The Ends of the War: American Reconstruction and the Problems of Occupations

FAIN: HB-50224-12

Gregory Patterson Downs
Regents of the University of California, Davis (New York, NY 10016-4309)

This request for 12-month full-time funding supports a book project to rethink American Reconstruction through the lens of occupation. Through close examination of the process and impact of demobilization upon freedpeople and Confederates in the South, as well as upon Indians and settlers in the West, and upon Northern towns and cities, this projects recasts the narrative of Reconstruction, emphasizing its deep inherent limitations. The project traces the roots of its disappointments less to intentional undermining than to powerful, often unconscious drives toward demobilization and budget reduction, as well as confusion about the relationship between democracy and stability. The project also participates in broader discussions of comparative occupations, democracy, nineteenth-century state building, sovereignty claims, and the construction of legal and national authority in the relationship between centers and peripheries.

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