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Douglas R. Egerton

Biography

Douglas R. Egerton

Douglas R. Egerton is Professor of History at LeMoyne College. He is the author of five books, including HE SHALL GO OUT FREE: The Lives of Denmark Vesey, GABRIEL'S REBELLION: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 & 1802, and DEATH OR LIBERTY: African Americans and Revolutionary America.

Douglas R. Egerton

Books by Douglas R. Egerton

by Douglas R. Egerton - History, Nonfiction

Previous histories of Reconstruction have focused on Washington politics. But here, Douglas Egerton brings a much bigger, even more dramatic story into view, exploring state and local politics and tracing the struggles of some 1,500 African-American officeholders, in both the North and South, who fought entrenched white resistance. Tragically, their movement was met by ruthless violence --- not just riotous mobs, but also targeted assassination. With stark evidence, Egerton shows that Reconstruction, often cast as a “failure” or a doomed experiment, was rolled back by murderous force.

by Douglas R. Egerton - History, Nonfiction, Politics

With a historian’s keen insight and a veteran political reporter’s eye for detail, Douglas R. Egerton re-creates the cascade of unforeseen events that confounded political bosses, set North and South on the road to disunion, and put not Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas but his greatest rival --- dark horse Abraham Lincoln --- in the White House.