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Capitol Men: The Epic Story Of Reconstruction Through The Lives Of The First Black Congressmen (2008)

by Philip Dray(Favorite Author)

4.04 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0618563709 (ISBN13: 9780618563708)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

review 1: Most history books these days advertise themselves as products: ‘The _____ that changed the world/nation,’ or ‘How _____ changed the world/nation.’ Books like this tend to aim broadly distilling the actual event back to obscurity in spite of its claims, and they are often poorly executed and prefer narrative ease over any actual history. Worst yet this sort of book reaffirms the dominant view of historical inquiry as being largely useless. They throw out names, events, and dates so specialized and obscure to seem exhaustive, but the books largely just leave them where they fall. There is an assumption that “the modern world” as the audience lives it, is all the context needed, while a good history-or rather true history ought to extend this narrative to the pre... moresent day and show its relevance. It’s a slight difference. Rather than: ‘how the event created the modern world,’ a better history would be: ‘how the event is creating the modern world.’ I praise this book Capitol Men by Philip Dray for actually doing the latter. In fact this book is more about the present day, than the Reconstruction Period with which it is concerned. One does not have to look very far into the text even to see this. Dray recounts the “masterly inactivity” of the defeated Southern-Democratic party which is perfectly in tune with today’s stalling tactics of GOP congressional leaders. The large “racial solidarity” for Horatio Seymour’s 1868 Presidential Campaign could easily be the 2012 Republican National Convention where placards stated “Put the white back into the White House.” See the voter intimidation tactics that required competency exams at the polls, that read exactly like today’s Voter ID bills passed in GOP legislatures. But, most eerie yet comes from the South Carolinian Winnsboro News that stated regarding the Reconstructed Government of that state: “’This vile, rotten, wicked, corrupt and degrading regime must be reformed or overthrown…We see no practical method of accomplishing it except by some form of revolution.’” For comparisons see Ron Paul’s ideas on “rEVOLution,” Glenn Beck/Rush Limbaugh’s wishing for the country’s failure, or even Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz’ laughable 700ish count “million man march” of 2013 that all have stated much the same thing in our own present. My critique of this book is that it could stand to be longer. There is enough information here to write a full seven biographies on the first black members of Congress, and volumes linking them together. I applaud Dray for having an excellent knack on where and when to stop and where and when to continue on a topic, but certainly more is needed.
review 2: For some reason, most high school (and some college) textbooks jump from the Civil War to the Spanish-American War as if nothing significant happened in the United States in the intervening years. I found this hard to believe. I have been reading over the years and discovered that it can be seriously argued that the South did not surrender, but merely changed tactics in 1865. This book fills in some blanks about the activities of Congress, but seeks to dispell the myth that all was well with the newly freed slaves. There was no "happy ending" after Lee surrendered (not the South) at Appomattox. Before Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Barack Obama there were many Arfican Americans who were dedicated and active in fighting for the rights of full citizenship for America's "darker brother" (Langston Hughes). An excellent read for anyone seriously seeking the truth in American history. less

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