Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877. (New York: Harper & Row, 1988).

Foner attempts to bring together all of the different aspects of Reconstruction into a cohesive, communicable whole. A vast amount of literature had been devoted to the subject of Reconstruction, especially since the 1960s and the mobilizing effects of revisionists and post-revisionists; such studies are important, but they had remained without a coherent synthesis of these individual findings. Simply stated, Foner hopes to present a coherent modern account of Reconstruction. He makes mention of five unifying themes: the common Negro experience in the War Between the States, Reconstruction, and beyond, identifying the Negro as an active player in the shaping of Reconstruction policy; the ways in which Reconstruction policies reshaped the South's institutions; the evolution of racial attitudes and the interconnection of race and class in this new Southern society; an attempt to put the Southern experience in a national context, one demonstrating the rise of the modern American government of a reforming, activist nature; and the effects of changes in the class structure and economics of the North on the pattern of Reconstruction. In addition, Foner attempted to examine the period as a whole, using economic, political, and social aspects of Reconstruction, and to present his thoughts in an analytical narrative.

The dates by which Foner consigns to Reconstruction reveal his particular interpretation of the subject. Rather than begin in 1861 or 1865, Foner begins his analysis in 1863 with the proclamation of emancipation. This date serves to link two of his major themes: grass-roots Negro activity and the newly empowered national state. In addition, his choice of dates serves to show his feeling that Reconstruction was not a national phenomenon but rather the beginning of a new historical process in America, one involving the adjustment of all Americans to the end of slavery. Racism is seen to be a component of the evolving historical process. In the end, Foner sides with the freedmen, southern Republicans, and the like, whom he feels were benefited by Radical Reconstruction despite the limits of its development up until its end through the 1877 Compromise.

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