Reconstruction after the Civil War - 900 Words

After Reading John Hope Franklin’s Reconstruction after the Civil War I have a completely new outlook on reconstruction. Some may say that this book, regardless of its historical contribution on Reconstruction, which it tries to demolish William Dunning’s myth of white supremacy. It is also has a very serious attempt to be fair and objective about a very controversial period when race, politics and ideology played a very different role in Society. It is precisely in Franklin’s ability to deal with these three issues; race, ideology and politics. This makes his book interesting and much different from other books that have been written on the subject. Franklin’s work was taken because everyone knew the clear disadvantage of†¦show more content†¦Here is a crucial part of American history which apparently changed the nation forever, and in reality it was a demonstration of the failure to make a dependable political transformation of the country. Franklin examined, state by state, the consequences of these policies. In Georgia there was an â€Å"expulsion of blacks from the legislature†¦In North Carolina the radicals lost their grip in 1870, after two years of difficult and uncertain rule. Tennessee went conservative ending a four year period as the first state of the former Confederacy to be reconstructed. The democrats won Texas in 1873 and Alabama and Arkansas in the following year. Mississippi capitulated in 1875.† Therefore, race was a real factor in Reconstruction, ideology and politics were the only way to put those racial prejudices in practice. Racism is guided by emotions, but it is also structured by intellectual convictions. When someone believes in the inferiority of one particular race it could be shown through social behaviors and political actions. That is related to the other argument of Franklin’s book: the confederacy mentality. The confederacy thought is beyond belief itself. It is an exceptional cultural background founded on certain values and represented in certain attitudes. One example of that, Franklin had mentioned, is that â€Å"the violence directed against blacks on almost every hand indicated how determined the formerShow MoreRelatedThe Reconstruction After The Civil War977 Words   |  4 Pagesend to start something new. One such movement was the Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a time period between 1865 and 1877 following the Civil War, during which people of the United States worked to put the country back together again, introducing a new set of significant challenges. Though, like all things in life, it did come to an end, the resulting outcome had been labeled both a success and a failure. The Reconstruction after the Civil War consisted of failures as well as successes. DespiteRead MoreThe Reconstruction of America after the Civil War1078 Words   |  4 PagesThe Civil War left a country divided not only by property lines and borders but by beliefs as well. Not just religious beliefs, moral beliefs also. It left both sides, north and south struggling, trying to figure out what their next move towards reuniting the divided America was going to be. The period following the end of the Civil War would become known as the â€Å"Reconstruction Era.† An era that raised just as many questions as it did answers. A reconstruction of America that seems to carry on manyRead MoreReconstruction After Civil War Essay1503 Words   |  7 PagesReconstruction Reconstruction was a period of time between 1865 and 1877, which was very complex and controversial. It refers to the actual rebuilding of the south physically, economically and politically from the damage of the Civil War. It was an effort to rebuild southern states and also to restore the Union. 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