Week 5: End of Reconstruction

Reading 1: Blight, Chapter 4, “Reconstruction and Reconciliation”

Question for consideration: In this chapter, Blight analyzes specific actions from 1868-1871 that were anti-Reconstruction and pro-Reconciliation. What do you think are the key issues he describes that led to failed African American advancement?

Reading 2: Blight, Chapter 5, "Soldier's Memory"

Question for consideration: How does masculinity and whiteness play into the post-war imagination of the common soldier?

THIS IS OPTIONAL READING, ONLY IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN MORE!

Optional additional reading: Edward Ayers, Chapter 2, "Junction, "The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction

(1992)

Question for consideration: Ayers describes the "landscape" of the South in the wake of Reconstruction. How did the equally diverse landscape and united politics of southern Democrats spell the downfall of the emancipationist vision?