How Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the U.S. and its Constitution

After the civil war, the United States evolved from singular to plural, from “the United States are…” to “the United States is…”

US history from the 1750s through the 19th century is really about the founding of two countries — the first, an unholy marriage of the northeastern and southeastern parts of the continent, a manifestly unequal and unjust socie…