Reconstruction's Ragged Edge: The Politics of Postwar Life in the Southern Mountains

by Steven E. Nash

Overview

In this illuminating study, Steven E. Nash chronicles the history of Reconstruction as it unfolded in the mountains of western North Carolina. Nash presents a complex story of the region's grappling with the war's aftermath, examining the persistent wartime loyalties that informed bitter power struggles between factions of white mountaineers determined to rule. For a brief period, an influx of federal governmental power enabled white anti-Confederates to ally with former slaves in order to lift the Republican Party to power locally and in the state as a whole. Republican success led to a violent response from a transformed class of elites, however, who claimed legitimacy from the antebellum period while pushing for greater integration into the market-oriented New South.

Focusing on a region that is still underrepresented in the Reconstruction historiography, Nash illuminates the diversity and complexity of Appalachian political and economic machinations, while bringing to light the broad and complicated issues the era posed to the South and the nation as a whole.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469645544
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/01/2018
Series:	Civil War America
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	669,968
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Steven E. Nash is assistant professor of history at East Tennessee State University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In his compelling book, Steven E. Nash explores the rich complexity of western North Carolina's Reconstruction politics, offering new insights and evidence while challenging—and correcting—previous historical misconceptions about the unfolding of Reconstruction in the mountain South.—Aaron Astor, Maryville College



This deeply researched study challenges our traditional understanding of Reconstruction. Steven E. Nash demonstrates that a biracial, class-based political alliance was possible in the Appalachian highlands and that the elite could only return to power through economic coercion and violence. An insightful and impressive work.—Gordon McKinney, Berea College

Editorial Reviews

Deeply researched and engagingly written, Reconstruction's Ragged Edge provides new insight into a complex and tumultuous past and can be warmly welcomed as further evidence of the upland region's escape from the margins of southern historiography.—Journal of American History



[An] excellent study of Reconstruction in western North Carolina. Highly recommended.—Choice



A very effective study that does more than just fill in one of the blank spaces on the map of Reconstruction historiography in the South. It provides an interesting and instructive story on its own terms, but also gives us a useful comparison to other regions across the South.—Reviews in History



Deconstructs post-Civil War mountain politics. . . . [and] shows how the bitter clash took a long time to truly wind down.—Jon Elliston, WNC Magazine



Written in an accessible style, thoroughly researched, and well argued. . . . Will be of interest to students of national and state Reconstruction efforts, Appalachian studies, and Civil War-era politics.—Journal of the Civil War Era



Smart, well-researched, and well-written. . . . Indispensable not only for the study of North Carolina but the whole South in the war's aftermath.—H-Net



Nash does a splendid job of showing how local experience was key in western North Carolina's Reconstruction years. . . . A story worth understanding in this place and many more across the South.—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

From the Publisher