| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 104.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Brooks D. Simpson. The Reconstruction Presidents. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 1998. Pp. xi, 276. $35.00.

In this volume, Brooks D. Simpson describes the Reconstruction policies of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes in a concise analytic narrative. Simpson demonstrates a deft gift for analysis of policy making. He clearly and succinctly describes each president's goals, the alternatives available for securing them, and the political and institutional constraints that limited their choices and affected the outcome. He utilizes secondary sources, augmented by a well-chosen selection of primary materials. 1

Simpson is chiefly concerned with the failure of the Reconstruction-era effort to secure equal civil and political rights for African Americans. Was the failure one of personality and policy, or were there deeper forces at work? In the Lincoln and Johnson administrations, the issues were whether the president or Congress would control Reconstruction policy and the civil and political status of African Americans. The chapters on Grant and Hayes concentrate on how each attempted to secure black rights and to establish a viable Republican Party in the South. . . .

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