"Rooted in bureau, census, and military records, Bean's research is nothing short of exhaustive...this is a solid study-accessibly written and deftly argued." -- -Dr. Brlan Matthew Jordan Civil War News "Christopher Bean's Too Great a Burden to Bear makes a significant contribution to Reconstruction studies. Deftly combining storytelling with systematic quantitative analyses of the evidence, Bean offers new information, not just on the agents themselves, but also on the largest issues in Reconstruction historiography." -- -J. William Harris