The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 91, July 1987 - April, 1988 Page: 121

Book Reviews

roots of, but concedes considerable northern support for, the New Chris-
tian Right. Gaustad contends that regionalism in religion is an American,
not just a southern, phenomenon and asserts that in the case of religion
the "New South" extends to the southwest and southern California.
By providing evidence of divisions within and substantial external in-
fluences on southern Protestantism, and by highlighting similarities be-
tween southern and national religious development, Relzgion in the South
suggests historians need a more qualified and complex interpretation of
southern evangelicalism and its role in southern distinctiveness than cur-
rently dominates the field.
Louzsiana State University GAINES M. FOST ER
Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era. Edited by Howard N.
Rabinowitz. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982. Pp.
xxiv + 422. Acknowledgments, introduction, illustrations, tables,
afterword, notes, index. $27.50, cloth; $9.95, paper.)
The volume under review is a refreshing addition to a growing list of
revisionist studies dealing with blacks during Reconstruction and the
post-Reconstruction era as well. As succinctly stated by editor Howard
N. Rabinowitz, the purpose of this collection of essays is twofold: (1) to
make recent biographical research on black politicians of the Reconstruc-
tion era more readily available to the scholarly community and the general
public; and (2) to point the way for future research.
Preceding the three major parts, or "blocks," of the book is a power-
ful introduction by Rabinowitz which summarizes the historiography (and
controversies) of the Reconstruction process and the role of black politi-
cians within that process. The reader learns that the essays that follow
are broadly revisionist in nature-interpretations that are generally free
of racial bias. Following the introduction are five articles on black con-
gressmen, including Blanche K. Bruce and James O'Hara; four articles
which are "collective" biographies of state and local leaders; five essays
on individual leaders; and an excellent afterword by the noted August
Meier, who offers conclusions and directions for the future.
Of the entire collection, at least one essay should be of special interest
to Texas historians. Carl H. Moneyhon contributed an article on George
T. Ruby, who had a remarkable political career in Texas and elsewhere.
This reviewer first became acquainted with "the Ruby" as a graduate stu-
dent doing research for a study later published as Tzme of Hope, Time of
Despair: Black Texans during Reconstruction (New York, 1981) and later pur-
sued "the Ruby" long enough to complete a brief article, "G. T. Ruby:

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