Reading about Reconstruction

Please consider participating in this reading club event

Sincerely, 

Dan Matthews

 To: oconee@yahoogroups.com
 From: ppriest@charter.net
 Date: Thu, 12 May 2011 14:47:39 -0400
 Subject: [oconee] Reading about Reconstruction

 Here's the information below about the community book group's final,
 wonderful book in a series of books we've read this year to commemorate
 the 150th anniversary of the Civil War's inception. (After this, we're
 reading a couple of books about nature, including the well-regarded
 "Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate  Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity" by James Hansen.)

 This month we're reading "A Short History of Reconstruction." We think
 times are hard and discouraging now! People working for the poor and for
 African-Americans had a brief window for change, but many forces worked
 against them.

 We're meeting these days at Barbaritos on Epps Bridge Parkway at 7 PM.
 Any earlier, and it's too busy and loud in there!

 Please see the press release below for more information on this
 interesting book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Eric Foner.

 Sincerely,

 Pat Priest
 Member,
 Oconee Democrats

 -------------
 May 25
 7 PM
 Barberitos
 1880 Epps Bridge Parkway


 The community book group sponsored by the Oconee Democrats will discuss
 historian Eric Foner's "A Short History of Reconstruction" for its May
 book. The New Republic described Foner's scholarship on Reconstruction
 as "history written on a grand scale, a masterful treatment of one of
 the most complex periods of American history."

 The book is an abridged version of "
Reconstruction: America's Unfinished RevolutionReconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877," which won a host of awards, including the Bancroft Prize
 and the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

 Foner teaches history at Columbia University, where his expertise also
 encompasses the Civil War and the Republican party's early history. He
 has won awards for his teaching and for his writing; his most recent
 book, "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery," won the
 Pulitzer Prize and other awards.

 "A Short History of Reconstruction" is about the turbulent period after
 the Civil War when the south was in ruins and many newly freed slaves
 hoped to live with new dignity and economic freedom. "Radical"
 Republicans wrestled with President Andrew Johnson, who was often very
 lenient toward white governors and others striving to reinstate severe
 restrictions on black Americans.

 Foner has co-curated award-winning exhibits about the Civil War and
 Reconstruction at history museums around the country. He helped revise
 the Hall of Presidents at Disney's Magic Kingdom and the Lincoln exhibit
 at Disneyland and has assisted the National Park Service in shaping
 displays at various historic sites.

 Foner's father, Jack, was a historian who taught at City College in New
 York before he was blacklisted for his support of anti-fascists in
 Spain and his promotion of civil rights for African-Americans. Later, in
 1941, he received an apology from the New York City Board of
 Higher Education. His father gave history lectures to support the family.

 The book group will meet Wednesday, May 25th, at 7 PM at the Barbaritos
 on Epps Bridge Parkway. Participants do not need to be from Oconee
 County or be Democrats to join the discussion about a period in which
 people trying to help freed slaves and other poor people faced daunting
 opposition.

 For more information, contact patricia.priest@yahoo.com.














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