Customer Reviews:
An inconsistency needs to be pointed out.......2006-09-20
Rather than review this text in it's entirety, I will focus on a claim made by the author, in the inside front cover no less, and show how it conflicts with some documentation provided later in the text.
In the inside front cover, the author accuses William Jennings Bryan of being "an inflationist." Moreover, he groups Bryan (albeit correctly) with the "people" who are at odds with "Wall Street" who include most notably "conservatives" such as banking magnate J. P. Morgan.
Now, is it correct to label Bryan as an "inflationist?" The argument that Bryan was an "inflationist" is not unique to this book, and this argument essentially operates as follows: Bryan wanted to remove the gold backing from US currency in exchange for a silver backing. This somehow would "inflate prices" for farm goods which would benefit farmers (hence the Bryan's popularity among farmers).
Without getting into how the prices are supposed to "inflate" let me first point out that it is incorrect to use the verb "inflate" in connection with prices. Prices do not inflate. The currency itself; that is--money can only inflate. Meaning, that the act of "inflating" money means an entity, governmental or private is simply creating money. This means simply printing it, or in todays digital age, going into your computerized banking account and simply increasing your balance, without having made any deposit.
Now earlier, I wrote Bryan wanted to change the "backing" of US currency from gold to silver. What does that mean? It is simple: a "backing" is a standard. When currency is backed by gold or silver or some other commodity with "intrinsic" value, it means that the government cannot simply print as many dollars as it wants; it can only print as many as it can without failing to redeem the dollar-holders with the aforementioned commodity. That is, in the old days, you could go to the bank, and trade in your dollars for gold; you had that right. Try doing that nowadays. So in the past the government could not print too many dollars, otherwise it would not have enough gold to give back to the money-holders, should all of them want to get rid of their dollars.
Now keep in mind that although Bryan, the "radical" (as the author labels him) wanted to change the backing from gold to silver, at least he wanted to retain a backing.
Now on the other hand, let's take a look at the "conservative Wall Street banker" J. P. Morgan. `On p. 56 of the text, the author writes: "[McKinley supporter Myron] Herrick reports that Mr. Morgan 'was rather violent in expressing his views. The monetary repudiation which the adoption of the "free silver" standard involved was nauseating to him.... Any Republican who comes out now...for either gold or silver will not get the nomination. Let McKinley stay where he is.... once he is nominated we can take care of gold in the platform.'"
What can we glean from Morgan's statements concerning gold or silver? Well, it should be obvious from anyone who is acquainted with the man that he did not support *any* backing to the US currency be it gold silver or whatever. This is clearly evident from Morgan's hand in the "1913 revolution" which orchestrated the establishment of the banking cartel known as the "Federal Reserve." The Federal Reserve is not federal, it is a private consortium of banks which has the power to "inflate" or "deflate" the US monetary supply. That means that the banks can create money at whim. And Congress has given the Federal Reserve that power, although unconstitutionally, since the US Constitution requires that Congress (and only Congress) coin money and regulate it's value.
This is where what is commonly referred to as "inflation" comes from. It isn't some random force of nature. Rising prices are the result of there being no backing on our paper currency, enabling the Fed banking cartel to print as much money as it likes--the more money they print, the more worthless it becomes. But what do the private shareholders of the Fed banking cartel and politicians in DC stand to benefit from the power to simply print money at their leisure? Well, if you can't figure it out on your own then perhaps you should not bother purchasing this book--"Curious George" or the "Cat in the Hat" is more appropriate for you.
So in conclusion we see that it is in fact Mr. Morgan who is the "inflationist" relative to Mr. Bryan. You lose two stars for that Mr. Hamilton.
Book Description
#This succinct, readable paperback, an outgrowth of the author's highly-acclaimed volume The Presidency of William McKinley, deserves widespread adoption in courses on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century US. diplomatic history and foreign policy. It substantially supersedes other accounts of the coming of the Spanish-American War, the war itself, and the aftermath of the conflict. Based on the most up-to-date research available, it provides a new and refreshing perspective on McKinley's handling of the war.
According to Gould, McKinley's expansive view of presidential power had a significant effect on his role as commander-in-chief during the war years and on his efforts to make the White House a command post. McKinley laid the foundation of the modern presidency by his courageous and principled presidential leadership during the coming of the war, by the way he conducted and oversaw the war itself, and by the manner in which he made peace with Spain, acquired the Philippines, and gained approval of the Treaty of Paris in the Senate.
Gould's thought-provoking analysis may cause scholars to rethink the era in a new way; its lively style will be appreciated by students.
Customer Reviews:
The Life of William McKinley.......2000-04-22
Zachary Kent has done a great job recording McKinley's life in this book. The style is simple and easy to read, and there are many black-and-white photographs and drawings to supplement the story. Besides giving many key dates in the text, there is a superb timeline in the back of the book which briefly covers all of America's history and highlights the major events which occurred in McKinley's lifetime. McKinley's presidency is only reviewed at a glance by today's students, but he was an immensely popular President in his day. His regard for the opinion of the public, his persistence and determination in climbing the political ladder of success, and his desire for peace were all hallmarks of his presidency. His sense of duty to his nation and loving care for his wife were character traits of his that this book conveys to the reader. I highly recommend it.
Product Description
In its day, this remarkable book was a bestseller -- with 40 million copies sold around the globe. This Centennial Edition includes the eyewitness account of the brave soldier who risked his life to carry a President's message through hostile lines to the one man who could change the course of history by ending a centuries'-old empire and setting its people on the path toward self-rule ... With Col. Andrew S. Rowan's account of "How I Carried the Message to Garcia."
Product Description
Detailed history of the Reconstruction of the former Confederacy from 1865 to 1877. Author views the process as a combination of farce and tragedy, with emphasis on Radical Reconstruction, violent reactions in the South, predations of carpetbaggers, the corruption of the Grant administration, and so forth.
Average customer rating:
- WOW
- Well researched, Honest History & What Really happened
- Well-written history, questionable view
- Brilliant and politically incorrect history
- Simply Racist Propaganda
|
Tragic Era; The Revolution After Lincoln (BCL1 - U.S. History)
Claude Gernade Bowers
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Book Description
1929. Bowers examines the twelve tragic years that followed the death of Lincoln. Contents: The King is Dead, Long Live the King; Andrew Johnson: A Portrait; With Chase Among the Ruins; Thaddeus Stevens: A Portrait; The War Goes On; The Final Break; Patriots Mob a President; The Revolution Hurries On; The Great American Farce; Carpetbaggers and a Protest; A Passing Phase; Washington: The Social Background; A Season of Scandal; Weird Schemes and New Leaders; The Klan and the Kirk War; Sumner's Back to the Wall; Land and Year of Jubilee; The Radical Ranks Break; Degradation and Depression; The Slipping Scepter; Military Satraps and Revolution; The Falling of Rotten Fruit; The Year of the Centennial; The Red Shirts Ride; and The Crowning Crime-and Release. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.
Customer Reviews:
WOW.......2006-05-05
This will really refresh your attitude to the tragic era it really shows what it was all about!
Well researched, Honest History & What Really happened.......2006-01-29
The author used extensive research. We can not honestly look back at history, through 'rose-colored [PC]glasses'. This book was written, when authors were not pressured to be "politically correct". I wish to draw attention to the extensive Bibliography used for this book. (If you wish the 'true story' of 'Reconstruction'; this book is a must)
MANUSCRIPTS, BOOKS, AND NEWSPAPERS CONSULTED AND CITED
MANUSCRIPTS
Baruch: MS. Letters of Dr. Simon Baruch. In possession of Bernard M. Baruch, New York.
Daughters of the Confederacy: MS, Letters and Diaries. Collected for the author by the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Gary: MS. Biography of Martin W. Gary, by David Duncan Wallace. In possession of the Honorable John Gary Evans, Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Hayes: The Rutherford B. Hayes MSS. Fremont, Ohio
Holden: W. W. Holden MSS.; political and personal letters. North Carolina Historical Commission, Raleigh.
Holden: Recollections of Gov. W. W. Holden, by his daughter. In author's possession.
Julian: Diary of George W. Julian, 1865-1877. In possession of Grace Julian Clarke, Indianapolis.
Morton: MS. Letters of Oliver P. Morton. Henry County, Indiana, Historical Society.
Thurman: The Allan G. Thurman Papers. Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society.
Warmoth: MS. Reminiscences of Gov. Henry Clay Warmoth. In his possession, New Orleans.
BOOKS
Abbott, Josiah Gardner. See Cowley.
Adams, Henry: Education of Henry Adams. Boston, 1918.
Allen, Walter: Governor Chamberlain's Administration. New York, 1888.
Armes, W. D., editor: The Autobiography of Joseph LeConte. New York, 1903
Avery, I. W.: History of Georgia. New York, 1881.
Badeau, Adam: Grant in Peace. A Personal Memoir. Hartford, 1887.
Barnes, Thurlow Weed. Editor: Memoir of Thurlow Weed, Two Volumes, Boston, 1884.
Barnes, W. H.: History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States. New York, 1868.
Bayard, Thomas F. See Spencer.
Beales, H. S. B.: Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine. Two volumes, New York, 1908.
Bellows, Henry W.: Historical Sketch of the Union League Club. New York, 1879.
Bigelow, John: Letters and Literary Memorials of Samuel J. Tilden. Two volumes, New York, 1908.
Bigelow, John: Retrospections of an Active Life. Five volumes, New York, 1908-13.
Bigelow, John: Life of Samuel J. Tilden. Two volumes, New York, 1895.
Blaine, James G.: Twenty Years in Congress. Two volumes, Norwich, 1884.
Blair, Frank P. See Croly.
Boutwell, George S.: Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs. Two volumes, New York, 1902.
Bowen, Herbert W. Recollection, Diplomatic and Undiplomatic. New York, 1926.
Boyd, W. K.: Governor W. W. Holden. Trinity College Historical Papers, Durham, 1999.
Brown, Joseph E. See Fielder.
Brownlow, W. P.: `Defence and Vindication of Andrew Johnson," Taylor-Trotwood Magazine, September, 1908.
Buck, S. J.: The Granger Movement. Cambridge, 1913.
Burgess, John W.: Reconstruction and the Constitution. New York, 1902.
Burton, Theodore E.: Finical Crises and Periods of Industrial and Financial Depression. New York, 1909.
Butler, Benjamin F.: Butler's Book. Boston, 1892.
Bryant, William Cullen. See Godwin.
Callender, E. B.: Thaddeus Stevens. Boston, 1882.
Carpenter, Matthew Hale. See Flower.
Chamberlain, Rose S.: Old Days at Chapel Hill. London, 1926.
Chandler, Zachariah: `Life and Public Services,' Detroit Post, 1880.
Chase, Salmon P. See Schuckers and Warden.
Chestnut, Mary Boyden: A Diary from Dixie. New York, 1905.
Clark, Grace Julian: George W. Julian. Indiana Historical Collection, XI, Indianapolis, 1923.
Clay, Mrs.: A Bell of the Fifties. New York, 1905.
Clayton, Powell: The Aftermath of Civil War in Arkansas. New York, 1915.
Clemenceau, Georges: History of American Reconstruction. Letters to Le Temps. New York, 1928.
Colfax, Schulyer. See Hollister.
Conkling, A. R.: Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling. New York, 1889.
Cooke, Jay. See Oberholtzer.
Cortissoz, Royal: Life of Whitelaw Reid. Two volumes, New York, 1921.
Coulter, E. Merton: Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky. Chapel Hill, 1926.
Cowley, Charles: Memoirs of Josiah Gardner Abbott. Boston, 1892.
Cox, S. S.: Three Decades of Federal Legislation. Providence, 1888.
Croly, David G.: Seymour and Blair: Their Lives and Services. New York, 1868.
Crook, William H.: Through Five Administrations. New York, 1910.
David, S. L.: Authentic History of the Ku-Klux Klan. New York, 1924.
Dawson, Sarah Morgan: A Confederate Girl's Diary. Boston, 1913.
Dewitt, David Miller: The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson. New York, 1903.
Dickens, Charles, See Forster.
Dunning, William A.: Reconstruction, Political and Economic. New York, 1907.
Eckenrode, H. J.: A Political History of Virginia During Reconstruction. Baltimore, 1904.
Evarts, William Maxwell: Arguments and Speeches. Three Volumes, New York, 1919.
Fessenden, Francis: Life and Public Services of William Pitt Fessenden. Two volumes, Boston, 1907.
Ficklen, John Rose: History of Reconstruction in Louisiana. Baltimore, 1910.
Fielder, Herbert: Life, Times and Speeches of Joseph E. Brown. Springfield, 1883.
Fleming, Walter F.: Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama. New York, 1905.
Fleming, Walter F.: Documentary History of Reconstruction. Two Volumes, Cleveland, 1906.
Flower, Frank A.: Edward McMasters Stanton. Arkon, 1905.
Flower, Frank A.: Life of Matthew Hale Carpenter. Madison, 1884.
Forney, John W.: Anecdotes of Public Men. Two volumes, New York, 1873.
Forster, John: Life of Charles Dickens. Three volumes, Philadelphia, 1874.
Foulke, William Dudley. Life of Oliver P. Morton. Two volumes, Indianapolis, 1899.
Fuller, Robert H.: Jubilee Jim: The Life of Colonel James Fisk. New York, 1928.
Garfield, James A. See Smith.
Garner, James W.: Reconstruction in Mississippi. New York, 1901.
Godkin, Edwin Lawrence. See Ogden.
Godwin, Parke: Life of William Cullen Bryant. Two volumes, New York, 1883.
Gorham, George C.: Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton. Two volumes, Boston, 1872.
Grant, U. S.: Personal Memoirs. New York, 1885.
Greeley, Horace. See Seitz.
Grimes, James W. See Salter.
Guroski, Adam: Diary. Three volumes, Boston, 1862-66.
Hamilton, Gail: Biography of James G. Blaine. Norwich, 1895.
Hamilton, J. G. De Roulhac: Reconstruction in North Carolina. New York, 1914.
Hamilton, J. G. De Roulhac: The Correspondence of Jonathan Worth. Two volumes. Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission, Raleigh, 1909.
Hamilton, J. G. De Roulhac, editor: The Papers of Thomas Ruffin. Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission, Raleigh, 1920.
Hamlin, Charles Eugene: Life and Time of Hannibal Hamlin. Two volumes, Boston, 1899.
Hayes, Rutherford B. See Williams.
Hendricks, Thomas A. See Holcombe.
Hensel, W. U.: The Christiana Riot and the Treason Trials of 1851. Lancaster, 1911.
Hill, Benjamin H., Jr.: Senator Benjamin H. Hill: His Life, Speeches and Writings. Atlanta, 1895.
Hill, Benjamin H. See Pearse.
Hoar, George F.: Autobiography. Two volumes, New York, 1903.
Holcombe, John W.: Life of Thomas A. Hendricks. Indianapolis, 1886.
Holden, W. W.: Memoirs of W. W. Holden. John Lawson Monographs, Trinity College Historical Society, Durham, 1911.
Hollister, C. J.: Life of Schuyler Colfax. New York, 1886.
Holloway, Laura C.: The Ladies of the White House. Philadelphia, 1881.
Hull, George H.: Industrial Depressions. New York, 1926.
Ingersoll, Robert G.: Works. Dresden edition.
Johnson, Andrew, See Winston, Stryker, Jones, Dewitt, Moore.
Jones, James S.: Life of Andrew Johnson. Greeneville, 1901.
Julian, George W.: Speeches on Political Questions. Chicago, 1884. See also Clarke.
Lamar, Lucius Q. C. See Mayes.
Lathers, Richard. See Sanborn.
Lee, Captain R. E.: Recollections of Letters of Robert E. Lee. New York, 1926.
Leigh, Francis Butler: Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation. London, 1883.
Leslie, J. C. (and W. L. Wilson): The Ku-Klux Klan. New York, 1905.
Logan, Mrs. John A.: Reminiscences of a Soldiers Wife. New York, 1918.
Lonn, Ella: Reconstruction in Louisiana After 1868. New York, 1918.
Lowery, Robert (and W. H. McCardle):A History of Mississippi. Jackson, 1891.
McCall, Samuel: Thaddeus Stevens. Boston, 1899.
McCarthy, Charles H.: Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction. New York, 1901.
McCulloch, Hugh: Men and Measures. New York, 1888.
McDonald, John: Secrets of the Whiskey Ring. Chicago, 1880.
McNeilly, J. S.: Climax and Collapse of Reconstruction in Mississippi. Vol. XII of the Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society.
McPherson, Edward: A Political History of the United States During Reconstruction. Washington, 1875.
Marble, Manton: A Secret Chapter of Political History. Pamphlet, New York, no date.
Maverick, August: Henry J. Raymond. Hartford, 1870.
Mayes, Edward: Lucius Q. C. Lamar His Life, Times and Speeches. Nashville, 1896.
Merriam, George S.: Life and Times of Samuel Bowles. Two volumes, New York, 1885.
Mitchell, Edward P.: Memoirs of an Editor. New York, 1924.
Moore, Frank: Life and Speeches of Andrew Johnson. Boston, 1865.
Morton, Oliver P.: See Foulkes.
Nast, Thomas. See Paine.
Nevins, Allan: Emergence of Modern America. New York.
Nicolay, Helen: Our Capital on the Potomac. New York, 1924.
Nordhoff, Charles: The Cotton States in the Spring and Summer of 1875. New York, 1875.
Oberholtzer, E. P.: Jay Cooke, Financier of the Civil War. Two volumes, New York, 1907.
O'Connor, Mary D.: Life and Letter of M. P. O'Connor. New York, 1893.
Ogden, Rollo: Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin. Two volumes, New York, 1907.
Paine, Albert Bigelow: Thomas Nast: His Period and his Pictures. New York, 1904.
Pierce, Haywood J.: Benjamin H. Hill: Secession and Reconstruction, Chicago, 1928.
Perry, Benjamin F.: Reminiscences of Public Men. Philadelphia, 1883.
Pierce, S.: The Freedmen's Bureau. Iowa City, 1904.
Pike, James: The Prostate State: South Carolina Under Negro Government. New York, 1874.
Ramsdell, William: Reconstruction in Texas. New York, 1910.
Rawlins, John A. See Wilson.
Reagan, John H.: Memoirs. New York, 1906.
Reid, Whitelaw: After the War: A Southern Tour. Cincinnati, 1866. See Cortissoz.
Reynolds, John S.: Reconstruction in South Carolina. Columbia, 1905.
Riddle, A. G.: Life of Benjamin F. Wade. Cleveland, 1886.
Ross, Edmund G.: History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Santa Fe, 1896.
Ruffin. See Hamilton.
Salter, William: Life and Times of James W. Grimes. New York, 1876.
Sanborn, Alvan F., editor: Reminiscences of Richard Lathers. New York, 1907.
Schofield, John M.: Forty-Six Years in the Army. New York, 1897.
Schuckers, J. W.: Life and Public Services of Solomon P. chase. New York, 1874.
Schurz, Carl.: Reminiscences. Two volumes, New York, 1908.
Seitz, Donn C.: Horace Greeley. Indianapolis, 1926.
Sherman, John: Recollections. Two volumes, New York and Chicago, 1895.
Smedes, Susan Dabney: Memoirs of a Southern Planter. Baltimore, 1888.
Smith, Theodore Clark: Life and Letter of James A. Garfield. Two volumes, New Haven, 1925.
Somers, Robert: The Southern States Since the War. London, 1871.
Spencer, Edward: Public Life and Services of Thomas F. Bayard. New York, 1880.
Staples, Thomas.: Reconstruction in Arkansas, New York, 1923.
Stevens, Thaddeus. See Woodburn, McCall, Callender, and Hensel.
Stewart, William M.: Reminiscences. New York, 1908.
Stovall, Pleasant A.: Life of Robert Toombs. New York, 1892.
Stowe, Charles Edward: Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Boston, 1889.
Stryker, L. P.: Andrew Johnson: A Study in Courage. New York, 1920.
Stuart, A. H. H.: A Narrative of Leading Incidents of the Organization of the First Popular Movement in Virginia. Richmond, 1888.
Sumner, Charles. See Pierce.
Tarbell, Ida M.: History of the Standard Oil Company. Two volumes, New York, 1904.
Taylor, A. H.: The Negro in South Carolina During Reconstruction. Washington, 1924.
Taylor, Richard: Destruction and Reconstruction. Washington, 1924.
Thompson, Henry T. Reconstruction in Georgia. New York, 1915.
Thompson, Henry T.: Ousting the Carpetbagger from South Carolina. Columbia, 1926.
Thorndike, Rachel Sherman: The Sherman Letters, New York, 1894.
Trumbull, Lyman. See White.
Turpie, David: Sketches of My Own Times. Indianapolis, 1903.
Vallandigham, J. L.: A Life of Clement L. Vallandigham. Baltimore, 1872.
Wallace, John: Carpetbag Rule in Florida. Jacksonville, 1888.
Warden, Robert B.: Private Life and Public Services of Salmon P. Chase. Cincinnati, 1874.
Watterson, Robert B.: Marse Henry: An Autobiography, Two volumes, New York, 1920.
Way, William: History of the New England Society of Charleston. Charleston, 1920.
Welles, Gideon: Diary. Three volumes, Boston, 1911.
Wells, Edward: Hampton and Reconstruction. Columbia, 1907.
White, Andrew D.: Autobiography. Two volumes, New York, 1905.
White, Horace: The Life of Lyman Trumbull. Boston, 1913.
Williams, Alfred B. See Newspapers.
Williams, Charles R.: Life of Rutherford B. Hayes. Two volumes, Boston, 1914.
Wilson, James Grant: General Grant's Letter to a Friend. New York, 1897.
Wilson, James Harrison: Life of John A. Rawlins. New York, 1916.
Wilson, Peter Mitchell: Southern Exposure. Chapel Hill, 1927.
Winston, Robert W.: Andrew Johnson Plebeian and Patriot. New York, 1928.
Wise, John S.: Recollections of Thirteen Presidents. New York, 1905.
Woodburn, James A.: Life of Thaddeus Stevens. Indianapolis.
Worth. See Hamilton.
PUBLIC DOCUMENTS
The numerous Congressional Reports and Investigations need not be enumerated here. They are each cited in full where referred to in the text. Aside from these:
Congressional Globe and Congressional Record, 1865-1877.
Impeachment Trial of W. W. Holden. Three volumes, Raleigh, 1871.
Messages and Papers of the Presidents.
Official Report of the Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson.
Report of Joint Investigating Committee on Public Frauds, South Carolina, 1877-78.
Third Annual Message of W. W. Holden with Appendix. Doc. I, Sess. 1870-71.
Newspapers
Abbeville Press and Banner (South Carolina), 1876-77.
The Columbia State, August 8, 1926, to March 13, 1927, containing Alfred B. Williams's graphic reminiscences of the final fight for the redemption of South Carolina.
Harper's Weekly.
The Independent.
Lancaster Intelligencer, 1865-68.
McMinnville (Tenn.) Enterprise (Radical Southern paper), 1867.
The Nation.
New York Herald.
New York Sun.
New York Times.
New York Tribune.
New York World.
(The New York papers, especially The World, quoted extensively from newspapers of the West and South.)
Source-"The Tragic Era", (The Revolution After Lincoln)- Claude G. Bowers-copyright Ó 1929 by Claude G. Bowers, pages 541-547; Simon Publications 2001
First Published by The Literary Guild of America; Library of Congress Control Number: 29017848; Printed by Lighting Source Inc. La Vergne, TN Published by Simon Publications, P. O. Box 321, Safety Harbor, FL 34695
ISBN 1-931541-49-3
Well-written history, questionable view.......2005-02-26
This book deals with the Reconstruction period, 1865-77. Bowers is of the older school that found the Radical Republicans, led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, with their ideas of punishing the South for seceeding and forcing equality for blacks in the South, especially at the polls, were disastrous for the South. This view has been hotly debated; for a revisionist view see Stampp's "The Era of Reconstruction." Bowers, despite his controversial views, is an interesting historian: his style is personal and flamboyant. His emphasis is on tragedy, and his tone echoes that sentiment. To him Andrew Johnson was fighting the good fight of A. Lincoln and sought moderation in black suffrage and ease at allowing Southerners to become US citizens again; Stevens et. al. were evil monsters. An interesting book, nowhere dull.
Brilliant and politically incorrect history .......2004-08-07
Claude Bowers, The Tragic Era, is a brilliant politically incorrect history of the most corrupt time in the history of the United States. Bowers starts with the assumption of the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, a heroic but much maligned man in history. Johnson was a staunch Unionist and patriot, but he was also an avid believer in Jeffersonian government. He correctly saw the centralization of power by the Republican Party as dangerous to freedom.
Next Bowers delves into the "Radical Republicans" led by Thaddeus Stevens, a vicious fanatic and a man who despised white Southerners. Stevens, an ardent aboitionist and crusader for negro equality, hated the South and it's white population. He wanted "Reconstruction" to be as harsh and unforgiving as could be. Overall a true scoundrel. Next we see the abolitionist fanaticism of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. Sumner,as radical as Stevens also hated southern whites and was a fanatic for negro equality. Sumner, like all Radical Republicans, wanted immediate equality of the races, negro voting( even when most could not read or write), disenfanchisement of all whites, and Southern governments dominated by carpetbaggers and negroes. These carpetbaggers, along with negroes and southern "scalawags" plundered the South.
Also exposed is the lunacy and fanaticism of the abolitionists. Beloved today, they were seen as a threat to southern whites and as proponents of a bloody race war. William Lloyd Garrison, a modern hero, was Puritan of the worst stripe. He called the US Constitution a "covenant with death" and encouraged blacks to rise against the whites. Left out of modern histories of the era is the scandalous and sick call for extermination, not just of slaveholders, but of all southern whites. New England clergymen were the main culprits. This was borne out of religious fanaticism of the most extreme fundamentalist type: uncomprimising, violent, and hateful.
The phony politically motivated impeachment of Johnson, the military governing of the South, the bribery, corruption, and violence perpetrated on southern whites shows a time of disgrace and despotism. The instigating of race tensions and war by Republican governors, and their lies, and promises to freed slaves that they would give whites land to them caused innumerable tensions throughout the South.
Lastly the stolen election of 1876 where the votes of three states, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina were manipulated causing the election of Rutherford B. Hayes. The Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, won the popular vote by 260,000 votes and more than likely the real electoral votes. In order to make a comprimise the Republican Party ended Reconstruction,and pulled federal troops out of the South.
This is a very politically incorrect, but accurate history, unlike the deconstructionist and anti-southern histories of today. It also shows that the Republican Party began as a party of Big Government and looking at today, still is.
Overall, a great read.
Simply Racist Propaganda.......1999-12-27
The Tragic Era was considered a legitimate text book during the Depression and for many years afterward. However its historical view is pro-confederate, racist, and totally propagandistic. In this book you will find the arguement that slaves were happy and treated well, that after the Civil War the evil Northerners raped and pillaged the South unmercifully for 12 years, and that the angelic white men of the South only became racially bigoted because it was forced on them by the uppity freed slaves. This piece of trash is on the same quality level as Mein Kampf. If you want a realistic exploration of the Reconstruction period read Kenneth M. Stampp's "The Era of Reconstruction".
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