Book excerpt: The ABC-CLIO Companion to American Reconstruction, 1862-1877 thoroughly documents the personalities, politics, organizations, legislation, ideas, incidents, exploitation, and power struggles that constituted Reconstruction. Providing basic, unbiased information on all aspects of the era, it even-handedly illustrates the period's impact on the widely varying factions in both the North and South. Organized in a well-defined, alphabetical format, more than 150 entries cover a range of topics from African American, abolitionist, and Rebel thoughts on emancipation to the enterprises and opinions of diverse personalities such as Jefferson Davis, Frederick Douglass, and Horace Greeley, the enactment of Jim Crow laws, and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. A detailed chronology of events and an extensive bibliography are also included.