A sweeping, ground‑level look at how Reconstruction both created the country we live in and sparked the battles that threaten to engulf it 
Far from a fleeting coda to the Civil War, Reconstruction was an era of epochal change. Four million formerly enslaved Black southerners became architects of freedom. They created independent institutions, organized mass political movements, and worked with white allies to drive passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments – the constitutional framework that structures American democracy today. Other Americans, however, mobilized a fierce opposition, turning to corruption and violence to defeat Reconstruction’s promises. 
Downs and Masur ground this engaging and accessible narrative in nine distinct places that reveal Americans’ struggles to deliver freedom, equality, birthright citizenship, and voting rights, including 

• Green‑Meldrim House in Savannah, where Major General William T. Sherman was headquartered and met with local Black leaders 
• The streets of Natchez, Mississippi, where freedpeople celebrated emancipation, and Black communities developed significant political power 
• First African Church in Richmond, a center for Black spiritual life, politics, and community‑building 
• Grant Parish Courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana, site of the massacre of dozens of Black men