Books with author Albion W. Tourgee

“We tried to superimpose the civilization, the idea of the North, upon the South at a moment’s warning … It was a Fool’s Errand.”The year is 1865 and the war between the states of North and South has ended.Comfort Servosse, a Union officer, has decided to make his life in the South.But is he only a fool for doing so?Drawing upon his own experiences Albion Tourgee constructed a novel which vividly brings to life the world of the South during the Reconstruction.“The native Southron, the 'poor white,' the carpet-bagger, the old Unioner, the freedman, the Ku-Klux, and the social, moral, and political life of the South, are all handled with uncommon power and humor, coupled with a relentless satire.” Washington (D.C.) National Republican.Originally published anonymously it was an immediate success in the late nineteenth century, selling over 200,000 copies. With its commentary on racial issues in the American South it continues to be essential reading for citizens of the twenty-first century as it was for those of the nineteenth.“We have not anywhere seen an account of the troubles that beset a Northern family's residence in the South which impressed us as being more truthful, more complete, or more powerfully written, than this." Chicago Tribune."Its word-pictures are so realistic that one sees, hears, and feels the very presence of the individuals that crowd its pages. The night-ride of young Lily Servosse . . . . is one of the finest and most thrilling incidents that has ever been told in history or romance." San Francisco Chronicle."What is most remarkable about the book is the spirit of fairness that pervades it." Philadelphia Times."Considered as a frank and candid picture of the difficulties encountered by Northern emigrants to the South during the time of reconstruction, by a writer who honestly sets down what he believes to be the truth, and who appears to be sincerely disposed to do strict justice to all men, the book will interest a large circle of readers." N. Y. Evening Post.Albion Tourgee was an American soldier who was wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Perryville. After the American Civil War he wrote a number of books including A Royal Gentleman, Bricks Without Straw and A Fool’s Errand which was published in 1879. He died in 1905.

“We tried to superimpose the civilization, the idea of the North, upon the South at a moment’s warning … It was a Fool’s Errand.” The year is 1865 and the war between the states of North and South has ended. Comfort Servosse, a Union officer, has decided to make his life in the South. But is he only a fool for doing so? Drawing upon his own experiences Albion Tourgee constructed a novel which vividly brings to life the world of the South during the Reconstruction. “The native Southron, the 'poor white,' the carpet-bagger, the old Unioner, the freedman, the Ku-Klux, and the social, moral, and political life of the South, are all handled with uncommon power and humor, coupled with a relentless satire.” Washington (D.C.) National Republican. Originally published anonymously it was an immediate success in the late nineteenth century, selling over 200,000 copies. With its commentary on racial issues in the American South it continues to be essential reading for citizens of the twenty-first century as it was for those of the nineteenth. “We have not anywhere seen an account of the troubles that beset a Northern family's residence in the South which impressed us as being more truthful, more complete, or more powerfully written, than this." Chicago Tribune. "Its word-pictures are so realistic that one sees, hears, and feels the very presence of the individuals that crowd its pages. The night-ride of young Lily Servosse . . . . is one of the finest and most thrilling incidents that has ever been told in history or romance." San Francisco Chronicle. "What is most remarkable about the book is the spirit of fairness that pervades it." Philadelphia Times. "Considered as a frank and candid picture of the difficulties encountered by Northern emigrants to the South during the time of reconstruction, by a writer who honestly sets down what he believes to be the truth, and who appears to be sincerely disposed to do strict justice to all men, the book will interest a large circle of readers." N. Y. Evening Post. Albion Tourgee was an American soldier who was wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Perryville. After the American Civil War he wrote a number of books including A Royal Gentleman, Bricks Without Straw and A Fool’s Errand which was published in 1879. He died in 1905.

There had been rumors in the air, for some months, of a strangely mysterious organization, said to be spreading over the Southern States, which added to the usual intangibility of the secret society an element of the grotesque superstition unmatched in the history of any other.... Here and there throughout the South, by a sort of sporadic instinct, bands of ghostly horsemen, in quaint and horrible guise, appeared, and admonished the lazy and trifling of the African race... -from "Chapter XXVII: A New Institution" Subtitled "A Novel of the South During Reconstruction," this 1879 bestseller, by a participant in that great social experiment, is the barely fictionalized account of the career of a Northern lawyer in North Carolina after the Civil War. A champion of the poor and landless of any race, and a keen observer of the dilemmas facing uneducated Negroes in the postwar period, Tourgée offers us an important eyewitness account of one of the most tumultuous eras of American history, one that continues to influence the course of the American experiences of race and class to this day.

There had been rumors in the air, for some months, of a strangely mysterious organization, said to be spreading over the Southern States, which added to the usual intangibility of the secret society an element of the grotesque superstition unmatched in the history of any other.... Here and there throughout the South, by a sort of sporadic instinct, bands of ghostly horsemen, in quaint and horrible guise, appeared, and admonished the lazy and trifling of the African race... -from "Chapter XXVII: A New Institution" Subtitled "A Novel of the South During Reconstruction," this 1879 bestseller, by a participant in that great social experiment, is the barely fictionalized account of the career of a Northern lawyer in North Carolina after the Civil War. A champion of the poor and landless of any race, and a keen observer of the dilemmas facing uneducated Negroes in the postwar period, Tourgée offers us an important eyewitness account of one of the most tumultuous eras of American history, one that continues to influence the course of the American experiences of race and class to this day.

The value of A Fool's Errand lies in its fearless criticism not merely of the South for its post-Civil war attitudes and policies but of the national governmental problems raised by the war and its aftermath. Tourgee insisted on discussing the problems, because he was convinced that they had not been solved satisfactorily, or indeed, at all. In his understanding and interpretation of Reconstruction, Tourgee emphasized the fact that in the years immediately following the Civil War the former Confederates had control of their own state governments. It was during this period, he argued, that they clearly demonstrated their unwillingness or inability to face up to the implications of the surrender at Appomattox. As an intelligent observer and participant in Southern Reconstruction, Tourgee was in an excellent position to provide his contemporaries and posterity with an important commentary and criticism of what he witnessed and experienced. He was the pioneer post-war social critic.

There had been rumors in the air, for some months, of a strangely mysterious organization, said to be spreading over the Southern States, which added to the usual intangibility of the secret society an element of the grotesque superstition unmatched in the history of any other.... Here and there throughout the South, by a sort of sporadic instinct, bands of ghostly horsemen, in quaint and horrible guise, appeared, and admonished the lazy and trifling of the African race... -from "Chapter XXVII: A New Institution" Subtitled "A Novel of the South During Reconstruction," this 1879 bestseller, by a participant in that great social experiment, is the barely fictionalized account of the career of a Northern lawyer in North Carolina after the Civil War. A champion of the poor and landless of any race, and a keen observer of the dilemmas facing uneducated Negroes in the postwar period, Tourgée offers us an important eyewitness account of one of the most tumultuous eras of American history, one that continues to influence the course of the American experiences of race and class to this day. American abolitionist and lawyer ALBION W. TOURGÉE (1838-1905) also wrote Figs and Thistles (1879).

John Hope Franklin: "The value of A Fool's Errand lies in its fearless criticism not merely of the South for its post-[Civil] war attitudes and policies but of the national governmental problems raised by the war and its aftermath. At a time when public sentiment tended to frown on anything that might exacerbate the intersectional difficulties, Tourgee insisted on discussing the problem, because he was convinced that it had not been solved satisfactorily, or indeed, at all... "In his understanding and interpretation of Reconstruction Tourgee would even today be regarded as a radical. Over and over again he emphasized the fact that in the years immediately following the Civil War the former Confederates had control of their own state governments. It was during this period, he argued, that they clearly demonstrated their unwillingness or inability to face up to the implications of the surrender at Appomattox. "... As an intelligent observer and participant in Southern Reconstruction, Tourgee was in an excellent position to provide his contemporaries and posterity with an important commentary and criticism of what he witnessed and experienced. He was a pioneer post-war social critic."

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