A Fool’s Errand, by One of the Fools. The Famous Romance of American History. To Which is Added, by the Same Author, Part II. The Invisible Empire. A Concise Review of the Epoch on Which the Tale is Based…

This nineteenth century author abandoned a job as a school principal to fight for the Union in the Civil War, during which he twice suffered life-threatening spinal wounds. Disappointed by the failure of Reconstruction, Tourgee left North Carolina (where he had served as a superior court judge) for an appointment as consul to Bordeaux. In his later career, Tourgee argued against racial segregation in the doomed Plessy v. Ferguson case, which confirmed the legality of "separate but equal," and railed against realists William Dean Howells and Henry James for their failure to commit to social reform. Noted novels include A Royal Gentleman, A Fool's Errand, and Hot Plowshares, as well as the non-fiction work The Invisible Empire. His writings center around racial attitudes in the South the failure of Reconstruction.