The impact of the Civil War and reconstruction on Arkansas

Arkansas has traditionally been overlooked by historians of the South, but Carl H. Moneyhon brings the state to the fore in this study. Examining the social history of Arkansas and focusing on changes brought by the Civil War's devastation and political aftermath, Moneyhon presents a highly readable history of this turbulent time. Contributing to the historical debate over continuity and change in the Old South and New South, Moneyhon persuasively argues in favor of continuity. In the years after Reconstruction, the antebellum elite ruled a society that resisted modernization. As a result, the lives of most Arkansans in 1900 were not greatly different from what they had been half a century before - the state was overwhelmingly rural and beset by poverty, racism, poor education, and economic backwardness. The most profound effects of war, Moneyhon explains, were on white yeoman farmers and the lower classes, both black and white. The large landowners, with their political connections, felt the war much less than the working class. Their survival led to the most important aspect of post-Civil War society in Arkansas: the elite maintained or soon regained their positions of power, thus preserving the status quo . Divided into three parts, this work first treats Arkansas in the decade before the war, with comprehensive chapters on the economy, white society, slavery, and the political system. The second part deals with the war years, with one chapter focusing on the areas that remained under Confederate control and another on areas in which military operations occurred; two other chapters describe the emancipation of the slaves and efforts during the war to institute a Unionist government. The third section is a masterly examination of the politics of Reconstruction and Redemption in Arkansas, the state's postwar economy, and the experience of the former slaves. Prodigiously researched and gracefully written, The Impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on Arkansas is a significant study that fills a historiographical gap by telling the story of war's destruction in terms of its impact on people's everyday lives. It will be welcome reading to those interested in the South, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.