A Dangerous Stir: Fear, Paranoia, and the Making of Reconstruction

Civil War America

by Mark Wahlgren Summers

Reconstruction policy after the Civil War, notes Mark Wahlgren Summers, was shaped not simply by politics, principles, and prejudices. Also at work were fears--often unreasonable fears of renewed civil war and a widespread sense that four years of war had thrown the normal constitutional process so dangerously out of kilter that the republic itself remained in peril. To understand Reconstruction, Summers contends, one must understand that the purpose of the North's war was--first and foremost--to save the Union with its republican institutions intact. During Reconstruction there were always fears in the mix--that the Civil War had settled nothing, that the Union was still in peril, and that its enemies and the enemies of republican government were more resilient and cunning than normal mortals. Many factors shaped the reintegration of the former Confederate states and the North's commitment to Reconstruction, Summers agrees, but the fears of war reigniting, plots against liber

Genres: History

342 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2009

About the author

Mark Wahlgren Summers is Thomas D. Clark Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, Lexington.

Reviews

[Mark Cheathem]

I like Mark Summers' work. He has a way with words that other historians need to emulate more. When was the last time you've read (about a suspected overthrow of the U.S. government during Reconstruction): "When putsch came to shove . . . " The only major criticism that I have is that Summers doesn't spend enough time in the 1870s. He gets stuck on the 1865-1868 period, when, from my reading, the 1870-1876 period was just as full of conspiratorial rhetoric.



All in all, it's a good book, mostly easy to read, with great explication of America's paranoid style in the Reconstruction era.

[Rita Worlock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uhmazzzzzzing!