How Did The Radical Republican s Rise For The Failure Of...

The investigation will explore the question: How did the Radical Republican’s rise to power contribute to the failure of the post-civil war reconstruction? The time between 1863, when Lincoln passed the ten percent act, until the year 1877, when reconstruction was officially ended, will be evaluated with information provided by the sources. The investigation will specifically look to how the Lincoln assassination allowed for the rise in the Radical Republican Party from 1866 to 1868 and the party’s effect on reconstruction acts leading to the failure of the post-civil war reconstruction era. Eric Foner’s novel Reconstruction: America s Unfinished Revolution is largely accepted to be one of the most complete works regarding†¦show more content†¦The novel primarily utilizes a traditional view point. The author views reconstruction in a negative light and as a time when power-hungry Radicals used their political power to punish the south, in contrast to the president’s attempts to revive, instead of change, the South. Foner’s book provided significant information for this investigation. It provides substantial evidence of how the Radical Republicans gained power and their actions thereafter. The novel, with its traditional view of reconstruction, only allowed for a one-sided look of the years 1863-1877, focusing mainly on the Republican views and the Radical Reconstruction. This somewhat limits the extent the novel could be used in evaluating the research question in this investigation. John Hope Franklin’s Reconstruction After the Civil War: Second Edition also assisted in the evaluation of the research question. Franklin earned his master s in 1936 and his doctorate in history in 1941 from Harvard University. In 1995, Franklin was awarded the highest civilian honor by earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Franklin’s educational background qualifies him as a reliable source to reference for this investigation of American history. John Hope Franklin’s work is celebrated as an accurate account of prior slaves’ roles during this era of American history. In this edition Franklin updates his original version with new information and records that came to light after his completion