Author: Patrick Young
Eric Foner on the Impact of the Dunning School on the Understanding of Reconstruction: Videos
Historian Eric Foner’s course on Reconstruction was videoed a few years ago and posted on-line. These segments look at the influence of the Dunning School…
William Dunning Explains the Restoration of Peace (and White Supremacy) in 1877 When Reconstruction Collapsed
This is the final installment of a four-part series on historian William Dunning. While the recent rise of the so-called Alt-Right has been a sad…
Reading William Dunning, Founder of the Dunning School: A Deep Dive Into Scholarly Supremacism
While William Dunning is often discussed in Reconstruction Era Studies, he is little read today except by academic historians and Neo-Confederates. I think that it…
Who the Hell Is William Dunning? The Man Behind the Distortion of Reconstruction
During the first half of the 20th Century William Dunning of Columbia University was the seminal figure in the study of the Reconstruction Era. Dunning,…
Why Your Teacher Told You Lies About Reconstruction: William Dunning & the Miseducation of America
William Dunning was the Columbia University professor credited with creating the academic school that established the scholarly attack on Radical Republican Reconstruction policies. Dunning is…
Podcast: Eric Foner Interviewed on Reconstruction
Here is an interesting podcast of an interview with Eric Foner, the preeminent living scholar of Reconstruction. The sound quality is only OK and the…
When Southern Whites Boycotted and Blacks Embraced the Fourth of July During Reconstruction
Many Americans are familiar, at least with the title, with Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” What they…
Kevin Levin Tells the Real Story of the Black Men Confederates Brought to Gettysburg (They were slaves, not “Black Confederates”)
One of the more troubling manifestations of modern Civil War memory is the development of the Black Confederate Myth. Kevin Levin has an interesting article…
Miscegenation Waltz: Fined $50 for Marrying a Black Woman July 1866
Before most Southern states began rebuilding their damaged infrastructure or taking care of their crippled veterans right after the Civil War, their legislatures busied themselves…
Podcast Reenactment of Frederick Douglass “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” With David Blight
Here is a neat podcast re-enactment of Frederick Douglass’s famous speech “What to the Slave is the 4th of July” delivered in Rochester, NY in…