Richardson

2001 · Best.-Nr. UB-17892 — Harvard University Press 2001. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. First Edition. Hardcover. A highly presentable bright clean likely unread first edition copy of the popular historian's important 2001 work. From the publisher: "Historians overwhelmingly have blamed the demise of Reconstruction on the South and on white Americans' persistent racism. Heather Cox Richardson argues instead that class along with race was critical to Reconstruction's end. Northern support for freed blacks and Reconstruction weakened as growing labor interests critiqued the economy and called for government redistribution of wealth." "Using newspapers public speeches popular tracts Congressional reports and private correspondence Richardson traces the changing Northern attitudes toward African-Americans from the Republicans' idealized image of black workers in 1861 through the 1901 publication of Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery. She examines such issues as black suffrage disfranchisement taxation westward migration lynching and civil rights to detect the trajectory of Northern disenchantment with Reconstruction. She reveals a growing backlash from Northerners against those who believed that inequalities should be addressed through working-class action and the emergence of an American middle class that championed individual productivity and saw African-Americans as a threat to their prosperity. Harvard University Press hardcover books