Berlin's "The Long Emancipation" Reviewed In The Times Literary Supplement

Professor Ira Berlin’s "The Long Emancipation: The Demise of Slavery in the United States" is the lead review in the current issue of the Times Literary Supplement, written by Ari Kelman.

Professor Ira Berlin’s The Long Emancipation: The Demise of Slavery in the United States is the lead review in the current issue of the Times Literary Supplement, written by Ari Kelman.   "In The Long Emancipation: The demise of slavery in the United States Ira Berlin argues that studying illustrious figures as they stride across the stage of American history obscures as much as it reveals. Readers should instead consider the fight against slavery as a trans­national process, driven by actors acclaimed and anonymous, who moved in fits and starts over the course of a century […] The book reads as though Berlin wrote the text to be spoken aloud, and readers may occasionally find themselves craving more detail, as when they arrive at Berlin’s tantalizing discussion of the self-serving contortions that underlay Thomas Jefferson’s views on American slavery and American freedom […] Rather than offering the last word on the subject, Berlin has tried to start a conversation. His book is a challenge issued to a rising generation of scholars who may choose to complete the work that he has outlined.”   The reivew of Professor Berlin's book by Ari Kelman can be found, here.