Second Founding: New York City, Reconstruction, and the Making of American Democracy

Reconstruction is so often taught and remembered as something Southern; New York in this era is usually thought of in terms of Northern industrialization and Gilded Age values. What David Quigley does is nothing less than force us to rethink this entire period of American history and see New York as the center of our modern political order. Essential reading--this is a book that will eventually reshape the way this period is taught.

We naturally associate the Mason-Dixon line with the obvious divisions of ideology, and yet the case of none other than New York City is not so simple. This history of New York during the Civil War and Reconstruction shows a side we easily forget, from the infamous Draft riots to the age of Tilden and the end of reconstruction. In fact the struggle for racial tolerance nearly failed as the tide of Reconstruction past and the anti-democratic elites of the Gilded Age created the status quo that endured until the twentieth century.

Dr. Quigley launches his first work as if he were a veteran. Second Founding relays insight into the reconstruction of this country that is often overlooked and most times forgotten. However, the decisions made in the decade following the Civil War still maintain a powerful presence to this day. Quigley offers some very original insight into the events of New York City and how they ran parallel with and often shaped and formed the political events of the rest of the country. After reading this book, no one can question the reality of New York's leadership in national politics then and now. This book reads as smooth as a novel with the depth of a textbook. A must read!

I'd read Quigley & Gellman's JIM CROW NEW YORK and liked it. This book builds off of the last sections of that book and tells the New York side of the civil war and reconstruction. Quigley does a good job explaining the city's ugly racial history by looking at the years after the draft riots. I really liked the chapter on election day in 1870 and the way federal troops were deployed. The final section on Grant's tomb makes you think about how reconstyruction continued, or maybe continues.