Barnet Schecter - The devils own work: the civil war draft riots and the fight to reconstruct America

Praise forThe Devil's Own Work

"A fascinating look at the explosive witches' brew of resentment and rage that ignited deadly Civil War draft riots and which continued to haunt the nation for another hundred years thereafter. It's all here in this thought-provoking and meticulously rendered work: race and class, protest and reform, and a myriad of colorful voices."

Jay Winik, author of April 1865: The Month That Saved America

"Mr. Schecter's crisp, flashing prose captures the thrill and horror of the riots, the politicians' obsessive intrigues for power and wealth, and the numerous fascinating men and women of all classes, races, and occupations swept up in this 'most peculiar battle of the Civil War.' "

New York Sun

"At last, the real war has got into the books. Barnet Schecter's The Devils Own Work is a masterpiece of historical writing, the first work to place the New York City draft riots in their full context."

Kevin Baker, author of Paradise Alley

"Schecter adroitly shows how racial tension, class injustice, ethnic feuds and North-South entanglement not only contributed to the angry reaction in New York to President Abraham Lincoln's imposition of a Union military draft, but how the draft riots negatively affected Reconstruction... Schecter does a fine job of reliving the actual five days of riot terror... He is even better at linkage: Irish Potato Famine to Draft Riots to the debacle that was Reconstruction, indeed bound by devilish ties."

Charleston Post and Courier

"Richly detailed and formidably documented... The bulk of this excellent book is devoted not to the riots themselves, but to the tremendous social unrest that led up to and flowed from them: specifically, the turmoil of Reconstruction. Under the long shadow of the riots fell a century of repression of black civil rights and of harsh treatment of labor protest."

St. Petersburg Times

"For a powerful look inside the economic, social and political powder keg that was New York City during the Civil War, and a broader examination of conservative forces in the North that opposed the Union war effort and Lincoln's gradual call for emancipation, Schecter's book is an outstanding and compelling source."

Civil War Times

"[A] vivid account of the four days of anarchy."

Seattle Times

"Superb."

Weekly Standard

"In The Devil's Own Work, historian Barnet Schecter offers an engaging synthesis on the riots and their causes and effects."

Providence Journal

"Barnet Schecter opens a vivid, wide-angle lens on New York City's 1863 draft riots, exposing not only the harrowing experiences of participants on all sides, but also the long roots and deep consequences of this four-day spasm of violent protest. A pivotal moment in the larger Civil War... the riots were also a turning point in American race relationsand in attitudes toward labor, immigrants, and an evolving class society... An absorbing journey though this controversial passage in our history."

Kenneth D. Ackerman, author of Boss Tweed

"Barnet Schecter has brought the terrible days of death, fire, and looting in Gotham to life with vivid prose and thorough research. The Devil s Own Work is a fascinating account of the most important civil disturbance in all of American history."

Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University, editor-in-chief, The Encyclopedia of New York City

"Barnet Schecter unearths the political and social roots of the Civil War Draft Riots and traces their reach as they influenced the fate of Reconstruction and the struggle for American democracy. Ambitious in its arguments and generous with its detail, The Devils Own Work carefully dissects the Riots to provide new insights and challenges to those interested in the history of New York City and the Civil War."

Craig Steven Wilder, Professor of History, Dartmouth College

"A gripping story, clearly and accurately centering the riots in the context of political power relationships: New York City Democratic Party leaders, with pro-Confederate sympathies, played upon class, ethnic, and religious animosities and antiblack racism to mobilize white working people in support of their party's objectives in reshaping the national agenda, first for the Civil War and later for Reconstruction... Highly recommended."

Library Journal

"The 1863 draft riots in New York City, the bloodiest in the nation's history, emerge as a microcosm of the convoluted and contradictory politics of the Civil War era in this absorbing study. Historian Schecter opens with a gripping account of the five days of rioting. But he also probes beneath the turmoil to examine the ethnic, religious, and class conflicts that made the confrontation so explosive... Copiously researched and highlighted with a wealth of period commentary, his lucid narrative colorfully recreates a historical watershed and offers a rich exploration of the Civil War's unfinished business."

Publishers Weekly

"When fireman Peter Masterson led a mob's attack on a federal draft office, producing the first murders of New York City's 1863 riot, he ignited social tinder that was not exclusive to New York in mid-nineteenth-century America... From Masterson's initial incitement to the frenzy's subsidence several days and hundreds of deaths later, [Schecter] moves seamlessly between the conflagration on the street and the frantic attempts of authorities to quell the mayhem, and explains the affair's ramifications on the Reconstruction era. An excellent encapsulation of the war's social context in the North."

Booklist

"Barnet Schecter's superbly written new study grips the reader with its bubbling evocation of city life, and its dazzling account of the upheavals that roiled the city's streets that July. It is no easy matter to maintain dramatic verve in recalling an event that ebbed and flowed so indiscriminately, lacked leadership and focus, and featured few heroes and many horrendous incidents of inhumane cruelty. But Schecter tells the story brilliantly, offering a genuine page-turner that should enthrall not only Civil War aficionados, but also any reader who fancies a gripping yarn well-told."

North & South Magazine

THE DEVIL'S OWN WORK

The Civil War Draft Riots and

theFight to Reconstruct America

BARNET SCHECTER

Copyright 2005 by Barnet Schecter

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Walker & Company, 104 Fifth Avenue, New york, New York 10011.

Art Credits Heritage Photographs. Map by Bette Brodsky. Library of Congress. Collection of The New-York Historical Society. Harry A. Williams Photographic Collection, Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. National Archives. The Great Riots of New York, by Joel Tyler Headley (Dover Publications). Irish Green and Union Blue: The Civil War Letters of Peter Welsch, edited by Lawrence Frederick Kohl with Margaret Cosse Richard (Fordham University Press). Our Firemen: A History of the New York Fire Departments,