Race and Revolution by Gary B. Nash - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review: Race and Revolution by Gary B. Nash Throughout the history of mankind we find that history is created and interpreted by those in power and those who have the strength of manipulating the facts and figures of the historical events in their interest. This is the reason why history is criticized by the great thinkers and philosophers of the world. History is always relative in nature and the powerful always enjoy the benefits of the history. The Marxist view of history is in certain cases found true and it finds that the history is made by those who enjoy power. Viewed from this perspective, history is nothing but what the dominant group thinks or feels. This particular nature of history has been the subject matter of many a powerful writings through the years. Thus, we have one of the best literatures which deals with the aforementioned characteristics of history with the specific examples of the African-American context in the book Race and Revolution by Gary B. Nash. Nash, a prominent social historian, through the extra ordinary ways of description and analysis, deals with many such related issues in his book. Leon F. Litwack, author of Been In The Storm So Long, makes the following observation on the blurb of the book Race and Revolution by Gary B. Nash. “The best history makes a difference in how we think about and feel the past. Race and Revolution is an important, tough-minded, provocative group of essays that contributes to our understanding of the most debilitating virus in the American system. Not only has Gash Nash illuminated the critical challenge of race and slavery in the revolutionary era and ‘the most tragic failure’ of American leaders, but he has brought to the forefront the long ignored role of black revolutionists in the early struggles for freedom.” (Gary 1990). In the book Nash, a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, presents three wonderful essays in the title ‘The Revolutionary Generation Embraces Abolitionism,’ ‘The Failure of Abolitionism’ and ‘Black Americans in a White Republic’ and sustaining annotated documents for each of the chapter dealing with the ignored subject of slavery all through the Revolutionary era. Race and Revolution can be treated as an incisive reading of the revolutionary peoples early efforts to make clear their obvious opposition to slavery and the characteristic features of their revolution. The book also looks into the eventual compromises of the people which made the society undamaged but gave the protection of the government following the tear 1788. In the work, Nash illustrates the black people’s reaction to the collapse of the promise of the revolution, its forceful and eloquent appeal for justice, and the successes of the population in their effort to construct African-American society inside the unreceptive surroundings of America in the early nineteenth-century. We get a clear picture about the book in the following passage. “He argues convincingly that most Revolutionary leaders understood the incompatibility of slavery with their equalitarian ideology. Unlike past historians, Nash especially blames Northern leaders, who were unwilling to compensate Southern slaveholders or to accept a biracial America, for the persistence of slavery at a time when it most easily could have been abolished. He contends that free blacks adapted to Northern discrimination by creating alternative organizations, especially black churches, which safeguarded an African-American identity and maintained abolitionist fervor. Relying upon recent scholarship, the author provides an insightful, well-written investigation which will appeal to scholars and the general public.” (David 1990). To make a comprehensive analysis of the book it is important that we consider the work as one of the most persuasive writings on the condition of the black people and their struggle for existence. A notable characteristic of the book Race and Revolution is that it describes the real threats faced by the Black Americans and works out a clear thesis for the book. The various aspects of the thesis are spread on to various chapters each one dealing with a definite point and its examination. It may be particularly mentioned that the merit of the book lies mainly in the way the main argument developed and the convincing treatment of these in three different annotated documents providing the best evidence to the points developed in the main chapters. The development of the main points and the support of them in a clear format attributes to the beauty of the work. Therefore, the book may be considered a commendable work that conjoins the different themes in a well organized format illustrated with the effective use supportive material. For example, in the first chapter that deals with the embracing of the abolitionism by the revolutionary generation and its leaders the author presents the best supportive material to state that the generation was gradually switching over to the concept of abolitionism in the materials that are incorporated in the documents given at the end of the main chapters. Thus, the supportive documents to the first chapter include Arthur Lee’s “Address on Slavery” (1767), Anthony Benezet’s A Caution and Warning (1767), Pennsylvania Abolition Act (1780), Virginia Manumission Law (1782), and many such. Likewise, the second chapter that mainly considers the failure of abolitionism supports the arguments with the materials like Martin Luther’s “Genuine Information” (1788), Petition from Pennsylvania Abolition Society (1790), Fairfax’s Plan for Liberating the Negroes” (1790), St. George Tucker’s A Dissertation on Slavery (1796), and others in the Documents toward the end of the book. Caesar Sarter’s “Essay on Slavery” (1774), Petitions of New England Slaves for Freedom (1773-1777), James Forten’s Letters from a man of Color (1813), and the like are given in the third documents to illustrate the arguments in the third chapter, Black Americans in a White Republic. Thus, the book especially noted for the way the arguments are developed as well as the masterful support of the arguments with the documents attached at the end of the book corresponding to each of the chapters. The book develops from one clear point to another one dealing with the various aspects of the argument. The conclusions arrived at by the rather convincing style of narration is the core of the book. The presentation of the arguments is very much appealing to the readers and the conclusion reached at is very clear to the readers even at the first attempt. The American Revolution of 1776 is one of the many discussions of the work. In the substitute, fundamental interpretation, presented in the book is very clear to the readers and there is no need of any attempt of extraordinary type in order to understand the matter. Everything that the author discusses in the book is familiar to a common reader and there is but limited efforts needed in the understanding of the core argument. The argument of the book is familiar to the readers and the meaning and significance of the arguments is easy to establish from the discussion. The common understanding of the powerful social class and its influence on the policy making of the society is clearly demonstrated in the book. Therefore, we may understand the significance of the book in relation to the powerful and the influential. Many see history as a dialogue with the past and the book provides one of the most significant dialogues in the form of a book is Nash’s Race and Revolution. “Among the most important advances in our understanding of the American Revolution in the last generation of the degree to which the revolutionaries were brought to recognize the incapability between the slave labor system in which most of the colonies were deeply involved, either as slave owners or slave traders, and the principles the underlay the struggle against England and the creation of a new nation.” (Gary. Race and Revolution. Madison, 1990). The opening sentence of the first chapter has much to mean in this statement. The book gives a view that the history is made by the various types of influences from the economic forces, individual actions and the like. The book considers the revolutionary spirit of a generation and how they were able to influence the course of history. Therefore the most obvious meaning of history is provided by such an understanding. Whereas many other books concentrates on providing a casual reference American Revolution and the question of abolishing slavery, Nash’s book makes exclusive analysis of the same. The first two essays of Race and Revolution ‘The Revolutionary Generation Embraces Abolitionism,’ ‘The Failure of Abolitionism’ offer documents on the rise and decline of abolitionism which is a major feature of the book. There seems to be no better book to provide the authoritative commentary of the issue in question. The work is very important considering the fact that it provides two vital aspects of abolition: the release of slaves cannot always be treated as compassionate or an easy example of morality exceeding economic interest and abolition was not persuaded exclusively by upright whites. The book also treats how slavery spread and what the effects of this were along with the Black Resistance Movement with its characteristic features. The book Race and Revolution provides one of the most important works that treat the particular issues of the African-American history. The book is the clear exposition of many of the issues concerning the Black Americans. The matters that are many often discussed with regard to the problems of the African-American communities find a serious discussion in the book by Nash. The matters that worry the black community is manifold and they include the treatment of the community as the other class, and the injustice and maltreatment of them as a result. Many historical works by great writers have treated the same issues and have gained great acclaim. This book is one of the best examples of how such works gain critical acclaim. First of all, it treats a topic that is relevant at any time and in any environment. Also, this has been very thoroughly discussed by many through the history. Therefore, the implications of the work have a greater relevance making it one of the celebrations of black American struggle for their issues. Race and Revolution provides us with the most evident example of the issues concerning the black Americans. The contribution made by this work by Nash to the understanding of historical matters especially as it relates to the question of the black people’s struggle for their needs. Thus, we can recognize the work as making significant contribution to our awareness of history and at the completion of a reading of the book we begin to appreciate the great struggles and resistance spirit that the generation of the time expressed in an attempt to realize the requirements of their community. Our understanding of history is illumined by the book and its treatment of history. We come to appreciate the way the book enables the readers view history and its characteristic features. The work is a contribution to the general perspective of history and we collect a comprehensive outlook of history and of the African-American history that covers the Revolution and struggle of the generation directed towards the abolition of slavery and the related issues of the black Americans. The book by Nash is not a contribution to the understanding of history alone, but it makes remarkable input to the critical outlook of everything including history, race issues, resistance movements, general opinion of things and even critical analysis of the book itself. The contribution that the works makes in relation to history is carried on to the issues and events that get noticed in the general outlook of things. The reader comes greatly to a position where he/she can appreciate things in history beyond the limits of common views and outlook. Things in the historical perspective themselves are challenged by the improved reasoning faculty of the reader and a greater view of things is made possible. Therefore, the ultimate conclusion about the worth of the work and its usefulness to other people makes clear that it is a work worth hundreds of its nature and thus anybody who gets acquainted with issues of the related character will benefit from this great collection of essays. In conclusion we can find that Race and Revolution by Nash is a typical reading for the students and it is written in the most commanding, straightforward, revisionist, and imposing voice to give the effect of the book on its readers. As Tise on the cover page of Race and Revolution by Nash remarks, it “is a bold and stirring documentation of the collapse of the devotion for liberty in America in the immediate wake of the American Revolution… Gary Nash correctly finds that the demise of efforts to abolish slavery and incorporate blacks in American society proceeded directly from an increasingly conservative, white supremacist North, mot a self serving South.” (Gary 1990). Thus, we can understand the book as one of the chief contributions to the reader’s understanding of history, especially as it relates to the African-American history. Bibliography Gary B Nash, “Race and Revolution,” 1990, (8 December 2007). David Szatmary, Reed Business Information, Inc. (University of Washington, Seattle, 1990). Gary B Nash, Race and Revolution. (WI: Madison House, 1990). Read More