Eric Foner

The Civil War caused incredible economic devastation in the South. As a result, one of the goals of Reconstruction was to reshape the southern economy. Eric Foner asserts in the following viewpoint that Andrew Johnson’s reconstruction plan was a failure because the president’s policies did not lead to economic reform. Foner maintains that Johnson’s economic plan failed to encourage northern investment or provide opportunities for black southerners. Foner also notes that Johnson and the other leaders of presidential reconstruction were unable to reform the southern plantation system that had been the basis of the prewar economy. Foner is a professor of history at Columbia University and the author of numerous books, including Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877, from which this viewpoint has been excerpted.

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