Eric Foner’s A Short History of Reconstruction, is an abridged version of the multiple award-winning Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution (1988), offers a summary of some of the most influential pieces of history with his arguments regarding themes, such as the way South was changed amid and after this time, the development of racial mentalities and designs and the part of African Americans in bringing change within the Reconstruction. Additionally, another subject that Foner states in the book, is the development of a national state through the Civil War and Reconstruction that confined another arrangement of purposes with level rights to all Americans paying little to their race and the way changes in the North’s economy after …show more content…
Eric Foners’ book A Short History of Reconstruction, addresses all the issues surrounding the time period. Within the book, Foner discussed three major points, how the society in the south was reconstructed, what effects of reconstruction om the North, and the experiences of the black people. With the book highlighting the high and low points as well as the significance of these events that lead to the growth for the federal government and the ideological developments of the …show more content…
As the African Americans “freedom” is setting into everyone’s mind, the freedmen start to develop their own path. Foner states that the newly freed slaves wanted whites to understand that they no longer had authority over them and make their status as free Americans known by economic power, religion, self-defense, and political action that were some of the systems among their desire to leave black communities but were heavily altered by a lack of protection but continued and looked for other ways to pursue. With African Americans seeking different approaches, Foner argued that the efforts put in were brought together by a desire to gain independence from white control. Even before the war, Foner believes that the blacks had gathered other institutions even before the war has started and the emancipation enhanced the blacks resources. Though these resources were made available to the African Americans, Foner also discusses that because of the cultural intuitions did not free blacks from privations that which then led to Reconstruction to fail. Foner suggest that these failures going on in Reconstruction was due to the fact President Andrew Johnson was hesitant to go along with the federal rebirth plans for the south. Foner also states that President Johnson did not have any interest in giving the African Americans political