A Dangerous Stir: Fear, Paranoia, and the Making of Reconstruction (Civil War America) - Hardcover

Summers, Mark Wahlgren

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807833045 ISBN 13: 9780807833049

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009

Synopsis

This title presents the role of fear and dread in political discourse. Reconstruction policy after the Civil War, observes 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 liberty, and a president prepared to father a coup d'etat ranked higher among them than historians have recognized. Both a dramatic narrative of the events of Reconstruction and a ground-breaking new look at what drove these events, ""A Dangerous Stir"" is also a valuable look at the role of fear in the politics of the time - and in politics in general.

About this title

About the Author

MARK WAHLGREN SUMMERS is Thomas D. Clark Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. He is the author of seven books, including Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884 and Party Games: Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics (both UNC Press).

From the Inside Flap

Summers argues that reconstruction policy after the Civil War was shaped not simply by politics, principles, and prejudices, but also by 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. 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 liberty, and a president prepared to father a coup d'état ranked higher among them than historians have recognized.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807833045
• ISBN 13: 9780807833049
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 344