The Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders (Paperback)

by James Oakes (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
A sweeping and spirited history of Southern slaveholders. -- David Herbert Donald

Invaluable. -- Los Angeles Times

Invaluable. (Los Angeles Times )

Social history at its best, as illuminating as it is readable. -- Philadelphia Inquirer

This attempt at a sweeping re-evaluation of a central theme in American history can only be applauded. -- The New York Times Book Review, Eric Foner

Product Description
This pathbreaking social history of the slaveholding South marks a turn in our understanding of antebellum America and the coming of the Civil War. Oakes's bracing analysis breaks the myth that slaveholders were a paternalistic aristocracy dedicated to the values of honor, race, and section. Instead they emerge as having much in common with their entrepreneurial counterparts in the North: they were committed to free-market commercialism and political democracy for white males. The Civil War was not an inevitable conflict between civilizations on different paths but the crack-up of a single system, the result of people and events. This revised edition features a new introduction by the author.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (January 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393317056
• ISBN-13: 978-0393317053
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #405,102 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Study of the Plurality of Slaveholders, November 16, 2000

By	Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

James Oakes' The Ruling Class is a history of American slaveholders that effectively dispels the image of the paternalistic plantation aristocrat as the definitive, or even typical, portrait of the average slaveholder. It was interesting to see how much the Southeners and the Northeners had in common in political and ecomonic outlook. The average slaveholder was a grasping capitilist continually on the move and trying to advance himself. Slaves were a commodity to be used in this regard, as were the slaveholders' democratic politics and the expansion south and westward in the United States. The paternalist image built up in mythology after the Civil War existed but it was not representative. This book is effective is demonstrating the ways in which the slaves were an active, often rebellious, factor in this capititist drama as they also rejected any paternalist notion of their enslavement and saw the truth of the picture. They were a commodity both for labour and commerce. The book is excellant in portraying a complicated picture of the slaveholding class that involved many people of different ethnic, religious, political, and economic backgrounds all bound up in a capitilist explotiation of the slaves as a source of upward mobility in a very fluid society. A good place to begin to learn about this period of history.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very, very interesting read, November 28, 2005

By	Thomas W. Robinson (Dayton, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I like to consider myself a student of 19th century American history, and especially of the South. But, I was not that knowledgable on the everyday lives of slaves or their masters. While there are several good works on the lives of slaves, I couldn't find a decent one on slaveholders until I picked this one up. Oakes has crafted an excellent look at what it was like, day to day, for the average slaveholder. Rather than looking at just the large plantation owners, he delves into the lives of slaveholders who owned 1 slave or 100. He focuses not on just one state, but several. The book was both well researched and well written. Most of the book reads very well because Oakes cites numerous diaries, letters, and newspapers. The book makes for quite a good read and will really add to your knowledge of slaveholders in the South.

8 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing study of the other side of the lash...., September 20, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Ruling Race (Paperback)

With this book, Oakes brings to light the other side of the master/slave relationship in the south. The information presented is quite intriguing, and certainly interesting, but I think that Oakes missed whatever mark he was trying to make. The point that he attempts to drive home is murky, at best, concentrating on the differences between the "old" and the "new" slaveholding class. Oakes subscribes to Genovese's concept of paternalism in the slaveholding class, and effectively makes the argument that there was a difference between the parvenus of the class, and the old blood. Unfortunately, his comparison, although the details are interesting, ultimately turns out to be confusing and becomes instead just a collection of facts about the slave owning society in the South. Despite this weakness, however, the book is well worth reading for the new slant that it gives on the "master class," and their attitude about their slaves, the South, and their view of the world.