In The Third Reconstruction, historian Peniel E. Joseph offers a powerful and personal new interpretation of recent history. The racial reckoning that unfolded in 2020, he argues, marked the climax of a Third Reconstruction: a new struggle for citizenship and dignity for Black Americans, just as momentous as the movements that arose after the Civil War and during the civil rights era. Joseph draws revealing connections and insights across centuries as he traces this Third Reconstruction from the election of Barack Obama to the rise of Black Lives Matter to the failed assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Peniel E. Joseph is associate dean for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion; professor of public affairs; Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values; and founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at The University of Texas at Austin.