Book Club: The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age

The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age by Richard White

## Book

The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896
by Richard White

A volume in the Oxford University Press' series, *Oxford History of the United States*

### Summary

From the publisher's summary:

> At the end of the Civil War the leaders and citizens of the victorious North envisioned the country's future as a free-labor republic, with a homogenous citizenry, both black and white. The South and West were to be reconstructed in the image of the North. Thirty years later Americans occupied an unimagined world. The unity that the Civil War supposedly secured had proved ephemeral. The country was larger, richer, and more extensive, but also more diverse. Life spans were shorter, and physical well-being had diminished, due to disease and hazardous working conditions. Independent producers had become wage earners. The country was Catholic and Jewish as well as Protestant, and increasingly urban and industrial. The "dangerous" classes of the very rich and poor expanded, and deep differences-ethnic, racial, religious, economic, and political-divided society. The corruption that gave the Gilded Age its name was pervasive.
>
> These challenges also brought vigorous efforts to secure economic, moral, and cultural reforms. Real change-technological, cultural, and political-proliferated from below more than emerging from political leadership. Americans, mining their own traditions and borrowing ideas, produced creative possibilities for overcoming the crises that threatened their country.
>
>

### Author

Richard White is Professor Emeritus of American History at Stanford University, "specializing in the American West, the history of capitalism, environmental history, history and memory, and Native American history."

## Episodes

Episodes of the stream by chapters of the book covered

### Chapters 1-3

* Wednesday 12/16/2020, CozyCore: Omega Squadron at 26:54.

### Chapters 4-8

* Wednesday 12/30/2020, Return of the Snacc
* Thursday 12/31/2020, Flossing Towards Bethlehem

### Chapters 9-12

* Wednesday 01/06/2021, The Andy Capp Putsch.

### Chapters 19-23

* Wednesday 01/20/2021, Hail to the Chimp II: Still Chimpin’

## Origin of the Book Club

In the Gluten-Free Officers Movement episode at 51:35 Matt expressed interest in starting an informal book club on the history of the Reconstruction, in service of his larger goal of writing a counterfactual alternative history of the era.

On the SOLVING THE LAMENT CONFIGURATION ON STREAM LETS GOOOOOOO! episode at 04:14 Christman said:

> By the way guys and gals, it came. *"The Republic for Which It Stands"*, the first book in my planned reading festival to prepare for doing something with the concept of an un-assassinated Lincoln. I'm gonna start reading this, and I thought it would be fun to just as a project for myself and for anyone who wants to follow along to do a little mini book club where I'll just kind of talk about what I read that week. So next Wednesday – and I'll put this on Twitter and stuff – I'll probably read the first three chapters of this and talk about them. Not very long, probably; I'm not gonna do, like, the whole show. But, you know, I'll just probably do like a 10 minute thing at some point. I did it, I bought the book. I bought it.
>
> Oh, right… The book is *"The Republic for Which It Stands"* by Richard White. I first heard about Richard White, honestly, at least this book… I mean he's written some other good ones. I first heard of this book when he was interviewed on Patrick Wyman's podcast, Tides of History, which is very good. I trust Patrick a lot. He sounded really good in the interview, so we're gonna start there.
>
>

## See also

Book Recommendations

Eric Foner's Reconstruction Book Club

Gluten-Free Officers Movement

## External Links

* The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Stanford's Professor Richard White *Tides of History* podcast, S3 E6, 05/02/2019
* The Republic for Which It Stands, IndieBound, independent booksellers listing, paperback edition

## References

1. ↑ Oxford University Press, publications
2. ↑ Stanford University, Department of History, faculty
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/KennethMartin7/status/1337084355349422080
4. ↑ Return of the Snacc, 42:42