Excellent quality, but lacking in quantity

The publishers of this audiobook delivered a well-written and cogent story for people like me who want a big-picture idea about this period. But as I'm paying a whole credit, I wish they would provide this book along with another title of their American history series. Please think about it!

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5 persone l'hanno trovata utile

ENDS APOLOGETICALLY

After cogently and interestingly presenting the real human and political reasons why we still have not overcome the racial divide the authors end with a ‘put yourself in the Southerner’s shoes’ flip flop they conclude by encouraging the reader to empathize wit the discriminatory violent murders of Black citizens

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3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Pleasantly surprised

This is a fairly short read. Very informative in regards to what happened after the Civil War.
I learned in this book how reconstruction lead to Jim Crow laws.
The authors did a good job in telling an honest and unbiased perspective of this time in American history.

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2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Sad but interesting history

I really appreciate how this piece went into detail as to the "why" of certain actions and the "how" it affected not only blacks, but poor whites as well as the country as a whole.

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2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

very informative

I learned some of this in high school, but not nearly enough of this book had to offer. So much information.

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Maybe reconsider wording?

Great overview of history. My one critique is that, while I’m new to educating myself about how terrible white America has always been to BIPOC, I have been made aware that while “Black” and “Black people” are appropriate terms for discussing issues of race, the term “blacks” is not. It appears often in here.

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Informative

Great introduction, looking forward to understanding to digging into the topic some more. Fortunately we had so many willing to fight, and die, for freedom.

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1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Southern Apologist Narrative

This volume begins with standard summarization and transforms into narrative from a southern rebel viewpoint.

It asks you to imagine being a Reconstruction-era southerner and asks you to sympathize with their mindset, seeing their culture and traditions (of slavery) upended, without asking you to imagine being or sympathize with a former slave.
It claims President Grant was lukewarm on civil rights for former slaves without disclosing that President Grant sent armed federal troops to enforce civil rights over the objections of some of his own cabinet.
It describes the KKK in detail while neglecting to describe American Missionary Society, AME congregations, or even simply state that former slaves never organized a group equivalent to the KKK to defend themselves.
There is consistent use of the term 'Radical Republicans' without investigating whether their views and agenda reflected a majority of Americans' opinions.

Summarizing this time period is a function of what you choose to include and exclude. I don't believe that this volume is intentionally southern apologist but it is a work that can easily be used in support of such views.

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Imagine What America Would Be Like If These Truths Were Taught In School

Having grown up in the segregated South, and not hearing of any significant things Blacks had done until the 6th grade; I wonder how my life would have been affected had I known these fact sooner.

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Some of this was news to me

Andrew Johnson was already a disappointment to me, but this really showed me why. It also explained why my Swedish immigrant ancestors were called the “cotton Johnsons.”

If you are interested in why racism is still (stupidly) a problem today, then listen to this book. It explains how and why the system, that we seem to be sliding back into, was created for wealthy, white men.

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