"The Civil War and Reconstruction" by J.G. Randall, published by D.C. Heath, 1937, First Edition.

Hard boards, original gray cloth boards and blue spine with gilt lettering; 5.3/4" x 8.3/4"; 959 pages including Bibliography and Index; used college textbook: some soiling, writing on the endpapers, underlines, small crease at the top of spine, [see photos]; good condition.

James Garfield Randall is the 'grandfather' of modern civil war/reconstruction' texts/books. His "The Civil War and Reconstruction" had long been regarded as "the standard work in its field" serving as a useful basic Civil War reference tool for general readers and textbook for college classes. Many authors refer to this book in their introductions. Randall was one generation away from surviving civil war veterans, the generation that carries an understanding of the war we may miss today.

Randall argues in "Civil War and Reconstruction" that the war "could have been avoided, supposing of course that something more of statesmanship, moderation, and understanding, and something less of professional patrioteering, slogan-making, face-saving, political clamoring, and propaganda, had existed on both sides." But such had not been the case. In Randall's view, extremists in both sections emerged as villains, the abolitionist radicals worst of all. "Reforming zeal, in those individual leaders in whom it became most vociferous and vocal, was often unrelieved by wisdom, toleration, tact, and the sense of human values... It was a major cause of the conflict itself." That is, minority elements inflamed sectional passions to a point where compromise, which might have been brought about by sensible and responsible men, became impossible.

James Garfield Randall (1881-1953) was an American historian specializing on Abraham Lincoln and the era of the American Civil War. He taught at the University of Illinois (1920-1950).

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