| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 251 words from this article are provided below; about 695 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Carl H. Moneyhon. Texas after the Civil War: The Struggle of Reconstruction. (Texas A&M Southwestern Studies, number 14.) College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 2004. Pp. 237. Cloth $45.00, paper $19.95.

Synthesizing a large and complex body of scholarship, Carl H. Moneyhon has produced the first comprehensive explanation of the political turmoil in the Lone Star State from 1869 to 1873 since Charles W. Ramsdell's Reconstruction in Texas (1910), the Dunning-school target of revisionist and neo-revisionist history for over fifty years. Relying on newspapers, provost marshal records, private papers, speeches, and proclamations, the book seeks to explain why Reconstruction failed to live up to the expectations of the Republicans who took hold of the reins of Texas government in early 1869. Moneyhon maintains that this strife-ridden period was not one simply of corruption, irresponsible government, and tyranny, as Ramsdell and those of his generation maintained. Rather, the biracial Republican coalition made a good start toward much-needed social, economic, and political reforms before the Democrat "Redeemers" returned to power fully in 1874, thanks to resurgent white voting, reactionary violence targeting freedmen and Unionists, and the staying power of the antebellum economic and social structure. The book thus adheres to the contours of mainstream revisionist historiography dedicated to a sympathetic understanding of black and white Republicans—and to a Texas-style neo-revisionism postulating that the primary cause of Reconstruction's demise lay in the distinctiveness of Texas as a trans-Mississippi frontier state not devastated by war.

. . .

There are about 695 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.