Then And Now "Spell the word one way, with a small r , and it has a good American purposefulness; for it means a putting together, a rebuilding, a rehabilitation. Spell it another way, with a capital R , and it becomes for many a malediction; and for others an almost forgotten, unreached, and needful goal; and for still others a vaguely unclean memory."(Carter 11) The Reconstruction period should have been a time of cleansing and a return to what had been but instead it turned out to be a terrible failure and its repercussions have continued ....