A Companion to Reconstruction Presidents presents a series of original essays that explore a variety of important issues, themes, and debates associated with the presidencies of Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes.
* Represents the first comprehensive look at the presidencies of Johnson, Grant, and Hayes in one volume
* Features contributions from top historians and presidential scholars
* Approaches the study of these presidents from a historiographical perspective
* Key topics include each president's political career; foreign policy; domestic policy; military history; and social context of their terms in office

Notes on Contributors viii

Introduction 1

Part I Andrew Johnson 5

1 Andrew Johnson before the Presidency 7
Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein

2 Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction 24
Erik Mathisen

3 Andrew Johnson: Race, the Constitution, and Democracy 42
Aaron Astor

4 The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson 62
Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

5 Foreign Affairs and Andrew Johnson 85
Richard Zuczek

Part II Ulysses S. Grant 121

6 Ulysses S. Grant: Birth to the Mexican-American War 123
Pamela K. Sanfilippo

7 Ulysses S. Grant: Star on the Rise, 1861-1863 140
Brian Steel Wills

8 Ulysses S. Grant: The Making of a Military Politician, 1861-1865 165
Brian Holden Reid

9 The General-in-Chief, 1864-1865 188
William B. Feis

10 Ulysses S. Grant Goes to Washington: The Commanding General as Secretary of War 214
James J. Broomall

11 The 1868 and 1872 Elections 235
Andrew Prymak

12 Looking for the Popular Culture of Grant's America 257
Woody Register

13 Reconstruction during the Grant Years: The Conundrum of Policy 275
Thomas R. Pegram

14 Flames in the West: American Expansion, Federal Indian Policy, and the Transformation of Indigenous Lives in the Age of Grant 295
Eric J. Morser

15 Avoiding War: The Foreign Policy of Ulysses S. Grant and Hamilton Fish 311
Stephen McCullough

16 Grant and Historical Memory 328
John F. Marszalek

17 Grant and Heroic Leadership 343
Frank J. Williams

18 Engagement Rather Than Escape: Ulysses S. Grant's World Tour, 1877-1879 353
William M. Ferraro

Part III Rutherford B. Hayes 387

19 Crushing the Traitors: Rutherford B. Hayes in the Civil War 389
John R. Lundberg

20 Rutherford B. Hayes: The Road to the White House 403
Allan Peskin

21 Election of 1876/Compromise of 1877 415
Marc-William Palen

22 Hayes and Civil Service Reform 431
Ari Hoogenboom

23 The Shattered Dream: The Shock of Industrialization and the Crisis of the Free Labor Ideal 452
Eric Leif Davin

24 Lifting the Veil of Obscurity?: Lucy Webb Hayes, America's First "First Lady" 475
Katherine E. Rohrer

Part IV The Age of Reconstruction 497

25 Edison and the Age of Invention 499
David Hochfelder

26 Centennial Celebrations 517
John Hepp

27 Community Responsibilities, Citizenship Rights: Gender and Power in the Reconstruction Era 538
Michelle Kuhl

28 Playing on a New Field: The U.S. Supreme Court in Reconstruction 562
Roman J. Hoyos

29 Scandal, Corruption 581
Robert W. Burg

30 Ex-Presidents in the Age of Reconstruction 601
Edward O. Frantz

Index 617

Edward Frantz is Associate Professor of History at the University of Indianapolis. He is the author of The Door of Hope: Republican Presidents and the First Southern Strategy, 1877-1933 (2011).