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Article: Andrew Johnson's good deed: how the tragedy of Reconstruction contained the seeds of the Civil Rights movement.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Washington Monthly
- Article date:
- January 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Washington Monthly Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction By Eric Foner Knopf, $27.50
Reconstruction is, arguably, the most frustrating period in American history. The Civil War having ended, the possibilities for reshaping the nation were vast. But Abraham Lincoln, who had the political skills, not to mention the political capital, to build a better, fairer nation, was dead. In his place was the insecure incompetent, Andrew Johnson. A former tailor's apprentice from Tennessee whose wife taught him how to write and helped him improve his shaky reading skills, Johnson came into office claiming to have no truck with Southern plantation owners. The planters quickly ...