Constitutional rights given to africanamericans or as a failure because Racial Discrimination was legal and africanamericans remain unequal. So today, we are going to be talking about reconstruction. Right . So what is reconstruction . Its really the period immediately after the civil war. The period of reconstruction. Why is it called reconstruction . Because we are talking about the reconstruction of the union. Right . Of the seceded states that had formed the confederacy, theyre now defeated and the question then becomes is how do they reenter the union . How do we reconstruct the union . And that is why this period is known as reconstruction. It is not that well known in American History. As the civil war, so so far, we have been talking about the civil war, right, before the midterms, we covered the civil war. And everyone knows about the civil war. It has kind of a triumphant end. You know, at least if youre not a neoconfederate. The union wins. Slavery is destroyed. Reconstructi
2011. It is about an hour. Thank you very much. It is wonderful to be here again. I love this venue. I get lots of good questions, which we will save time for at the end. This is an interesting occasion for me. This is the first time i have been in front of an audience talking about Andrew Johnson. Forgive me if i say jefferson occasionally. I had to write that and do a spell check to make sure i didnt have jefferson where i should have had johnson, because the temptation was actually quite great. If someone had told me a number of years ago that i would have written a book about Andrew Johnson, i would have said you are crazy. Its not that i dont think hes interesting. He really is. Not that i didnt know anything about him. But for most of my career as a historian, i have tried to avoid the period of reconstruction. It sounds strange for someone who writes about slavery, which is a difficult topic to write about, but i find it easier to deal with the 17th century and 18th century, and
Its really the period immediately after the civil war is the period of reconstruction. Why is it called reconstruction . Because we are talking about the reconstruction of the union, right, of the seceded states that had formed the confederacy. Theyre now defeated. And the question then becomes is how do they reenter the union . How do we reconstruct the union . And that is why this period is known as reconstruction. It is not that wellknown in American History as the civil war. So, so far weve been talking simply about the civil war, right . Before the midterms, we covered the civil war. Everyone knows about the civil war. It has kind of a triumphant end, at least if youre not a newer confederate. The union wins. Slavery is destroyed. Reconstruction, on the other hand, does not have a happy ending. Its a great experiment in racial democracy immediately after the war, but it is overthrown. Maybe we all like happy endings, and thats one of the seasons we dont know that much about recons
Life, i would have written a book about Andrew Johnson, i would have told them they were crazy. Its not that i dont think hes an interesting person. He really is an interesting person. And not that i didnt know anything about him, but for most of my career as a historian, i have tried to avoid the period of reconstruction. And it sounds strange for someone who writes about slavery, which is a difficult topic to write about. But i find it easier to deal with the 17th century and 18th century and attitudes about race and slavery than i do dealing with reconstruction. Theres something about it that is just maddening to me, and i think what it is is that it was a moment of opportunity. When i think of the people in the 17th and 18th century who have very primitive ideas about many, many things in the world, and you know there are lots of things they dont know, i can not totally forgive them, but its not as irritating to me, exasperating to me as a period of time when you have photographs,
President lincolns assassination. This was recorded at the Philadelphia Free library in 2011. Its about an hour. Thank you very much. Its wonderful to be here again. I love this venue. Get lots of good questions which we will save time for at the end. This is an interesting occasion for me. This is actually the first time ive been up in front of an audience talking about Andrew Johnson. Forgive me if i say jefferson occasionally. I had to write that when i was writing, i did a spell check in there. Because it was the temptation was quite great. If somebody had told me a number of years ago or any point in my life that i would have written a book about Andrew Johnson, i would have told them they were crazy. Its not that i dont think hes an interesting person. He is an interesting person. For most of my career as a historian ive tried to avoid the period of reconstruction. It sounds strange for someone who writes about slavery which is a difficult topic to write about. But i find it easi