Those Terrible Carpetbaggers: A Reinterpretation

by Richard Nelson Current

Woodrow Wilson described them as men bent on "an expedition of profit," who used "the negroes as tools for their own selfish ends." Horace Greeley, while running for President, denounced them as "fellows who crawled down South in the track of our armies, generally at a very safe distance
in the rear." The South, in turn, hotly condemned them as "the larvae of the North," "vulturous adventurers," and "vile, oily, odious."
Richard Nelson Current's eye-opening study challenges this prevailing image of the men from the North who came to be known as "carpetbaggers." Weaving together biographies of ten of these men, Current--the eminent Civil War historian--offers a provocative revisionist history of the
Reconstruction and what historians have long considered its "most disgraceful" episode. Set within the larger context of congressional politics and the history of individual Southern states, the volume reveals a group of mostly highly-educated men, almost all of whom had served with distinction in
the Union Army (three were generals), and several of whom brought their own money down South to help rebuild a war-torn land.
Current's vividly-told narrative captures the passions of this tumultuous period as he documents the careers and private lives of these ten prominent men. Moreover, he provides a major reinterpretation of the entire Reconstruction era and the effort to establish a biracial democratic
government in the South. This brilliant collective biography will force us to rethink our views of this controversial epoch in American history.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

504 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Called "the dean of Lincoln scholars", Richard Nelson Current earned a B.A. in 1934 from Oberlin College, and M.A. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1935, a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1940. Among the institutions at which Current taught over the course of his career was Rutgers University, Hamilton College, Northern Michigan University, Lawrence University, Mills College, Salisbury State University, the University of Illinois, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Reviews

[Carol Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent book full of painful truths and little known facts about Reconstruction. This is the story Margaret Mitchell doesn't want you to read! Only three stars because the structure is so episodic and there are too many heroes to keep track of in each new chapter.

[Noah Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a great book. It did well with introducing to us prominent carpetbaggers at the time, but is clearly biased and at times, omitted certain facts either purposely or accidentally about certain historical events in the book. A defense of carpetbaggers mostly, it offers very little historical context outside of the 10 handpicked carpetbaggers in this book. A good primer on the figures, but not much else.

[Davi Kushner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an exciting book unless you are interested in the material, which I was. If you are looking for a clear and concise statement of the arguments concerning Reconstruction, this is definitely not the book for you. This is more of a general knowledge type thing which you would consider reading if you already understood the main issues and were interested in fleshing out your knowledge a bit.