In NYRB, Adam Hochschild reviews a recent book by Manisha Sinha that treats Reconstruction America as our 2nd Republic, postulating that the the South's racist retrenchment later fueled the rise of the U.S. Empire. The Trump era fits this unfortunate trend. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/05/29/one-brief-shining-moment-rise-and-fall-of-the-second-american-republic/