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American Experience - Reconstruction: The Second Civil War | 
| Studio: PBS Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
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Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 15092
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 175 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 841887050043
EAN: 0841887050043
ASIN: B0006Z2L6U
Release Date: February 8, 2005
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| Editorial Reviews:
Description
Spanning the years from 1863 to 1877, this dramatic mini-series recounts the tumultuous post-Civil War years. America was grappling with rebuilding itself, with bringing the South back into the Union, and with how best to offer citizenship to former slaves. Stories of key political players in Washington are interwoven with those of ordinary people caught up in the turbulent social and political struggles of Reconstruction.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Bottom Rail on Top April 3, 2008
Alfred Johnson (boston, ma)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Back in the days of my personal `pre-history' the Reconstruction period directly after the American Civil War ended in 1865 was cast as the time of the scalawags, carpetbaggers, Black Codes and ultimately after a determined fight by the `right' people in the South `redemption'. In short a time of shame in the American experience and, at least implicitly, a racist slap at blacks and their supporters. Well so much for that nonsense.
There certainly was plenty that went wrong during radical reconstruction in the South but the conventional high school history textbooks never got into the whole story. Nor did they want to. The whole story is that until fairly recently this radical reconstruction period was the most democratic period in the South in American history, for white and black alike. Previously, I have written some book reviews on this subject that led me to this documentary. This documentary goes a long way toward a better visual understanding of what went on in that period.
The first part of the Radical Reconstruction era was dominated by three basic plans that are described here in some detail; the aborted Lincoln `soft' union indivisible efforts; the Johnson `soft' redemption plans; and, the radical Republican `scorched earth' policy toward the South. In the end none of these plans was pursued strongly enough to insure that enhanced black rights gained through legislation would lead to enlightened citizenship. The documentary presents detailed critiques of all these plans and some insights about the social and cultural mores of the country at the time that do not make for a pretty picture.
The producers spend some time trying to demystify what the radical reconstruction governments did and did not do. This is done in the usual `even-handed' approach of PBS documentaries by the use of various individual life stories-a former slave, ex-Yankee officer and a woman plantation owner. That there were scandalous activities and more than enough corrupt politicians to go around goes without saying. However like most myths there is a snowball effect about how bad things really were that obliterates the very real advances for black (and some poor whites) like public education, improved roads and increased state facilities that were anathema to the planting class that formerly ruled the South.
The second part of the documentary deals with the conservative counter-revolution in order to overthrow the radical governments culminating in the well-known Compromise of 1877. The actions of that Southern rabble, rich and poor whites alike, formed in militias and other para-military operations like the Klan is certainly not pretty. Moreover it took about a century and a `cold' civil war during the 1960's to even minimally right that situation (a battle that continues to this day). For those that need an in depth, definitive study of this subject you must turn to the master Eric Foner (who is also one of the `talking heads', another PBS standard practice, on screen) and his monumental Reconstruction, 1863-1877. However, if you want a shorter but nevertheless informative visual overview of Reconstruction this is your first stop.
 Great for Teachers and Others January 26, 2008
Aging Hipstorian (South)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This documentary is a three-hour march through the turbulent years of reconstruction.
It features commentary by prominent post-revisionist historians such as David Blight and Eric Foner. The historians explain the deeper meanings of reconstruction through the film. The movie weaves together five stories: the carpetbagger, two planters, a freedman and a politician. The stories are personal, but also are meshed with the larger events of reconstruction. The film uses still pictures as well as dramatic scenes without dialogue. There is somber background music in parts of the film but not all.
For teachers, this film would work best with students above the ninth grade level. Because of the way the story is written, a teacher could plan a lesson around the entire film, or in showing only segments, which are neatly broken into chapters on the dvd. An added feature of the DVD is a "mini-documentary" that runs at about 45 minutes- good for one class showing...
This is an outstanding documentary, well produced and well written. I highly recommend it.
one of the best documentaries I have seen in the last ten years November 22, 2007
julie jacobs (Berkeley, CA, USA)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
I watched and then had my adult son watch this DVD. We consider ourselves relatively well read in American history and yet this presentation taught us a great deal of incontrovertible fact about a part of American history that is woefully under-treated in American schools and colleges. I was amazed and saddened to learn about this disgraceful period, and to consider how few Americans understand what happened. To the right wing bigots who are criticizing this documentary I can only say: if only ten percent of this history is true, it would still be teaching us an important lesson: we are even more racist historically than we have been taught, and ought to be even more ashamed of what our ancestors did to people of color. It will be a long, long time before I stop considering what this fine documentary says about us.
Reconstruction but not Civil January 11, 2007
Whit Perry
1 out of 11 found this review helpful
This was a pretty good DVD. I don't like the title. The war and reconstruction were anything but civil. It was a war and reconstruction designed to rape the South and put the northern views into the South. It still happens today. This DVD tells some of the atrocities that took place during that time.
 Revisionist claptrap May 29, 2006
Historian (Arlington Heights, IL)
5 out of 41 found this review helpful
And an apology for the single most corrupt period of our entire history. The Constitution was emasculated between 1861 and 1877 and remains a shadow of itself even today. Lincoln's assasination was the beginning of the end for the South? Any "scholar" still enraptured by that myth has been skipping their medication. Lincoln was the despot who let the genie out of the bottle in the first place. There was not a single one of of the 10 Amendments that he did not break. This is just more cultural marxist, revisionist spin. Enough, please.
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