A look at the agency’s attempts to deliver justice to the Texas black community following the Civil War. Drawing on a wealth of previously unused documentation in the National Archives, this book offers new insights into the workings of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the difficulties faced by Texas Bureau officials, who served in a remote and somewhat isolated area with little support from headquarters. “[The] episodes in Texas Reconstruction history that Mr. Crouch relates, perhaps do more than broad generalizations to explain why the Freedmen’s Bureau failed, and how we lost the peace after the Civil War.” —New York Times Book Review “Crouch skillfully presents the Freedmen’s Bureau as one of the most unique, misunderstood, and maligned ad hoc reform agencies ever devised by a democratic government in the name of social and political freedom and equality.” —East Texas Historical Journal “Breaks new ground in Reconstruction history. [Crouch’s] study is among the first on the bureau in Texas and the first to focus on the subdistrict agent, the subassistant commissioner.” —Journal of Southern History

American Presidents, Polk to Hayes. What They Did. What They Said, What Was Said About Them is the second book in a planned five volume series, covering all the Presidents. These 43 men (so far) have succeeded in some regards and failed in others as they strove to do the best they could in what is surely one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Only they can truly appreciate what it takes to be the president. Others can only speculate. People feel strongly about U.S. Presidents. Some they admire – others they hate. It is fair game to criticize a president’s actions and policies. However, questioning their commitment to American ideals seems like hitting below the belt. There are no willing villains. Most people can find justification for their actions, beliefs, and prejudices. Each president strove to do the best he could for the nation and its people. This goal of the book is not to praise presidents, nor is it to condemn them. The subtitle of each of the five books in the series: What They Did. What They Said, What Was Said About Them, perfectly describes the approach adopted to tell their stories in a unique, way, meant to entertain as well as inform. Readers are asked to make their own judgments of the presidencies based on more information that the semi-myths they may recall History courses or what is preached in the many longstanding and despicable negative campaigning, mudslinging and character assassination reports they hear from partisans. One can find much to admire about each of the presidents and unfortunately much to deplore. Soldiers are told that in giving salutes to officers is not honoring the individuals, but rather their rank. If there are presidents, readers just feel they cannot salute, hopefully they can salute the presidency.