics to provide a sweeping, prodigiously researched narrative of this pivotal era. He chronicles the state and local struggles of some 1,500 African-American officeholders in both the North and South, who faced entrenched white resistance and ruthless violence, including targeted assassination. Egerton powerfully argues that Reconstruction, often dismissed as a "failure," was instead systematically rolled back by murderous force. This provocative work redefines a critical chapter in American history.