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The War after the War

A New History of Reconstruction

John Patrick Daly author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of Georgia Press

Published:1st Jun '22

Should be back in stock very soon

The War after the War cover

An examination of the battles for power in the South after the Civil War

The War after the War is a lively military history and overview of Reconstruction that illuminates the new war fought immediately after the American Civil War. This Southern Civil War was distinct from the American Civil War and fought between southerners for control of state governments.

The War after the War is a lively military history and overview of Reconstruction that illuminates the new war fought immediately after the American Civil War. This Southern Civil War was distinct from the American Civil War and fought between southerners for control of state governments. In the South, African American and white unionists formed a successful biracial coalition that elected state and local officials. White supremacist insurrectionaries battled with these coalitions and won the Southern Civil War, successfully overthrowing democratically elected governments. The repercussions of these political setbacks would be felt for decades to come.

With this book John Patrick Daly examines the political and racial battles for power after the Civil War, as white supremacist terror, guerrilla, and paramilitary groups attacked biracial coalitions in their local areas. The Ku Klux Klan was the most infamous of these groups, but ex-Confederate extremists fought democratic change in the region under many guises. The biracial coalition put up a brave fight against these insurrectionary forces, but the federal government offered the biracial forces little help. After dozens of battles and tens of thousands of casualties between 1865 and 1877, the Southern Civil War ended in the complete triumph of extremist insurrection and white supremacy. As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of the Southern Civil War, its lessons are more vital than ever.

John Patrick Daly’s argument is compelling and persuasive, and this is an important book that promises to be a landmark in historiography. The scholarship is sound and the concept original, and it deals with a topic that seems increasingly more relevant and significant in our own time.

* author of Oliver P. Morton and the Politics of the Civil War and Reconstruction *

The War after the War is a concise, bold synthesis of the recent scholarship on Reconstruction. . . . John Patrick Daly does not mince words in this short and easily read book. He boldly calls on all Americans to discard false narratives of Reconstruction that remain dominant in popular understanding and to memorialize the true heroes of the period, the Black and White southerners who gave their lives fighting the losing battle to establish a biracial democracy in the South. After reading this book, it will be hard for anyone to maintain the traditional textbook view of Reconstruction.

* Southwestern Historical Quarter

ISBN: 9780820361895

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

192 pages