#philip dray

[deadpresidents]

Hello! Did you by any chance read Brenda Wineapple's The Impeachers? If so, did you like it? I am not very well-versed in this 'immediately after Lincoln's assassination' period of time, but I've recently watched Apple TV's Manhunt and, well, I want to know more. Either way, I hope you have a wonderful day!

All of Brenda Wineapple's books are excellent, and The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) is no exception. I'd definitely recommend it.

A few other recommendations focusing on that time period you're speaking of are:

•Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by David O. Stewart [2009]

•High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson by Gene Smith [1976]

•Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant: Their Epic Battle (BOOK | KINDLE) by Garry Boulard [2022]

Those are all more focused on Andrew Johnson's chaotic succession to the Presidency following Lincoln's assassination, his impeachment, and the Senate trial which very nearly removed him from office. If Apple TV's "Manhunt" is what piqued your interest, I'd definitely suggest the two books that directly inspired the series:

•Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by James L. Swanson [2006]

•Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by James L. Swanson [2010]

Of course, one of the main characters in "Manhunt" is Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, played by Tobias Menzies. I'm still bothered that he didn't have a beard in the series since Stanton had one of the great beards of the 19th Century, but you can do a deep dive into Stanton's life (he also wasn't a detective/borderline action hero as portrayed in the series) along with some of the other figures of that early Reconstruction era who were characters in "Manhunt":

•Stanton: Lincoln's War Secretary (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Walter Stahr [2017]

•Lincoln's Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stanton (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by William Marvel [2016]

•American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Michael W. Kauffman [2004]

•Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen by Philip Dray [2008] -- A great book about the nearly two dozen often-overlooked (and sometimes completely forgotten) Black men elected to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from the Deep South during Reconstruction. This is a group of figures from American history desperately in need of a Ken Burns-style documentary.

[weil-weil-lautre]

The resurgence of union activity brought new focus to such basic questions as how organized labor would confront racial disparity within its ranks, and whether trade or industrial unions offered the best means of flexing workers' power. The Community Party had made the organizing of black workers a priority early on, much as it had the unemployed. Perceiving African Americans as a nation within a nation, the most abused sufferers of class prejudice who, when liberated, would help spur society's transformation, Communist organizers reached out to black locals in Northern industrial cities such as Detroit but also ventured bravely into the Deep South, a region historically inimical to labor organizing. They formed Unemployed Councils and staged protests in Birmingham, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and other cities and towns, in addition to publishing a regional party news sheet called 'The Southern Worker.' Biracial demonstrations initiated by the party in the heart of the former Confederacy were almost suicidal in their audacity, angering local whites and bringing about numerous attacks on labor organizers - at least two were killed in Florida - as well as an overnight resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. Meanwhile the Communist-allied International Labor Defense distinguished itself by taking on a number of high-profile legal lynching cases including, most famously, the defense of the Scottsboro Boys, a group of young black men wrongly accused of raping two white women aboard a freight train in Alabama in 1931. In 1935 the party was instrumental in the creation of the National Negro Congress, which sought the easing of the effects of unemployment and an end to Jim Crow segregation.

Philip Dray, There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America, 440

[hmhbooks]

8. CAPITOL MEN: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen by Philip Dray

Reconstruction was a time of idealism and sweeping change, as the victorious Union created citizenship rights for the freed slaves and granted the vote to black men. Sixteen black Southerners, elected to the U.S. Congress, arrived in Washington to advocate reforms such as public education, equal rights, land distribution, and the suppression of the Ku Klux Klan. In a grand narrative that traces the promising yet tragic arc of Reconstruction, Philip Dray follows these black representatives’ struggles, from the Emancipation Proclamation to the onset of Jim Crow, as they fought for social justice and helped realize the promise of a new nation.

Check out all our Black History Month recommendations

[bigtickhk]

How Hunting Became a Macho Sport

“The Fair Chase,” Philip Dray’s illuminating history, recounts the evolution of American hunting from frontier vocation to competitive pastime.

The Fair Chase: The Epic Story of Hunting in America by Philip Dray https://amzn.to/2MZKPoo

[brigdh]

Reading Wednesday

Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen by Philip Dray. I have such mixed feelings on this book. On the one hand, it's not that well written. Oh, it's not awful. But it reads like a high school textbook rather than narrative nonfiction; Dray doesn't pick a person, a topic, or a series of events to provide a guide-line through his book, but just gives a general summary of stuff that happened at vaguely the same time and vaguely the same place. Even his subtitle is inaccurate: of the seven black congressmen on the cover, two of them are mentioned literally once in the entire book, and that's during the preface when he's describing the cover. None of them get the sort of birth-to-death detail that you'd expect from a title with "through the lives". Instead the book is dominated by people such as President Grant, Frederick Douglass, Adelbert Ames (a white man, the Reconstruction governor of Mississippi), P.B.S. Pinchback (a black man, briefly governor of Louisiana), Robert Smalls (also a black congressman, but for some reason not included in the group on the cover), and Benjamin Tillman (a white supremacist who pioneered many of the tactics of what became Jim Crow). All of whom are certainly important figures during Reconstruction! But you know, if you're going to write narrative nonfiction, you need to be more selective than "everyone who did something important".

On the other hand, Dray's topic is so fascinating that it almost doesn't matter how he presents it. I mean, I know about Reconstruction, right? I am reasonably well-educated American. And yet this book was constantly shocking me. Did you know, for example, that in the South Carolina gubernatorial election of 1876, the Democrats were so determined to reclaim the state for white supremacy that they committed blatant election fraud ranging from merely stuffing ballot boxes to disrupting Republican campaigning efforts with paramilitary groups to the outright massacre of six black voters? Despite all of these efforts, the election was close enough that both parties declared themselves the winners. They both celebrated their own inaugurations, set up their own legislatures, and began to govern. President Grant sent a small delegation of federal troops to support the Republicans (who, you know, were not bragging about how they had broken election law), but that move proved so unpopular in both South Carolina and the North (it was seen as an "intervention of the military authority", which, like, I'M PRETTY SURE THE MILITARY IS SUPPOSED TO INTERVENE IF SOMEONE VIOLENTLY STEALS AN ELECTION) that the troops were eventually withdrawn and the Democratic candidate seized control.

And this was not an unusual event! There is account after account in this book of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan literally kicking elected officials out of their offices with violence and death threats and claiming them for themselves. Sheriffs, postmasters, mayors – no government position was too big or too small. And the federal government just... allowed this to happen! Or did you know that there was a federal law, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, that made segregation on public transportation and in public accommodations (such as hotels and restaurants) illegal? It was overturned by the Supreme Court a mere eight years later, but seriously! Many of the exact same rights that were fought for in the 1950s and 60s had been already won, but then were erased and forgotten. I don't know. This book just made me flail and splutter. I'm not entirely sure I recommend it, but I do wish the information in it was more widely known.

On an entirely different note, I also read Mated to the Meerkat by Lia Silver. A short romantic comedy about animal shifters (that is, sort of like werewolves but not wolves), Hollywood paparazzi, evil lawyers, and unusual foods. This book made me laugh out loud so many times; I want to post all my favorite lines, but unfortunately they mostly involve spoilers. Wait, here's one:

His brother Alex picked up the phone on the first ring. “Where are you? You haven’t called in days! What’s going on? The entire clan wants to know what’s up with you, Chance! It’s been fourteen hours since you updated your Instagram.”

Come on, that is hilarious. I think the book might work better if you're at least vaguely familiar with the paranormal romance genre, but even if you're not, you should read this. It absolutely made my day.

(I also posted this on LJ, if you’d rather comment there.)

[nprfreshair]

"At one time, a lot of people who weren't in unions were nonetheless grateful to them because people understood that the unions had fought for everything they had attained, whether it was the eight-hour day or fire escapes on factory buildings. So I'm sad to see that development. At the same time, I think it's duplicitous to resent generous pension or health benefits that public service workers have attained because a lot of these things were negotiated in good faith and a lot of people gave up short-term wages because they were promised generous benefits and retirement. So in a way, it's sad to see this resentment."

Public historian Philip Dray says shrinking union numbers have changed the way people perceive unions in America. 

[nprfreshair]

Public historian Philip Dray puts the Wisconsin union battles in a historical context on today's show: "Presidents historically had been somewhat hostile to unions but no one had ever decimated a union completely like that. What Reagan accomplished in response to the air traffic controllers' picketing was to end the taboo associated with crossing a picket line."