Reunion was successful, but the intensity of the effort required to achieve it caused many Americans later to reject the social and economic Reconstruction of the 1860s. It was perceived as a failure. More recently many scholars have called Reconstruction a democratic experiment that failed because it did not go far enough in reform, especially land reform, although this would have required military support. A lecture on the historiography of Reconstruction will help explain more not only about Reconstruction but about the way in which the United States has viewed its responsibilities to an underclass. The end-of-chapter bibliography in the text is very rich. For more on historiography, see also Robert F. Durden, "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877," in The Reinterpretation of American History and Culture, edited by William H. Cartwright and Richard L. Watson (1973); and John Hope Franklin, "Mirror for Americans: A Century of Reconstruction History," American Historical Review 85 (February 1980): 1-14. William Gillette, Retreat from Reconstruction (1979), is a major statement of revisionism.

The Civil War amendments were an enormously important addition to the Constitution. Chapter 16 emphasizes the revolutionary character of the Fourteenth Amendment. A lecture on the Civil War amendments will have several benefits. It will focus attention on the Constitution and the American political structure, provide a look at early federal interference at the state level to protect the individual, and give the instructor an opportunity to foreshadow developments in the interpretation of due process, equal protection, and the incorporation of the Bill of Rights to come later in the term. A very early work, Horace Edgar Flack, The Adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment (1908), looks at the intentions of the framers, as does Joseph B. James, The Framing of the Fourteenth Amendment (1956). William Gillette, The Right to Vote: Politics and the Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment (1969); Harold Hyman, A More Perfect Union: The Impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the Constitution (1973); William E. Nelson, The Fourteenth Amendment: From Political Principle to Judicial Doctrine (1988); and Robert J. Kaczorowski, "To Begin the Nation Anew: Congress, Citizenship, and Civil Rights After the Civil War," American Historical Review 92 (February 1987): 45-68, will all be helpful. Charles Fairman, History of the Supreme Court of the United States, Volume 7, Part 2, Reconstruction and Reunion, 1864-1888 (1986), provides a more legal orientation.

One of the striking things about Reconstruction is the apparent willingness of the freedmen to reject efforts at retaliation, and to get on with life. A lecture on how they did that--with emphasis on the development of black churches and black schools as well as the pioneering efforts of the exodusters--will be useful. What social role other than religious instruction was played by black churches? To what extent were black schools successful or unsuccessful? What happened to the exodusters? The focus of such a lecture is only partially on black people. Explaining the context within which black success or failure took place will reveal much about regional and national attitudes and policies. The bibliography at the end of Chapter 16 is a full one. See also Robert C. Morris, Reading, 'Riting and Reconstruction: The Education of Freedmen in the South, 1861-1870 (1981); Eric Foner, The "Tocsin of Freedom": The Black Leadership of Radical Reconstruction (1992); and Leon F. Litwack, Trouble in Mind (1998).

During Reconstruction the practice of vigilantism was a significant force in keeping blacks and Republicans in check. Students need to know more about such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia and about the Union Leagues that opposed them. Vigilantism is not a rare occurrence in the history of the United States. This lecture should emphasize vigilantism during Reconstruction, but the instructor can make references to other instances in which local people assumed responsibility for punishing defiance of community standards. Gold-rush San Francisco, the frontier, and actions against the abolitionists are good examples, and there are others. A lecture on vigilantism might well be coupled with a showing of Birth of a Nation and the discussion of Reconstruction's success or failure mentioned in the next section. The major work is Allen W. Trelease, White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction (1971).