The years between the collapse of Reconstruction and the end of World War I mark a pivotal moment in African American cultural production. Christened the -Post-Bellum-Pre-Harlem- era by the novelist Charles Chesnutt, these years look back to the antislavery movement and forward to the artistic flowering and racial self-consciousness of the Harlem Renaissance.

Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem offers fresh perspectives on the literary and cultural achievements of African American men and women during this critically neglected, though vitally important, period of our nation's...

The years between the collapse of Reconstruction and the end of World War I mark a pivotal moment in African American cultural production. Christened the -Post-Bellum-Pre-Harlem- era by the novelist Charles Chesnutt, these years look back to the antislavery movement and forward to the artistic flowering and racial self-consciousness of the Harlem Renaissance.

Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem offers fresh perspectives on the literary and cultural achievements of African American men and women during this critically neglected, though vitally important, period of our nation's past. Using...