Moncure Conway, a southern-bom abolitionist, receives extended treatment in the book, but Fredrickson has evidently made no effort to look at the rich and well-fndexed collection of Conway's papers at Columbia University. But since the author intended his study to represent "a fairly detailed record of thoughts and reactions," it is surprising that he made only limited use of manuscript collections and of contemporary periodicals and newspapers. This book is based on skillful use of a wide range of secondary sources and of such printed primary sources as collected letters, essays, and sermons. Nor did the Civil War entirely "thwart the drive for Tiumanitarian democracy.' " As Arthur Mann, Daniel Aaron, and others have shown, the social justice element in Progressivism had definite ties with antebellum reform. When the Civil War committed American institutions to the destruction rather than the preservation of slavery, most abolitionists modified their anti-institutionalism but did not abandon their role as moral reformers. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:īOOKREVIEWS69 lashed out against the government and the churches did so not because they were philosophical anarchists but because these institutions defended slavery.
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