Conventional views of the Civil War era paint a cynical picture of a struggle for power, playing down the vibrant struggle for abolition of slavery. In the dramatic years that followed the defeat of the Confereacy, the federal government briefly acted as a force for insuring the expansion of rights for millions emancipated from slavery. Behzad Raghian relates the inspiring history of Reconstruction, and explains how the tide was turned back to institute new systems of inequality.