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We are told that the present moment bears a strong resemblance to Reconstruction, when freed-people and the federal government attempted to create an interracial democracy in the south after the American Civil War. That effort was overthrown and serves as a warning today about violent backlash to the mere idea of black equality. In The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic, acclaimed historian Manisha Sinha expands our view beyond the usual temporal and spatial bounds of Reconstruction (1865–1877) to explain how the American Civil War, the overthrow of Reconstruction, the conquest of the west, labour conflict in the north, Chinese exclusion, women’s suffrage and the establishment of an overseas American empire were part of the same struggle between the forces of democracy and those of reaction. Highlighting the critical role of black people in redefining American citizenship and governance, Sinha’s book shows that Reconstruction laid the foundation of our democracy.