In many classrooms, the textbook becomes the main source used to determine objectives, procedures, opinions, questions, thoughts, and other items used in teaching U.S. history. This study was done to determine how the Reconstruction Era was presented in a selected group of junior high school U.S. history textbooks. The books were classified according to the manner in which each book answers a common set of questions. Seven textbooks were analyzed on the basis of five questions designed to determine the quality of the presentation of the Reconstruction period. Data were analyzed by counting the number of lines devoted to 26 aspects of Reconstruction. Findings were: (1) textbooks tended to be similar and present similar material; (2) textbooks used a large number of illustrations; (3) textbooks were highly factual, offering few interpretations; (4) textbooks tended to be accurate in their presentation of facts; and (5) the selected texts tended to be void of descriptive adjectives, thus avoiding bias. This research supported the findings of Project SPAN which found textbooks to be accurate and fair in presenting minorities. (SM)