Michael​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ Pangrac’s work reconstructs the narrative of Reconstruction with an outlook that goes beyond the typical story of failure and lost chances. It doesn't only emphasize the South's miserably attempts to bring back the transportation networks, to restore the institutions and to reinvent the social order after the Civil War, but also the determination of the South to accomplish these things.

The author tours us with the idea of the interaction between the initiatives of the federal government and the ambitions of the locals that were not always in agreement, thus pointing to the changes in the labor, legal, and government sectors. Pangrac depicts Reconstruction as a time to struggle and conflict, but also a time to come up with new ideas, to be resistant, and to make real progress. With his solid clarifications and his illustrative examples, he exposes the readers to a deeper and more balanced comprehension of the way the nation took the challenge of making a new build of itself—new in fact—in one of its most decisive ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌periods.