The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic

"Manisha Sinha not only has taken on this vast subject, but has greatly expanded its definition, both temporally and spatially. Her Reconstruction embraces the Progressive Era, women’s suffrage, the final wars against Native Americans, immigration and even U.S. imperialism in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries. She covers these difficult issues with remarkable skill and clarity. . . . Sinha convincingly advances her vision of Reconstruction all the way forward to 1920, when the 19th Amendment granted women’s suffrage. That landmark event was inspired by the marquee equal rights amendments of the Reconstruction era, which, Sinha writes, ‘bequeathed a legacy of political activism and progressive constitutionalism’ on the movement, a breath of air that gave America new life." -- S. C. Gwynne - New York Times Book Review
"[A]n ambitious and expansive history of the tumultuous period known as Reconstruction… Sinha captures Reconstruction as a sweeping epic of lofty aspirations and impressive achievement by black Americans and their white allies. . . . Sinha’s deep familiarity with the abolition movement serves her particularly well. The abolitionists, as she shows, saw in the carnage of the Indian Wars an analogy to the racial animosity that was destroying Reconstruction. . . . vividly bring[s] to life the thwarted hopes not only of black Southerners but of countless other idealistic Americans as well, black and white, male and female, who sought a more democratic nation, one unblemished by racial violence and economic disparities." -- Fergus M. Bordewich - Wall Street Journal
"[A] sweeping new history of what [Sinha] terms the ‘Second American Republic’ . . . [Sinha] has widened the lens to take in six decades of struggle and defeat in the ongoing battle between progressive change and reactionary retrenchment… [An] important and deeply researched book." -- Eugene L. Meyer - Washington Independent Review of Books
"A nuanced history of Reconstruction and the ongoing resistance movements it begat . . . A strong addition to modern studies of Reconstruction, bringing feminist and internationalist elements to the fore." -- Kirkus Reviews
"[R]igorously researched and brilliantly argued . . . Sinha challenges multiple myths about Reconstruction, beginning with the big white lie that it constituted a despotic imposition of federal power . . . The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic does much to set the record straight." -- Steve Nathans-Kelly - New York Journal of Books
"[Sinha’s] shrewdly argued study ties together many loose ends while providing propulsively narrated accounts of on-the-ground political violence and activism. It’s an all-encompassing new perspective on American history.
" -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Manisha Sinha’s magnificent account of Reconstruction fleshes out and vastly expands what W.E.B. Du Bois dubbed ‘abolition democracy.’ The Second Republic was never merely a southern project but a national struggle with global implications. Reconstruction’s defeat ensured Jim Crow’s ascent as the law of the land and the ideology of colonial expansion. The January 6 insurrection is a consequence of this defeat, which will become crystal-clear to anyone who reads this book." -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
"A landmark. Manisha Sinha’s searing and revelatory account of Reconstruction redraws its borders, redefines its meaning, and restores its place as the hinge upon which American history turns." -- Jill Lepore, New York Times best-selling author of These Truths
"Studded with significant events, compelling stories, and little-known historical actors, The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic is a sweepingly grand political history that traces the multiracial quest for ‘abolition democracy’ while expanding our understanding of the stakes and afterlives of the Reconstruction era." -- Tiya Miles, winner of the National Book Award for All That She Carried
"A big and bold book. Manisha Sinha’s The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic is marked by deep learning, expansive thinking, and compelling arguments. Readers will find it illuminating, challenging, and thought-provoking." -- Steven Hahn, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Illiberal America
"This is an account both luminous and tragic, which brings alive the violent defeat of Reconstruction but also the unremitting contest over the guarantees of democracy. In setting before us a sweeping history of Reconstruction—slave emancipation, the restoration of the Union, the dynamics of empire, the sovereignty of capital—Manisha Sinha has brilliantly transformed our understanding of the making of the American republic. This history holds vital meaning for the present." -- Amy Dru Stanley, author of From Bondage to Contract: Wage Labor, Marriage, and the Market in the Age of Slave Emancipation
"With this remarkable book Manisha Sinha dramatically expands our understanding of Reconstruction, which she calls the Second American Republic.  It encompassed the entire nation, not simply the former Confederate states.  It ended not in 1877 but in the 1890s.  Reconstruction didn't fail; it was overthrown.  It was a major part of women's history, reaching its culmination with the achievement of women's suffrage, the last of the Reconstruction amendments, Sinha writes. Thanks to The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic, Reconstruction will never look the same as it once did." -- James Oakes, author of The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution