"Abridged from Reconstruction: America's unfinished revolution"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-275) and index.

Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans, black and white, responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the quest of emancipated slaves&; searching for economic autonomy and equal citizenship, and describes the remodeling of Southern society; the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations; and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and one committed, for a time, to the principle of equal rights for all Americans.,Provided by publisher.