Synopsis:
Beginning with an in-depth account of a murderous 1873 attack by a white militia of Confederate vigilantes on the black community of Colfax, Louisiana, a study of the campaign of organized racial violence that followed the Civil War describes efforts on the part of white Southern Democrats to prevent the rise of black political power. 75,000 first printing.
Review:
Praise for "The Big Test:
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful characters, from the testmakers who created the SAT in the 1920's to the students who used it 40 years later to launch themselves as Lemann's Mandarins." --Gerald W. Bracey, "The Washington Post
Praise for "The Big Test: "
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal"
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful characters, from the testmakers who created the SAT in the 1920's to the students who used it 40 years later to launch themselves as Lemann's Mandarins." --Gerald W. Bracey, "The Washington Post"
"Short and concise, Nicholas Lemann's "Redemption" is one of the very best accounts of Reconstruction I've ever read. Focusing on the Southern 'Redeemers'' slaughter of innocent blacks as well as the hopes and trials of Adelbert Ames, the heroic Civil War general who became governor of Mississippi, Lemann succeeds in showing that the defeat of Reconstruction was in many ways 'the last battle of the Civil War, ' a battle won of course by the South."
--David Brion Davis, Yale University Praise for "The Big Test: "
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal"
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful characters, from the testmakers who created the SAT in the 1920's to the students who used it 40 years later to launch themselves as Lemann's Mandarins." --Gerald W. Bracey, "The Washington Post"
"It is no surprise that Nick Lemann, with his enormous skills as a writer, has taken one of the least understood and most manipulated moments in our history and redeemed it--and the truth--for the rest of us. Now, thanks to his superb storytelling, some of the fog around this dark chapter has lifted." --Ken Burns "Short and concise, Nicholas Lemann's "Redemption" is one of the very best accounts of Reconstruction I've ever read. Focusing on the Southern 'Redeemers'' slaughter of innocent blacks as well as the hopes and trials of Adelbert Ames, the heroic Civil War general who became governor of Mississippi, Lemann succeeds in showing that the defeat of Reconstruction was in many ways 'the last battle of the Civil War, ' a battle won of course by the South."
--David Brion Davis, Yale University Praise for "The Big Test: "
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal"
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful characters, from the testmakers who created the SAT in the 1920's to the students who used it 40 years later to launch themselves as Lemann's Mandarins." --Gerald W. Bracey, "The Washington Post"
"It is no secret that emancipation did not mark an end to the suffering of African Americans in the South. Building on the major historical studies of Reconstruction by scholars such as John Hope Franklin and Eric Foner, Nicholas Lemann's gripping account of anti-black hatred and violence in Reconstruction-era Mississippi dramatizes these struggles and brings the history of this roiling period front and center, where it belongs." --Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University "It is no surprise that Nick Lemann, with his enormous skills as a writer, has taken one of the least understood and most manipulated moments in our history and redeemed it--and the truth--for the rest of us. Now, thanks to his superb storytelling, some of the fog around this dark chapter has lifted." --Ken Burns "Short and concise, Nicholas Lemann's "Redemption" is one of the very best accounts of Reconstruction I've ever read. Focusing on the Southern 'Redeemers'' slaughter of innocent blacks as well as the hopes and trials of Adelbert Ames, the heroic Civil War general who became governor of Mississippi, Lemann succeeds in showing that the defeat of Reconstruction was in many ways 'the last battle of the Civil War, ' a battle won of course by the South."
--David Brion Davis, Yale University Praise for "The Big Test: "
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal"
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful characters, from the testmakers who created the SAT in the 1920's to the students who used it 40 years later to launch themselves as Lemann's Mandarins." --Gerald W. Bracey, "The Washington Post"
"Nicholas Lemann has written a book that is essential to any full understanding of how racial hatred, terrorism, and lies have shaped our history, our culture, and our deepest national neuroses." --Roger Wilkins, George Mason University
""Redemption" is as brilliantly written as the white South's bloody reversal of the Civil War's verdict was grimly effective. In this enraging, absorbing account of the post-war rebirth of white supremacy and black enslavement, Nicholas Lemann proves that Faulkner was right: the past's dark shadows haunt us yet." --Hodding Carter III "It is no secret that emancipation did not mark an end to the suffering of African Americans in the South. Building on the major historical studies of Reconstruction by scholars such as John Hope Franklin and Eric Foner, Nicholas Lemann's gripping account of anti-black hatred and violence in Reconstruction-era Mississippi dramatizes these struggles and brings the history of this roiling period front and center, where it belongs." --Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University "It is no surprise that Nick Lemann, with his enormous skills as a writer, has taken one of the least understood and most manipulated moments in our history and redeemed it--and the truth--for the rest of us. Now, thanks to his superb storytelling, some of the fog around this dark chapter has lifted." --Ken Burns "Short and concise, Nicholas Lemann's "Redemption" is one of the very best accounts of Reconstruction I've ever read. Focusing on the Southern 'Redeemers'' slaughter of innocent blacks as well as the hopes and trials of Adelbert Ames, the heroic Civil War general who became governor of Mississippi, Lemann succeeds in showing that the defeatof Reconstruction was in many ways 'the last battle of the Civil War, ' a battle won of course by the South."
--David Brion Davis, Yale University Praise for "The Big Test: "
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal"
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful characters, from the testmakers who created the SAT in the 1920's to the students who used it 40 years later to launch themselves as Lemann's Mandarins." --Gerald W. Bracey, "The Washington Post"
Praise for "REDEMPTION":
" [A] brilliant new book,"" . . "Redemption" is accessible and important, and we cannot really understand race or political power in modern America without understanding what happened in the South a decade after Appomattox." -- Jon Meacham, "Washington"" Monthly""" " Lemann . . . has told this sad, heartbreaking story with passion and authority. He does not tar all whites with the brush of racism or violence, and he does not excuse Reconstruction its excesses and mistakes." -- Jonathan Yardley, "Washington"" Post Book World""" " Lemann performs a sterling service in excavating these hidden ruins, and "Redemption" is a superb, supple work of popular narrative history backed up by sound archival evidence." -- Alexander Rose, "The ""New York"" Observer" Praise for THE BIG TEST
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal"
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful characters, from the testmakers who created the SAT in the 1920's to the students who used it 40 years later to launch themselves as Lemann's Mandarins." --Gerald W. Bracey, "The Washington Post"
Praise for "REDEMPTION":
"[A] brilliant new book" ." . . "Redemption" is accessible and important, and we cannot really understand race or political power in modern America without understanding what happened in the South a decade after Appomattox." --Jon Meacham, "Washington"" Monthly""" "Lemann . . . has told this sad, heartbreaking story with passion and authority. He does not tar all whites with the brush of racism or violence, and he does not excuse Reconstruction its excesses and mistakes." --Jonathan Yardley, "Washington"" Post Book World""" "Lemann performs a sterling service in excavating these hidden ruins, and "Redemption" is a superb, supple work of popular narrative history backed up by sound archival evidence." --Alexander Rose, "The ""New York"" Observer" Praise for THE BIG TEST
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal"
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful charact
Praise for "REDEMPTION"
"[A] brilliant new book"". . . "Redemption" is accessible and important, and we cannot really understand race or political power in modern America without understanding what happened in the South a decade after Appomattox." --Jon Meacham, "Washington"" Monthly""" "Lemann . . . has told this sad, heartbreaking story with passion and authority. He does not tar all whites with the brush of racism or violence, and he does not excuse Reconstruction its excesses and mistakes." --Jonathan Yardley, "Washington"" Post Book World""" "Lemann performs a sterling service in excavating these hidden ruins, and "Redemption" is a superb, supple work of popular narrative history backed up by sound archival evidence." --Alexander Rose, "The ""New York"" Observer" Praise for THE BIG TEST
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal"
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful characters, from the testmakers who created the SAT in the 1920's to the students who used it 40 years later to launch themselves as Lemann's Mandarins." --Gerald W. Bracey, "The Washington Post"
Praise for "REDEMPTION"
"[A] brilliant new book"." . . "Redemption" is accessible and important, and we cannot really understand race or political power in modern America without understanding what happened in the South a decade after Appomattox." --Jon Meacham, "Washington"" Monthly""" "Lemann . . . has told this sad, heartbreaking story with passion and authority. He does not tar all whites with the brush of racism or violence, and he does not excuse Reconstruction its excesses and mistakes." --Jonathan Yardley, "Washington"" Post Book World""" "Lemann performs a sterling service in excavating these hidden ruins, and "Redemption" is a superb, supple work of popular narrative history backed up by sound archival evidence." --Alexander Rose, "The ""New York"" Observer" Praise for THE BIG TEST
"A dazzling writer . . . Mr. Lemann makes this tale immensely readable." --Dan Seligman, "The Wall Street Journal"
"A swaggering good tale peopled with colorful characters, from the testmakers who created the SAT in the 1920's to the students who used it 40 years later to launch themselves as Lemann's Mandarins." --Gerald W. Bracey, "The Washington Post"
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