Freedoms Gained and Lost - (Reconstructing America) by Adam H Domby & Simon Lewis

About the Book

"The essays gathered in this volume derive from a conference convened in Charleston, South Carolina, in March 2018 by the program in the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW)."

Book Synopsis

Reconstruction is one of the most complex, overlooked, and misunderstood periods of American history. The thirteen essays in this volume address the multiple struggles to make good on President Abraham Lincoln's promise of a "new birth of freedom" in the years following the Civil War, as well as the counter-efforts including historiographical ones-to undermine those struggles. The forms these struggles took varied enormously, extended geographically beyond the former Confederacy, influenced political and racial thought internationally, and remain open to contestation even today. The fight to establish and maintain meaningful freedoms for America's Black population led to the apparently concrete and permanent legal form of the three key Reconstruction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the revised state constitutions, but almost all of the latter were overturned by the end of the century, and even the former are not necessarily out of jeopardy. And it was not just the formerly enslaved who were gaining and losing freedoms. Struggles over freedom, citizenship, and rights can be seen in a variety of venues. At times, gaining one freedom might endanger another. How we remember Reconstruction and what we do with that memory continues to influence politics, especially the politics of race, in the contemporary United States. Offering analysis of educational and professional expansion, legal history, armed resistance, the fate of Black soldiers, international diplomacy post-1865 and much more, the essays collected here draw attention to some of the vital achievements of the Reconstruction period while reminding us that freedoms can be won, but they can also be lost.

Review Quotes

. . . Freedoms Gained and Lost provides a valuable synthesis of the current state of Reconstruction studies. Written with our current moment in mind, the collection will serve as a useful tool for graduate students, journalists, and general readers interested in learning more about Reconstruction and its legacies. As we continue to struggle with our own "Third Reconstruction" moment, such a public-facing effort should be applauded.-- "Journal of the Civil War Era"

. . . Freedoms Gained and Lost provides a valuable synthesis of the current state of Reconstruction studies. Written with our current moment in mind, the collection will serve as a useful tool for graduate students, journalists, and general readers interested in learning more about Reconstruction and its legacies. As we continue to struggle with our own "Third Reconstruction" moment, such a public-facing effort should be applauded.-- "Journal of the Civil War Era"

. . . [C]ontributing authors explore the nature of conservatism, the politics of public memory, and the value and permanence of digital resource platforms. The result is a very good book, the type that should bewelcomed by any baccalaureate or graduate programs in history. Highly recommended.-- "Choice Reviews"

The articles in this collection illustrate how a wide range of different methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks can generate many essential insights into the complex history of Reconstruction. . . these essays offer a vital and engaging contribution to this ongoing work.-- "Journal of Southern History"

Freedoms Gained and Lost is a splendid and timely collection of thought-provoking essays on a wide range of issues surrounding Reconstruction in America. These well-written and thoroughly researched essays exemplify the latest advances in the scholarship of Reconstruction and together make a profound contribution to the field.---Aaron Astor, author of Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri, 1860-1872.

About the Author

Adam H. Domby (Edited By)
Adam Domby is an Associate Professor of History at Auburn University, having previously worked at the College of Charleston. He is the author of The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory. In 2018, he won the John T. Hubble Prize for the best article in Civil War History. He received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Simon Lewis (Edited By)
Simon Lewis has been teaching African and Third World Literature at the College of Charleston since 1996. A former long-time director of the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) program at the College, Dr. Lewis is the coeditor of three volumes of essays in USC Press's Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World series: The Fruits of Exile: Central European Intellectual Immigration to America in the Age of Fascism, Ambiguous Anniversary: The Bicentennial of the International Slave Trade Bans, and The Civil War as Global Conflict: Transnational Meanings of the American Civil War. He is also the author of two monographs on African literature and numerous refereed articles primarily on South African writers. He was recognized in 2021 with a Governor's Award in the Humanities from South Carolina.