Thread replies: 10
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1
File: tfwshittyteeth.jpg (56KB, 512x711px) Image search:
[Google]
56KB, 512x711px
What books should I read to attain a sound understanding of the civil war and the following reconstruction? I've looked into books by Woodrow Wilson, Cecil Chesterton, and Eric Foner, and I don't feel that I've learned anything at all. Chesterton and Wilson tell me that Reconstruction was a period of chaos caused largely by the enfranchisement of an illiterate slave population and the political opportunists who took advantage of the chaos, but many of their statistics seem to be wildly inaccurate. Foner tells me that it's mostly the fault of extreme racism, which surely was rampant. But he also believes that freedmen were competent to govern themselves, obviously an absurd fucking delusion. Also, he has written articles which clearly show that his instincts as an historian have been compromised by moral cowardice.
Anyone know of some good books on the period free from inaccuracies and moral hysterics?
>>
>not reading Edmund Wilson on this subject
>>
>>3362586
Patriotic Gore? Not really a comprehensive study of the war and its aftermath. It's more a series of very illuminating personal accounts. I need something broader and more objective.
>>
It has a good description in the intro tho
>>
>>3362497
"Destiny of the Republic" is not about the Civil War at all, but it really gives you the "flavor" of post-Civil War America.
>>
>>3363219
Thanks, I'll look into it, but I'd like something of wider scop
>>
bump
pls help
>>
>>3363219
Fiction?
>>
It's not going to answer your request but "Rising Tide" by John Barry gives a good account of engineering the Mississippi River, the flood of 1927, and the impact the flood had on the region and nation. It's basically the end of Reconstruction and the death of the old new south.
Also "The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King" by Rich Cohen tell the story of Sam Zemurray, a Russian Jew immigrant who started selling old bananas from boxcars to owning United Fruit Company between 1900 and 1950. His drive was such that he launched armed rebellion in Honduras from the United States when they threatened to tax his acreage. He also utilized an unprecedented use of PR to brand the president of Guatemala a communist puppet, which would lead to his removal by a CIA coup. It's a light bio and too jewy but an interesting and informative read.
>>
>>3366797
>It's not going to answer your request
Then why fucking reply you clown
Thread posts: 10
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1