An example for all the land : emancipation and the struggle over equality in Washington, D.C. /

Masur's elegant, nuanced study of emancipation and equality in Washington, DC, during the Civil War and Reconstruction is both a superb social and political history of the nation's capital during this crucial period and a significant contribution to the scholarship of race and Reconstruction. Masur (history and African American studies, Northwestern) argues that Washington served in many ways as a laboratory in which Republican lawmakers and the African American community sought to define the meanings of equality (as opposed to merely "freedom") for the postbellum US. The city became a model of racial equality and equal rights during the late 1860s and early 1870s, but these gains eroded rapidly after the 1874 disfranchisement of DC's citizenry replaced self-government with a federal commission. Masur's rich, well-researched, and well-conceived discussion of how the debates over equality played out in the nation's capital is required reading for scholars of race and Reconstruction. Also important is her treatment of the larger implications of Washington's experiments in equality, particularly as they informed the evolving feminist movement in the postwar years. A sophisticated and fascinating treatment deserving of a wide audience. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. K. M. Gannon Grand View University