The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution

Foner, Eric

ISBN 10: 0393652572 / ISBN 13: 9780393652574

Published by W. W. Norton & Company, 2019

About this Item

The book does not look new and has been read but is in excellent condition. The cover and dust jacket if applicable may have very minimal or no wear. There are no missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, and no writing, highlighting or underlining of text. May have an author autograph or inscription from author. May have very minimal identifying marks inside cover. May have pale yellow pages. May have minimal light marks on page edges or a remainder mark. Fast Shipping, safe and secure mailers. Stock photo used.

Seller Inventory # FWV.0393652572.VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393652572
• ISBN 13: 9780393652574
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning scholar, a timely history of the constitutional changes that built equality into the nation’s foundation and how those guarantees have been shaken over time.

The Declaration of Independence announced equality as an American ideal, but it took the Civil War and the subsequent adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as American law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed all persons due process and equal protection of the law, and equipped black men with the right to vote. They established the principle of birthright citizenship and guaranteed the privileges and immunities of all citizens. The federal government, not the states, was charged with enforcement, reversing the priority of the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In grafting the principle of equality onto the Constitution, these revolutionary changes marked the second founding of the United States.

Eric Foner’s compact, insightful history traces the arc of these pivotal amendments from their dramatic origins in pre–Civil War mass meetings of African-American “colored citizens” and in Republican party politics to their virtual nullification in the late nineteenth century. A series of momentous decisions by the Supreme Court narrowed the rights guaranteed in the amendments, while the states actively undermined them. The Jim Crow system was the result. Again today there are serious political challenges to birthright citizenship, voting rights, due process, and equal protection of the law. Like all great works of history, this one informs our understanding of the present as well as the past: knowledge and vigilance are always necessary to secure our basic rights.

About the Author

Eric Foner's indelible works include the landmark history, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution; a bestselling study of Lincoln and slavery, The Fiery Trial, winner of the Pulitzer, Bancroft, and Lincoln Prizes; and an influential history of the Reconstruction amendments, The Second Founding. The DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, Foner continues to write frequently for The Nation and other publications.