by Nicholas LemannFrom the publisher:
Arguably the best literary journalist of our time, Nicholas Lemann (Big Test, Promised Land) recaptures our attention with this absorbing chronicle of a shameful era in America's post–Civil War history. With devastating accuracy, Lemann traces the prolonged campaign of organized violence waged by white supremacists in the 1870s to overturn the 14th and 15th Amendments, which granted civil rights to freed blacks. Euphemistically called Redemption, this organized racial terrorism, an unbridled crime spree of murder and mayhem, brought the reforms of Reconstruction to a screeching halt and effectively segregated the South for another 100 years. For those of us who know Lemann's work in The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, this book adds luster to an already brilliant literary reputation. And for readers unfamiliar with this Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, we can only ask, "What are you waiting for?"
Nicholas Lemann, dean of the School of Journalism at Columbia University, is author of The Big Test (FSG, 1999) and the prizewinning The Promised Land. He lives with his family in Pelham, New York.
