Loading...
Welcome
Sign up
Login
Browse Books
Deals
VIP
0
Loading...
Play Sample
The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
Written by:
Eric Foner
Narrated by:
Donald Corren
Unabridged Audiobook
Play Free
Add to Cart - $19.99
Remove from Cart
Give as a gift
Ratings
Book
5
Narrator
Release Date
September 2019
Duration
7 hours 31 minutes
Summary
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar, a timely history of the constitutional changes that built equality into the nation's foundation and how those guarantees have been shaken over time. The Declaration of Independence announced equality as an American ideal, but it took the Civil War and the subsequent adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as American law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed all persons due process and equal protection of the law, and equipped black men with the right to vote. They established the principle of birthright citizenship and guaranteed the privileges and immunities of all citizens. The federal government, not the states, was charged with enforcement, reversing the priority of the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In grafting the principle of equality onto the Constitution, these revolutionary changes marked the second founding of the United States. Eric Foner's compact, insightful history traces the arc of these pivotal amendments from their dramatic origins in pre-Civil War mass meetings of African-American 'colored citizens' and in Republican party politics to their virtual nullification in the late nineteenth century. A series of momentous decisions by the Supreme Court narrowed the rights guaranteed in the amendments, while the states actively undermined them. The Jim Crow system was the result. Again today there are serious political challenges to birthright citizenship, voting rights, due process, and equal protection of the law. Like all great works of history, this one informs our understanding of the present as well as the past: knowledge and vigilance are always necessary to secure our basic rights.
Browse By Category
History
>
The Americas
1 book added to cart
The Second Founding: How the Civi...
Eric Foner
Subtotal
$19.99
View Cart
Continue Browsing
~~title~~
~~carousel-body~~
Back
Next
~~book-title~~
By: ~~author-single-string~~
~~tag-text~~
© Copyright 2011 - 2024 Storytel Audiobooks USA LLC. All Rights Reserved.