Davis, Revolutions - Reflections On American Equality And Foreign Liberations

Abstract

The lecture/essay is one of this reviewer's favorite forms of history. Such works are usually by major, mature scholars, and give insights gained during a distinguished career. The author of Revolutions: Reflections on American Equality and Foreign Liberations is a notable presence in United States historiography. He has won the Pulitzer, Bancroft, and Beveridge prizes; his books, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture and The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, would by themselves make him an important figure in intellectual, cultural, and social history. Thus, it is with considerable anticipation that one opens Revolutions, which is based on the 1989 Massey Lectures at Harvard and Davis's presidential address to the Organization of American Historians.