The pivotal era of Reconstruction has inspired an outstanding historical literature over the decades from W.E.B. DuBois' Black Reconstruction in America in 1935 through Eric Foner's Reconstruction in 1988. The resolution of long-running interpretive debates has shifted the issues at stake in Reconstruction scholarship, but the topic has remained a vital venue for original exploration of the regional and national history of the United States. In Reconstructions: New Perspectives on the Postbellum United States, eight rising historians survey the latest generation of scholarly work and point to promising directions for future research, from cultural and gender history to Western history, legal history, and diplomatic history. Offering an expansive approach to the chronological definition of the postwar era, this volume is an essential read on this crucial period in American history.
