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BOOK REVIEWS domains and intercultural accommodation and more a border state. American Conjillence is a valuable addition to early American frontier studies and an impressive synthesis of the most recent borderlands research as it applies to a broadly defined Missouri frontier. Even though Aron suggests that in the case of the Spanish, British, and Americans, there was little prior history with accommodations of the type that developed in the confluence region during the second half ofthe eighteenth century"( 224), the information and interpretations he provides do beg comparison with other borderland regions,whether the Ohio River Valley or Louisiana. Sara Brooks Sundberg Universitv of Central Missouri Brian Dirck,ed. Lincoln Emancipated: Tbe President undtbe Politics of Race. Dekalb,IL: Northern Illinois University Press.2007. 208 pp. ISBN 9780875803593 ( cloth), $ 32.00. Somewhere there is a history professor reciting familiar refrains: Historical interpretations change over time." " History is not a dusty relic destined to deteriorate on forgotten basement bookshelves." " History is a vibrant and exciting field because it is always changing. Lincoln Emancipated: lbe President and the Politics°f Race offers a striking example that tropes can be truths. unce upon a time," writes Allen C. Guelzo, almost every African American home or business had,hanging on its walls, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln" ( vii). African Americans once supported the Republican Party because it was the party of Lincoln, just as icons from Booker T Washington to Jackie Robinson " hailed Lincoln as their model and champion ( vii). But not even Lincoln can escape the shifting currents of the historical profession . In the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, the New Left ushered in a group of historians who tried to transform the Great Emancipator into the Gre·at Racist. Lerone Bennett framed the debate in 1968 when he asked, " Was Lincoln a White Supremacist?" His interpretation reached full maturity in 2000 with the publication of Forced into Glory. Abraham Lincohik White Dream. I have never seen a book elicit such a response. Scholars, students, and the public began asking a once unthinkable question, " Was Lincoln a racist?" Lincoln Emancipated may well represent the first wave of critical reaction to the Great Racist thesis. Brian R. Dirck, the editor ofthis volume, is quickly establishing himself as a rising star iii the field of Lincoln studies. He has certainly assembled an impressive cast of scholars in this collection of essays. Kenneth J. Winkle opens the volume by placing Lincoln in his proper historical context. Born in a slave state,Lincoln lived the majority of his adult life in a state that restricted African Americans from settling within its borders. Similarly,Dirck offers a useful reminder not to exclude Lincoln' s chosen profession from the conversation. Lincoln practiced law for a quartercentury , was involved in over five thousand legal cases of which only thirtyfour involved African Americans), and both the US.Constitution, as well as the US. Supreme Court, protected America' s peculiar institution. Kevin R. C. Gutzman' s essay takes a comparative approach and places Lincoln' s controversial FALL 2007 81 BOOK REVIEWS support of colonization alongside another Aaron SheehanDean ,ed. 7be Vie€ U American who did not believe white and from tbe Ground: Experiences of Civil black Americans could live together peacefully ,Thomas Jefferson. Make no mistake,Lincoln Emancipated is not a work of hagiographycontextual ization is not absolution. James N. Leiker' s essay provides the best evidence. He expands the discussion of Lincoln and race to include not only African Americans, but also Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. Assuming that his public record reflects his private sentiments," Leiker concludes, " Abraham Lincoln believed the nations of Asia and Latin America -' to be backward, favored expansionist policies onto Indian lands · at the expense of tribal sovereignty, and thought African Americans incapable of selfgovernment 83).Essays by Michael Vorenberg and Dennis K. Boman round out this balanced examination of Lincoln and race. But Phillip S. Paludan's essay stands out from the crowd. " Was Lincoln a racist?," he begins. Better yet: " What makes a racist? Would it be legitimate to call someone a racist who used the ' N'word ten times? Over what period? How vehemently? To whom?" ( 29).It is fascinating to follow...

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