Black Reconstruction in America is a book by W. E. B. Du Bois, first published in 1935. It is revisionist approach to looking at the Reconstruction of the south after its defeat in the American civil war

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. On the whole, the book takes a Marxist approach to looking at reconstruction. The essential argument of the text is that the Black and White laborers, who are the proletariat

Proletariat

The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...

, were divided after the civil war on the lines of race, and as such were unable to stand together against the white propertied class, the bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie

In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

. This to Du Bois was the failure of reconstruction and the reason for the rise of the Jim Crow laws

Jim Crow laws

The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...

, and other such injustices.

In addition to creating a landmark work in early U.S. Marxist sociology, at the time Dubois’ historical scholarship and use of the techniques of primary source data research on the post war political economy of the former Confederate States’ were equally ground breaking. He performed the first systematic and rigorous analysis of the political economy of the reconstruction period of the southern states; based upon actual data collected during period. In chapter five, Du Bois argues that the decision by slaves on the southern plantations to stop working was an example of a General Strike

General strike

A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...

. This type of Marxist rhetoric is in concert with his arguments throughout the book that the Civil War was largely a war fought over labor issues.

This research completely disestablished the anecdotal, racist bromides which had come to form the basis of the so-called “scholarship” of the reconstruction period. Dubois’ research discredited forever the notion that the post-emancipation and post-Appomattox south had degenerated into either economic or political chaos, and had been kept in a state of chaos by the armed forces of the Union, through their military occupation.

On the contrary, the reconstruction state governments had for example, established their states’ first, universal primary education systems. They did this because the reconstruction state constitutions (which they had written) had, for the first time, established as a right, the free public primary schooling of their states’ children. These governments had also been the first to establish public health departments to promote public health and sanitation, and to combat the spread of epidemic disease that is inherent in the semi-tropical climate of the south.

And when the redeemer government’s seized power in later years and re-wrote these states’ constitutions to reestablish “race law” and the Jim-Crow system, they did not touch the education and public health and welfare laws and constitutional principles that the reconstruction governments had established.

Critical reception

The work was not well received by critics and historians at the time. One major point of contention was Du Bois' critique of the way contemporary historians wrote about the role of former slaves during Reconstruction. Du Bois lists a number of books and writers that he felt were misrepresenting the Reconstruction period, and specifically highlights what he felt were particularly racist or ill informed works. Du Bois felt that certain historians were overly concerned with maintaining the "southern white fairytale" instead of accurately chronicling the events and key figures of Reconstruction.

Reconstruction and Its Benefits

Du Bois's first essay on the topic was Reconstruction and Its Benefits delivered before the American Historical Association

American Historical Association

The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...

 on 30 December 1909 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Du Bois was at that time a professor at Atlanta University, and was sent the money to come to New York by his former teacher Albert Bushnell Hart

Albert Bushnell Hart

Albert Bushnell Hart, Ph.D. , was an American historian, writer, and teacher. One of the first generation of professionally trained historians in the United States, a prolific author and editor of historical works, Albert Bushnell Hart became, as Samuel Eliot Morison described him, "The Grand Old...

. William Archibald Dunning

William Archibald Dunning

William Archibald Dunning was an American historian who founded the Dunning School of Reconstruction historiography at Columbia University, where he had graduated in 1881. Between 1886 and 1903 he taught history at Columbia, and was named a professor in 1904. Born in Plainfield, N...

, leader of the Dunningites

Dunning School

The Dunning School refers to a group of historians who shared a historiographical school of thought regarding the Reconstruction period of American history .-About:...

 was present at the presentation and spoke of the paper in high terms. The paper was published in the July 1910 issue of The American Historical Review

American Historical Review

The American Historical Review is the official publication of the American Historical Association, established in 1895 "for the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts, and the dissemination of historical research." It targets readers...

, but had little impact. The overwhelming viewpoint presented by James Pike in The Prostrate State, (1878), was that there had been no benefits from reconstruction. The denigration of African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 involvement in the Reconstruction was also evident in Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

's Division and Reunion, 1829 - 1889, (1893), and James Ford Rhodes

James Ford Rhodes

James Ford Rhodes , was an American industrialist and historian born in Cleveland, Ohio.He attended New York University beginning in 1865. He also attended the Collège de France. During his studies in Europe he visited ironworks and steelworks...

' History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, (1906). Various Dunningite tracts emerged from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 such as James Garner

James Garner

James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...

's Reconstruction in Mississippi (1901), Walter Lynwood Fleming

Walter Lynwood Fleming

Walter Lynwood Fleming was an American historian of the South and Reconstruction. He was a leader of the Dunning School of scholars which rewrote Reconstruction history using modern historiographical techniques in the early 20th century, but was later criticized by neoabolitionist historians for...

's Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (1905), and Thomas Staples' Reconstruction in Arkansas, 1862-1874 (1923). Until now DuBois' assertion that Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

, which President Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

  had earlier attended and received his doctorate, were the two major centers where publications with such views were produced, has yet to have any impact even among those who celebrate him as a founder of the social sciences in general, the social sciences from a black, Africa, or Pan-African perspective, and of whiteness studies

Whiteness studies

Whiteness studies is an interdisciplinary arena of academic inquiry focused on the cultural, historical and sociological aspects of people identified as white, and the social construction of whiteness as an ideology tied to social status...

.
ISBN 0684856573