"Brings to a Conclusion One of the Towering Achievements of Historical Scholarship of the Past Half-Century"

"Davis is fully aware of the moral ambiguities involved in the crusade against slavery, the process of abolition and the long afterlife of racism. Nonetheless, in a rebuke to those historians today who belittle the entire project of emancipation, he insists that the abolition of slavery in the Western Hemisphere was one of the profoundest achievements in human history, 'a crucial landmark of moral progress that we should never forget.' His monumental three-volume study helps to ensure that it will always be remembered."


In The Nation, Eric Foner reviews David Brion Davis's The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation.