The Great Task Remaining Before Us: Reconstruction as America's Continuing Civil War
Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller
Abstract
Through informative case studies, this illuminating book remaps considerations of the Civil War and reconstruction era by charting the ways in which the needs, interests, and experiences of going to war, fighting it, and making sense of it informed and directed politics, public life, social change, and cultural memory after the war's end. In doing so, it shows that the war did not actually end with Lee's surrender at Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination in Washington. As the chapters show, major issues remained, including defining freedom; rebu ... More
Through informative case studies, this illuminating book remaps considerations of the Civil War and reconstruction era by charting the ways in which the needs, interests, and experiences of going to war, fighting it, and making sense of it informed and directed politics, public life, social change, and cultural memory after the war's end. In doing so, it shows that the war did not actually end with Lee's surrender at Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination in Washington. As the chapters show, major issues remained, including defining freedom; rebuilding the South; integrating women and blacks into postwar society, culture, and politics; deciding the place of the military in public life; demobilizing or redeploying soldiers; organizing a new party system; and determining the scope and meanings of union.
Keywords:
Civil War,
reconstruction,
union,
Lincoln,
Lee,
South,
postwar society,
military,
public life
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780823232024 |
| Published to Fordham Scholarship Online: March 2011 |
DOI:10.5422/fso/9780823232024.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Paul A. Cimbala, editor
Department of History, Fordham University
Randall M. Miller, editor
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