Summary
The end of the Civil War in 1865 brought significant change to the United States. The war had destroyed the physical fabric of the South, ushering in an age of reform and rebuilding that would create a new South free from slavery and open to progress and industrialization. But much of the promise of the postwar South was lost in the political heat of Reconstruction, which pitted Radical Republicans against Redeemer Democrats. As these events unfolded during the 1860s and 1870s across the South, more people began to migrate to the Old West. But just as Reconstruction and its aftermath ultimately failed to lift newly freed blacks out from under white racism, so the settling of the West left thousands of Indians dispossessed and defeated.
The New South and the Old West: 1866–1890, Updated Edition takes readers on a journey through the efforts to reconstruct the ravaged South and the push to create new life in the promising land to the west of the Mississippi. This informative eBook serves as a time capsule of the era, bringing to life the people and events that have shaped the nation through a clear and entertaining narrative and lively full-color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations. Students will find this eBook valuable for reports, a prime supplement to textbooks, or simply engaging reading.
About the Author(s)
Tim McNeese is an associate professor of history at York College in York, Nebraska, where he has been teaching for more than 15 years. McNeese earned an associate's degree from York College, a B.A. in history and political science from Harding University, and an M.A. in history from Missouri State University. He has published more than 100 books and educational materials over the past 20 years on everything from Picasso to landmark Supreme Court decisions. His writing has earned him a citation in the library reference work Contemporary Authors. In 2006, McNeese appeared on the History Channel program Risk Takers/History Makers: John Wesley Powell and the Grand Canyon.
Richard Jensen is a research professor at Montana State University, Billings. He has published 11 books on a wide range of topics in American political, social, military, and economic history, as well as computer science. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale and has taught at numerous colleges and universities, including Michigan, Harvard, Illinois–Chicago, and West Point.