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CHOICE Review

Kaczorowski (University of Cincinnati Law School) presents a useful contribution to Reconstruction Era history. He focuses on the role of federal courts and the Justice Department in combating politically and racially motivated terrorism in the South. It is more legalistic and narrowly focused than such recently published works as William Gillette's Retreat From Reconstruction 1869-1879 (CH, Sep '80); George C. Rable's But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction (CH, Dec '84), and Herman Belz's Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era (CH, May '79). Nevertheless, this book provides an in-depth look at a neglected aspect of Reconstruction history and a different perspective for its study. The author analyzes the revolution in constitutionalism resulting from the affirmation between 1866 and 1873 by Congress and the federal courts of the primacy of national authority to protect civil rights. He shows that despite many difficulties the federal courts and the Justice Department had succeeded by 1872 in largely destroying organized terrorist groups and in bringing relative peace. However, just when federal officers believed they were winning their struggle, the president and the Supreme Court consciously chose to curtail federal authority to secure civil rights. Political scientists may find the book an interesting case study of the interaction of judicial, legislative, and executive power. Recommended for upper-division through graduate students and general readers.-J.C. Dixon, University of North Carolina at Wilmington