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Course

ASI120

Semester

Spring

Instructor's Name

Dr. Myrna Gabbe

Year

2024

Writing Process

This project was written as my main ASI 120 paper over the course of the 2024 spring semester. This historiography paper examines how historians have viewed secondary sources in the form of books, academic journals, and academic articles that I find from databases such as the UD library, Gale, JSTOR, and other academic resources. These sources range from pre-1960 to the 2010s and are divvied into three groups based on the author’s perspective of President Johnson. Group one, the Pro-Johnsons, are those who supported Johnson’s moves and are willing to deflect their believed failure of Reconstruction onto other scapegoats, such as the Radical Republicans. Group two, the Johnson Apologists, understand that Johnson failed in his presidency and showcase the ability to be critical of him. However, these historians are also able to understand that there were other factors that led to the demise of Johnson’s presidency and Reconstruction failure, with many putting emphases on his poor background and "rags to riches" type story. The third and final group is the Anti-Johnsons. These historians agree with none of Johnson’s policies and do not place the blame for his failure in Reconstruction as any type of scapegoat. This historiography makes use of these differing opinions on Johnson to showcase how history has fluctuated when viewing his role in the failure of Reconstruction.

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