VCU news

By Mike Frontiero and Ted Tunnell

WHAT:           Virginia Commonwealth University Associate Professor of History Ted Tunnell, Ph.D., discusses the myths of Reconstruction in the public television series "American Experience." In a two-part program titled "Reconstruction: The Second Civil War," Tunnell debunks myths that the South was tortured by the North and oppressed by carpetbaggers during Reconstruction. He demonstrates this through Marshall Harvey Twitchell - a well-known carpetbagger in the post-Civil War South and Yankee officer who ventured into the most violent corner of Louisiana to try to impose order. Twitchell's story is the focus of Tunnell's 2001 book "Edge of the Sword" (Louisiana State University Press), which disproves the dated stereotype of carpetbaggers as unprincipled scoundrels.

                   The PBS program is the first to examine in depth one of the least understood periods in American history. Spanning 1863 to 1877, "Reconstruction" interweaves the stories of key political players in Washington - including Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant - with the stories of ordinary people, such as Twitchell, whose lives were caught up in the turbulent struggles of the era. USA Today's DeWayne Wickham hailed "Reconstruction" as "required viewing" in his January 6th column.

WHERE:       "American Experience," PBS
On the Web:  www.pbs.org/amex/reconstruction

WHEN:          Airs nationally January 12-13, 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on most stations.