Gendered Strife and Confusion: The Political Culture of Reconstruction

by Laura F. Edwards

Exploring the gendered dimension of political conflicts, Laura Edwards links post-Civil War transformations in private and public life. She illustrates how ideas about men's and women's roles within households shaped the ways groups of southerners - elite and poor, white and black, Democrat and Republican - envisioned the public arena and their own places in it. By using those on the margins to define the center, Edwards demonstrates that Reconstruction was a complicated process of conflict and negotiation that lasted beyond 1877 and involved all southerners and every aspect of life.

Genres: American History, History, Read For School

378 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Laura Edwards is a professor of history at Duke University, where she teaches courses on women, gender, and law. Her research focuses on the same issues, with a particular emphasis on the nineteenth-century U.S. South.

Reviews

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, well documented arguments. A dense read.