Radical Reconstruction and the Language of Conservatism in the United States, 1865-1877.

The article examines how the term conservative was deployed during the U.S. Reconstruction of 1865-1877 following the Civil War, challenging the Radical-Conservative binary. Topics include the strategic use of true versus false conservatism by Republicans to justify transformative policies, the role of newspapers and congressional debates in shaping political language, and the ossification of the term amid conflicts over Black citizenship, federal authority and constitutional amendments.