How the South won the Civil War : : Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / 19th Century / Richardson, Heather Cox	4-week checkout	On Hold Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	306.209 Ri	4-week checkout	Due 05-03-2024

The roots of paradox -- The triumph of equality -- The West -- Cowboy Reconstruction -- Western politics -- The West and the South join forces -- The rise of the new West -- Oligarchy rides again -- Conclusion: What then is this American?
"While in the short term--militarily--the North won the Civil War, in the long term--ideologically--victory went to the South. The continual expansion of the Western frontier allowed a Southern oligarchic ideology to find a new home and take root. Even with the abolition of slavery and the equalizing power of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and the ostensible equalizing of economic opportunity afforded by Western expansion, anti-democratic practices were deeply embedded in the country's foundations, in which the rhetoric of equality struggled against the power of money. As the settlers from the East pushed into the West, so too did all of its hierarchies, reinforced by the seizure of Mexican lands at the end of the Mexican-American War and violence toward Native Americans. Both the South and the West depended on extractive industries--cotton in the former and mining and oil in the latter--giving rise to the creation of a white business elite"-- Provided by publisher.

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Recommend highly submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on June 12, 2021, 9:31pm One of the most phenomenally readable history books *I’ve* ever dug into, this book covers the expansive time from the early 1600’s right up to now (2020). It follows themes with great depth, though obviously does not dig into events deeply. But that’s the point of the book… to see how events are connected. Often we learn about history as if it is a series of separate events, when in reality, it is an ever-moving and always reacting flow. Richardson traces the flow, and does it brilliantly. Events I already knew about have come into greater focus when given historical and cultural context I was never aware of.

Written for lay people and easy to read, packed with information, and utterly necessary to understand the country we live in, I recommend this highly.