Reconstruction \Re`con*struc"tion\ (-str?k"sh?n), n.

1. The act of constructing again; the state of being reconstructed.

2. (U.S. Politics) The act or process of reorganizing the governments of the States which had passed ordinances of secession, and of re["e]stablishing their constitutional relations to the national government, after the close of the Civil War.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)