Teaching Emancipation and Reconstruction, 1861-1876 (Teaching Critical Themes in American History, 5)

Historians argue that the years following the Emancipation Proclamation and those immediately after the Civil War were formative years in the trajectory of the United States as a country. So, why then, does this era of history not get the proper attention it deserves in survey classes across the nation? Why does the Civil War overshadow Reconstruction? The contributors of this volume would collectively argue that there are scant resources known to educators and typically teachers do not feel comfortable diving into the subject without proper content knowledge. This book hopes to provide an entry to the subject and spur ideas on where teachers may lead discussions about this import era of history. The authors ask questions about Reconstruction that allow students opportunities to dive deeply into themes of the era. Overall, they aim to extend the nuances of the historiography by exploring related disciplines, issues of race, gender, politics, and historical memory.