A Faithful Account of the Race

With his insightful book as a starting point, Stephen Hall is pointing us in the right direction.--American Nineteenth Century History The distinctive contributions of A Faithful Account of the Race is not that it considers black understandings of the black experience, but that it selects one set of these black historical writings and weaves them into a 120-year story of the ways in which African Americans thought about black people in history, both as actors and as the subjects of action. . . . [An] excellent book.--North Carolina Historical Review The book's immense strength lies in its breadth and expansiveness. In conducting a chronological examination . . . Hall is able to present a wide range of understudied texts. . . . Critically important to the development and evolution of African American historiography.--Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Stephen G. Hall provides a solid introduction to early African American historical writing, reflecting a reverence for, and a mastery of, his subject.--Journal of Southern History Provocative, groundbreaking, interdisciplinary historical methodology.--African American Review Highly recommended.--Choice Hall takes his subjects seriously as thinkers and historians and places them in the context of their time, rather than judging them according to modern standards of historical scholarship or analyzing them through the lens of modern racial concerns. . . . Fascinating and illuminating. . . . By demonstrating the richness and complexity of nineteenth-century African-American historical writing, Hall contributes to our understanding of American historiography and intellectual history.--Journal of American History Extensively researched and well written, this monograph does more than establish the credibility of nineteenth-century black historical writings. Hall successfully locates the professionalization of black history within a continuum that stretches back to the early republic.--American Historical Review A fine first book. . . . It is persuasively argued and succeeds in enhancing our understanding of the development of early black history. . . . Clearly organized. . . . Well written. . . . Its subject of nineteenth-century black history texts is thoroughly researched.--H-Net Reviews

STEPHEN G. HALL is assistant professor of history at the Ohio State University in Columbus.