What happened after the end of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's death? Reconstruction: The Rebuilding of the United States After the Civil War examines these questions while studying the similarities and differences between then and now. Reconstruction was a period of intense change in the United States, when the South struggled to rebuild both its infrastructure and its populace while integrating more than 4 billion newly freed slaves into daily life. Through critical thinking exercises, essential questions, and links to online resources, readers ages 12 to 15 discover a world that might seem centuries away but still has lessons to offer.