Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"An outstanding scholarly contribution . . . disciplined, powerful, and moving."--Lincoln Caplan, New York Times Book Review It took the Civil War and the adoption soon after of three constitutional amendments to establish the ideal of equality in American law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed due process and equal protection of the law, and provided black men the right to vote.
Eric Foner's taut, masterful history conveys the dramatic origins of these revolutionary amendments and the momentous court decisions that later narrowed and even nullified the rights they guaranteed. Today these constitutional rights remain essential and contested, their history of immediate bearing in our politics and culture.
Synopsis
An authoritative history by the preeminent scholar of the Civil War era, The Second Founding traces the arc of the three foundational Reconstruction amendments from their origins in antebellum activism and adoption amidst intense postwar politics to their virtual nullification by narrow Supreme Court decisions and Jim Crow state laws. Today these amendments remain strong tools for achieving the American ideal of equality, if only we will take them up.