Why read The Devil's Own Work?

Book cover of The Devil's Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America

Book description

This lively best-selling story - now in its third edition - will appeal to youngsters diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. Otto is a high-octane young car whose motor is always running in overdrive. He also has trouble paying attention in school, is easily distracted, and acts without thinking. Otto and…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Devil's Own Work as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Zachary M. Schrag

Author

The four days of deadly fighting that shook New York City in July 1863 are best known as the Civil War Draft Riots, but they combined multiple, overlapping grievances. While some men rioted in outrage that poor men must fight while rich men could buy an exemption, others seized the chance to lynch African Americans, settle old political scores, loot shops, or smash the grain elevators and street-sweeping machines they blamed for their unemployment. Schecter connects the intimate, block-by-block events of a riot with the largest debates facing the nation, helping to explain the ultimate disappointment of Reconstruction.

From Zachary's list on mob violence.