Classic Books about Reconstruction

Jennifer Burns is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia.

Classic Books about Reconstruction

June 03 2007

I would never have predicted that Reconstruction, the period of United States history immediately following the Civil War, from 1865-1877, would be among the most popular topics I covered in my podcasts. But perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, for it is one of my favorite topics too. All American history graduate students learn about the remarkable shifts and changes in how Reconstruction is understood — interpretations that often reveal more about the time in which they are written than Reconstruction itself.

The modern history of Reconstruction begins with W.E.B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880. First published in 1935 and once ignored by historians, this book by the polymathic Du Bois is now considered a pathbreaking treatment of the subject. Unlike his contemporaries, Du Bois, the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard, did not view Reconstruction through the lens of white supremacy. His historical account was grounded in research and deeply influenced generations of historians to come.

The best example of the scholarship that followed DuBois’s lead is Eric Foner’s Short History of Reconstruction. One of the definitive texts on the period, Foner’s book takes a panoramic look at Reconstruction, from national politics to Southern life on the ground during the aftermath of war. His narrative is notable for the emphasis it places on the agency of everyday people, particularly freedpeople. This is an abridgement of his longer work,Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution.

And I couldn’t write about this topic without a nod to Leon Litwack’s Been In the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery. Beloved by generations of Berkeley students, Litwack taught History 7b for decades prior to his retirement in 2007 (I taught the course when he took a rare sabbattical). This book is built on a prodigious amount of research, including government documents, personal papers, and WPA interviews with freed slaves. Although the title indicates an interest in the fate of freed slaves, Litwack’s book is really an interracial history that pays close attention to how blacks and whites renegotiated their relationships after the demise of slavery.

Where will historians of Reconstruction go next? Perhaps the new emphasis on “internationalizing” U.S. history will lead to more comparative work on how other systems of human bondage were dismantled, and the aftermath of such sweeping change.

Comments (1)

|2009-08-24 09:42:25 Fanny_TheVictorianName - Thanks a lot

Thanks so much for your blog, it is very helpful especially for me, as i am preparing for a very competitive exam in France, one of the subjects is Reconstruction. I'll be following your precious advice. Thanks again to give us a taste of what happens in such a renouned institution as Berkeley.

Fanny