The Road to Redemption: Southern Politics, 1869-1879 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS275 instability in party politics between 1850 and 1853. Only when the new Republican party finally emerged as a viable major party in 1855 with Chase's election as governor did the nativist movement decline and stability return to the two-party system. With that sectional issues again dominated Ohio as they did national politics. Those seeking a detailed study of the politics of a key northern state will be well rewarded by a close reading of Maizlich's important monograph. Frederick J. Blue Youngstown State University The Road to Redemption: Southern Politics, 1869-1879. By Michael Perman. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984. Pp. xiv, 353. $32.00.) With the publication of this book, Michael Perman has completed a masterful interpretative history of southern politics in the Reconstruction era. In addition to its ambitious scope, the book demonstrates how Reconstruction was a continuation of southern political history and how both Republicans and Democrats tried to capture the political center. This emphasis on continuity and consensus sets Perman's work apart from that of other historians who have stressed the upheaval and conflict of the period. The author gives careful attention for the first time to the tactical shift of southern Democrats from all-out opposition to Reconstruction to the seemingly more flexible New Departure policy. Though covering the entire South, Perman takes into account variations among the states in drawing general conclusions about southern politics. In contrast, the treatment of Republican factionalism is not as sophisticated except for the categorization of centrists, regulars, and radicals. Perman wisely resurrects the discredited term "Bourbon" to describe the Democratic diehards who battled their New Departure brethren. Indeed, the failure to win black votes, the collapse of various fusion movements, and the continuing success of the Republican party in many states virtually guaranteed the resurgence of these political purists. The book is, perhaps unintentionally, a devastating critique of the work of C. Vann Woodward. Perman argues that both parties courted the ex-Whigs, but he also demonstrates this group's impotency in southern politics. In addition, his portrait of the agrarian Bourbons greatly conflicts with Woodward's description of business-oriented redeemers. Despite his earlier emphasis on consensus, the author shows how it took better campaign organization and renewed emphasis on sectionalism and racism to end white voter apathy. Ironically, the Republicans, too, discovered the treacherous nature of political moderation and the high cost of appeals to reform-minded whites. Unlike most histories of the period, this book extends beyond 1877and gives careful attention to the 276civil war history continuing divisions among Democrats over drafting new state constitutions , the resurgence of agrarian interests and the adoption of a reactionary labor policy. Although this analysis of southern politics is usually persuasive and well-written, there are some problems. Perman thoroughly examined southern newspaper and manuscript collections but neglected government documents, the papers of northern politicians in the Library of Congress, and the voluminous material in the National Archives on patronage and political factionalism. For example, there is little attention given to the often titanic struggles over federal appointments in the South. Nor does Perman sufficiently explore the parties' legislative programs ; the general treatment of public policy questions, such as railroad subsidies, would have been greatly strengthened by a single quantitative analysis of legislative voting patterns. Finally, the emphasis on continuity and consensus makes the politics of the period seem almost bland and neglects the strident rhetoric, bitter campaigns and outbreaks of violence. Most specialists will have similar reservations about various specific points, but Perman's work has now become the starting point for all serious students of southern politics during Reconstruction. George C. Rable Anderson College American Diaries: An Annotated Bibliography of Published American Diaries and Journals. Volume 1: Diaries Written from 1492 to 1844. By Laura Arksey, Nancy Pries, and Marcia Reed. (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983. Pp. 311. $74.00.) This impressive work, which will be completed in two volumes with citations to 1980, expands and revises the pioneer efforts of William Matthews 's American Diaries: An Annotated Bibliography of American Diaries Written Prior to the Year 1861 (1945). It can be used in conjunction with Matthews's other...