ABSTRACT
Although there is an academic consensus that Eric Foner's Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 is an unrivaled revisionist analysis of the period, certain historians have criticized aspects of the book. She points out that Reconstruction radically transformed the entire country. Foner has never responded directly to Perman's minor criticism that Reconstruction does not put forward a clear hierarchy of reasons why Reconstruction failed. Historians in revisionist tradition continue to shed light on the details of different aspects of Civil War and Reconstruction-era history. Steven Hahn's A Nation under Our Feet details the evolution of nineteenth-century black political participation following the mass migration of African Americans from the South to the North. Heather Cox Richardson's West from Appomattox emphasizes the importance of westward expansion during the period of Reconstruction. While all of these historical revisionist accounts have enhanced our understanding of one of the most complex and controversial periods in American history, Foner’s Reconstruction is widely regarded as most significant contribution.
