- Why is the title of this video “A Contested History”?
- What, according to Eric Foner, do historians do?
- How do scholars view the Reconstruction era today? What is the story of Reconstruction that they tell? What details about this story stand out to you?
- What is the “Dunning School” of Reconstruction history? How does that story of Reconstruction differ from what historians say today? Who were the heroes of the story told by the Dunning School?
- What were the consequences of the story of Reconstruction told by Dunning School historians?
- How did W.E.B. Du Bois understand and approach the history of Reconstruction differently than other historians of his time? Why did he think that work was important to do?
- When did scholars begin to question the Dunning School version of Reconstruction? When did the contemporary understanding of this history begin to emerge?
