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BOOK REVIEWS83 always right. He never conferred enough with his officers. When he got a notion, we had to go. . . ." Kinsley argues that in his way Custer loved the Indian, and of the debate over tactics at the Little Big Horn he comments: "Perchance, tactics were merely a means to an end in the designs of individual destiny. Custer had reached the zenith of his glory in 1876. It was a suitable fate for a chüd of furtune: a fate that insured his immortality." Kinsley has done his part to perpetuate that immortality . WnxiAM A. Settle, Jr. University of Tulsa Powder Keg: Northern Opposition to the Antislavery Movement 1831-1840. By Lorman Ratner. (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1968. Pp. x, 171. $6.00.) Professor Ratner's book is concerned with the attitudes of northeastern Americans with the issue of antislavery during the ten year period foUowing the demise of the American Colonization Society and the rise of the New England Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society. As his subtide explains, the book is designed to develop to some extent the arguments against the crusade to abolish slavery. Dr. Ratner makes much of the general proposition that Americans in the early nineteenth century were accustomed to slavery as an institution and that they were indeed partial to racist arguments in support of the system. This proposition is not very new or exciting since it could be stated equally emphaticaUy and argued more systematicaUy that the entire century might be termed a racist period. Wüliam Stanton's The Leopard's Spots, among other books, has shown amply the scientific views held by nineteenth century Americans toward blacks; and modern historians have been cognizant of the racism of the period for considerable time. Relying heavüy on published statements in opposition to antislavery movements, Powder Keg is a kind of summary of reflections both in support of slavery and in opposition to antislavery. In this regard it is a cursory refresher course on general opinion, a review of middle American opposition to what was believed to be radical boat-rocking . Ratner sees this as a generaUy pervasive American feeling or reaction to criticism of the dream that was America. The dichotomy of confidence on one hand and anxiety on the other of northerners in their view of the character of the ideal society was revealed too suddenly and starkly by antislavery advocates to aUow an analytical and reasoned response. The demands of the antislavery reformers shattered conceptions having a base of over two centuries. Caught unawares, defenders of the status quo slavery argument became increasingly entangled in proslavery rhetoric which was confounded by the events of the 1850's. The title promises more than it is able to fulfill. The use of published sources needs greater fortification with observations of a personal and introspective nature to be found in letters, notes and diaries. The fact of opposition to antislavery developments in northeastern United States was not unknown to every other section of the nation during the period for the same unresolved reasons. The book shuold also have made a more clear distinction between antislavery and abolitionism. The brevity of the exposition on the immensely complex events and circumstances surrounding the growth of antislavery and abolitionist sentiment is unfortunate. The subject demands a more extensive and intensive study. J. J. Cardoso SUNY Buffalo ...

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