Ep. 9: Reconstruction, The Second Founding, and Universal and Equal Rights

Lucas and Luke discuss aspects of the Civil War and Reconstruction, emphasizing the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution (also called the Reconstruction Amendments). How did the Constitution change during Reconstruction, and did it stay the same? Who were the Radical Republicans, and what was the potential of the Reconstruction period? What role did the Supreme Court play in defeating Reconstruction? Resources Eric Foner, “The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution” (2022); Foner, “Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877” (1988); W. E. B. Du Bois, “Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880” (1935); Fawn Brodie, “Thaddeus Stevens: Scourge of the South” (1959); C Van Woodward, “The Strange Career of Jim Crow” (1955); James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988); Daniel Lazare, “The Frozen Republic” (1996); Douglas Egerton, “The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America's Most Progressive Era” (2016); Manisha Sinha, “The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic” (2024).