The Reconstruction Era is called one of America's most controversial periods. A lot of social and congressional changes happened during this period of time. Many books have been written on this subject, but I have chosen these two authors Kenneth M. Stampp and George Clemenceau. The Era of Reconstruction 1865-1877 by Kenneth M. Stampp and American Reconstruction 1865-1870 by George Clemenceau were chosen because I think they were written with undistorted views. Both Clemenceau and Stampp were trying to dispel the historians before them. These other historical writings contained negative views of Republicans in Congress and their measures pertaining to Reconstruction. Some biographical data will appear in order to see how their opinions come across in the books. .
Kenneth Milton Stampp was born and raised in Milwaukee. He works as a Professor of American History at the University of California. His education consists of Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. Stampp taught at the Universities of Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Maryland before he settled down at the University of California in 1946. While at Wisconsin, he was a President Adams Fellow in History. .
The Reconstruction period had a lot of issues to settle. These issues were rebuilding the south, readmitting the southern states to the Union, and racial equality. Problems like these led to chaos in nearly every direction. In my opinion, you had too many problems to try to solve in too little time. There were also too many people you had to deal with. Let me give you a example of this: The Union wanted equal rights for African Americans, but a lot of the southern states passed Black Codes. These codes were as close to slavery as they could get. Stampp is an expert in Civil War history and is the .
author of Indiana Politics during the Civil War, And the War Came, and The Peculiar Institution. He edited The Causes of the Civil War and was co-author of The American Experience.