Reviews

• Lo studio dello storico americano E.D. GENOVESE, di chiare origini italiane, sul mondo della schiavitù negli Stati Uniti è fondamentale per comprendere la realtà, i valori e l'esistenza di quella che era un'autentica "nazione" all'interno della grande nazione nordamericana. Il capolavoro di Genovese esamina il contributo che la cultura nera ha dato, nel bene e nel male, al mondo dei bianchi, influenzandolo profondamente, nel vasto scenario della civiltà degli Stati del Sud, che si sarebbero scontrati nella guerra civile con quelli del Nord.

• This Biography on Marshall Keeble was written by Dr. Julian Ernest Choate (Dr. J. E. Choate) who was a Professor of Philosophy, English and Bible at David Lipscomb College in Nashville, Tennessee for possibly half a century or longer. Dr. Choate received his Ph. D from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, taught English, Philosophy and Bible classes at David Lipscomb College, and held many of the daily Chapel Services at David Lipscomb College during his long tenure there. He in addition was an active Minister in the churches of Christ as was his brother in Christ, Marshall Keeble. Dr. Choate was also noted as an exceptional author for having written many books on a variety of different subjects ranging from the Real American Cowboy to this thorough Biography of Marshall Keeble. Dr. Choate was also a close and very devoted friend of Marshall Keeble for many years, which adds to the personal qualities noted in the composition of this Biography. As to Marshall Keeble's birth date, the Biography notes that Marshall Keeble was 22 years of age in 1900, making the year of his birth 1878. The actual date is often given as December 7, 1878. Marshall Keeble died on April 20, 1968 prior to the publication of this Biography. Dr. J. E. Choate passed away in 2013 after a very fruitful career as author, teacher and Minister in the churches of Christ. One other Biography on Marshall Keeble had been written a number of years earlier by Dr. B. C. Goodpasture, also a close friend of Marshall Keeble. Dr. Julian Ernest Choate has written an intimate account on the life of this Minister in the churches of Christ whose parents were born as slaves in the State Tennessee. The Biography captures the essence of the unique qualities of Marshall Keeble and the reasons for his effectiveness in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ from small towns in Tennessee to various countries around the World and in United States from New York to California. Marshall Keeble is said to have Baptised over 40,000 people during his active Ministry with the churches of Christ. Similar to an early contemporary Minister of Brother Keeble's, Brother T. B. Larimore, the men who became Evangelists in the churches of Christ under their tutelage were often called "Keeble's Boys", as was the case with Brother Larimore whose student Evangelists were often referred to as "Larimore's Boys". Both Brother Keeble and Brother Larimore were self-taught and received little if any Theological training other than their own natural abilities in speaking and studying what is taught in the Holy Bible and the use of Webster's Dictionary. Marshall Keeble received during his lifetime some of the highest Honors ever presented to individuals by the State of Tennessee and special Honors given in other countries around the World. Dr. Julian Ernest Choate has effectively written a biographical narrative that captures the special attributes and personal characteristics of Marshall Keeble that explain in many ways how he was able to be as effective as he was during the "Jim Crow" days in this country and achieve the Honors both in this Country and around the World that were presented to him. Marshall Keeble's method (as was also with T. B. Larimore) was to present the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in as simple and Bible centered way as possible, not adding to or subtracting from what is written in the Holy Bible. Dr. Choate has captured all the details in the life of an individual that were able to appeal to a person of any race during a period of time when that could have been a difficult task to achieve. Brother Keeble transcended the barriers of race, religion, sex, social and financial status as he followed only the Gospel of Jesus Christ as presented in Holy Scripture. Many hours of talks and years of personal association with Marshall Keeble were keys in completing this Biography written by Dr. Choate, actually knowing the facts of Marshall Keeble's spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ during his long and very active life. How such tasks were completed, financed and fulfilled are also examined in this work by Dr. Choate. This work is highly recommended reading for anyone interested in the life of one of the most influential Ministers of the churches of Christ during a period of time that little has been written of such achievements. This Biography is well documented, researched and written by Dr. Choate and will open up a complete and accurate record of a most unusual individual and his life's work as one of the most successful Minister's of the churches of Christ which developed from the Restoration Movement in the American South during the 19th Century.

• This is an interesting book, clearly the result of many years of research, which tries to answer the question of what slavery meant for slaves in the American South. It challenges what has been the currently orthodox interpretation of American slavery as degrading and dehumanising, and claims that a mutual dependency between the slaves and their owners allowed slaves to develop their own culture and religious faith. It is not a defence of slavery, but at times comes rather close to the pre-1950s view of slavery as benefiting its victims by educating and acculturing them. The book has some serious flaws: three serious ones are its belief in the paternalism of American slave-holders, an almost complete lack of conclusions and its length. It is at its best when describing what its sub-title calls "The World the Slaves Made", but it could have done this far more concisely, and its failure to locate that world in context reduces its value. The book reads more like an extended essay about Genovese's interpretation than an objective study. Genovese sees the pre-Civil War South as a paternalistic society whose paternalism was a European ideology adopted by the slave-holders and accepted by the slaves as it gave them a protector from harsh slave laws. However, acceptance (he argues) deprived the slaves of the initiative to change their lives through revolt, as in Brazil. He regards paternalism as a pre-capitalist, pre-industrial style of life and work, the opposite of the factory system. Other writers like Kenneth Stampp and Fogel and Engerman consider slave-holders were capitalists motivated by profit and the lifestyle they aspired to was merely incidental to this. Genovese's 650-plus pages contain much detail from the records of slave-holders and others, but it is unclear how representative this is. His conclusions are limited to three pages, which largely restate his view of a paternalistic accommodation between master and slave without considering the alternatives. He calls paternalism an ideology or ethos but fails to analyse its elements or development. It is difficult to consider the actions of slave-holders in the South as "paternalistic" as that word is normally understood, but Genovese does not provide an explanation of how the system with its brutality could be paternalistic in any other terms. This book deserves to be read as one reinterpretation of the history of American slavery, but it should not be read in isolation from the work of Kenneth Stampp and others, who show slavery as irredeemably rooted in violence and coercion.

• I have read a number of books on the American Civil War and on slavery in the New World. This book is quite a bit the best of them all. Genovese makes two things very clear: slavery is an abomination in any form; but if you had to be a slave, America was the place to be it. The author sugarcoats nothing. Instead he turns his penetrating eye onto every aspect of plantation slavery.

• all went well

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