Thirty years later the study remains a one-volume classic of that era in American history that continues to arouse emotions in classrooms and living rooms and to stimulate scholarship among historians. $29.95 cloth $14.95 paper.) John Hope Franklin's Reconstruction After the War synthesized existing Reconstruction scholarship when the book appeared in 1961. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1991. James Tice Moore Virginia Commonwealth University The Facts of Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of John Hope Franklin. Greater specificity on such matters would have transformed an admirable book into an exemplary one. Furthermore, although it is apparent that relations between state-level and national-level Republicans left much to be desired, Lowe neglects to indicate what approach congressional policymakers and, later, the Grant administration should have followed with reference to Virginia. Lowe implies that the Republicans committed a major mistake in failing to appeal to old Whigs and mountain whites, but he fails to suggest what issues could, conceivably, have attracted more of those voters to the party. This study possesses conspicuous strengths, but several criticisms must be noted as well. In addition, the party's maladroit economic policies antagonized railroad entrepreneur William Mahone, a powerful figure in the southern half of the state, but Lowe contends that Mahone's anti-Radical machinations were less important than grassroots racial animosities in deciding the outcome of the crucial 1869 campaign.
Some black leaders favored attempts to broaden the Republicans' popular base, but most did not, and the racial line in Virginia politics became increasingly clear-with disastrous results. This book also leaves no doubt that black Republicans played a highly significant role in their party's accomplishments and, ultimately, in its downfall.
White racism, he argues, severely limited the Republicans' chances for long-term success, and those deeply engrained antagonisms-coupled with Republican blunders and schisms-gave the Conservatives the edge in the battle for control of the state.
Although critical of the Republicans' exclusionist tactics, he recognizes the difficulties that the party confronted in devising any politically feasible course of action. Lowe's account of these developments is marked by narrative clarity and interpretive balance. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Ģ68civil war history the state's experience with Radical Republican power ended almost as soon as it had begun.
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