The Money Question During Reconstruction

W. W. Norton & Co, New York, 1967. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good/N/A. white titles spine; "Gold, silver, or greenbacks? For three decades after the Civil War the American people were baffled, irritated, and divided by a great debate over the recondite question of money. The end of slavery; reconstruction in the South; the unrest of farmers, workers, and city dwellers; the mushrooming of industrial enterprise; the new immigration: these great problems of the postwar era failed to dislodge money as the chief perennial issue in national politics. To the Populists and other grassroots movements, the financial legislation of the Reconstruction period was a conspiracy of the haves against the havenots, and at the heart of that conspiracy was the infamous 'Crime of '73,' the Coinage Act of February 12, 1873, which did away with silver as the monetary standard and placed gold in its stead. But to those on the other side, the men who had sponsored this very same Act were the embattled guardians of public honor and credit. Out of a controversy that pitted section against section, class against class in late nineteenth-century America, WaIter Nugent has fashioned a brilliant interpretive study. The debate over gold, silver, and greenbacks looms not merely as a struggle for political advantage but as one of the growing pains of a nation coming to power."; previous owner's name on pre-title page; including index - 127 pages. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Politics & Government; American Economic History; American Studies; American Politics; United States; Economics. Inventory No: ECN00004. .