Description: Allen C. Guelzo's Reconstruction: A Very Short Introduction is a gracefully-written interpretation of Reconstruction as a spirited struggle to re-integrate the defeated Southern Confederacy into the American Union after the Civil War, to bring African Americans into the political mainstream of American life, and to recreate the Southern economy after a Northern, free-labor model.
Review Quotes: "a well-organized, cogent recounting of a complex topic" -- William A. Link, Journal of Southern History
"Reconstruction provides a judicious and full account that serves as an entry point into the subject" -- William A. Link, University of Florida, The Journal of Southern History "This work provides a useful overviewthat is ideal for both undergraduate and graduate classrooms. Guelzo's scaffolding and chronological time line of major events is a good entry point for understanding this still misunderstood period in American history" -- Hilary Green, Journal of African American History