Bruce Levine

"Thaddeus Stevens" is not a deep, in-depth history about Stevens' personal and family life. Instead, it is a history of his political life and beliefs, which is what I was more interested in anyway. Stevens was a remarkable man, especially considering the time period he lived in. He was staunchly anti-slavery, fighting for equal rights for Black Americans, and supported public education, women's rights, Native American rights, and the rights of immigrants (in particular the large Chinese population in California), among other issues. He reminds me of Bernie Saunders, fighting for what he knew was correct and needed, despite what his colleagues and others thought and supported. He, more than Lincoln and some others, showed that the Civil War was about slavery, and pushed the passing of the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. He spent his entire life doing everything he could to end slavery and promote rights for the black freedmen. He was the leader in Congress to impeach the terrible president Andrew Johnson (passed in the House, lost by one vote in the Senate).
And a quote that could be taken out of today's headlines, author Bruce Levine says Thaddeus Stevens came to recognize "...extreme economic inequality as a threat to democracy". In 1865, Stevens himself said "It is impossible that any practical equality of rights can exist where a few thousand men monopolize the whole landed property". Hmm...
At 300 pages, a short book, but very interesting and very appropriate in these troubled times.… (mais)

5779. Thaddeus Stevens Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice, by Bruce Levine (read 5 Feb 2022) This is a 2021 biography of the Congressman from Pennsylvania who was probably the most radical person in Congress in the days right after the Civil War and I read it because earlier biographies of him were affected by the tendency to deprecate the more advanced favorable attitude to Reconstruction now in vogue. And the book does say good things about Stevens and only mentions once his supposed Black mistress and questions the evidence for such a relationship to her. The book rightly points out that Stevens' attitude to Black rights was essentially right in today's view.. He was avid in his disapproval of Andrew Johnson and was one of the House managers for his impeachment though by the time of the trial he had to be carried to the Senate for the trial. He died in August of 1868. I did not find the book much fun to read, and it spent little time on Stevens's personal life and spent much time on the issues with which he was concerned. I have read many better biographies..… (mais)

Great history books weave the writings of the past into a narrative to help the reader understand and feel the events, emotions and motivations of those times. Bruce Levine has written a great history book!

The haunting parallels of his quotes and citations to today's events are shivering. Citizen's United and Dred Scot? The speech given by Rand Paul days ago at CPAC about men resisting invasion of their rights to their "property" and the words of the slave masters are hair raisingly similar. The moves to Gerrymander Congressional districts and restrict voting rights, the dogma of the Tea Party and right wing Republicans, the rationalization that poverty is only because people will not work hard enough or refuse to work hard enough are all eerily reminiscent of the Civil War era rhetoric about slavery and rights of the wealthy and powerful. Even the trickle down economic theories we hear on Fox News and the "job creator" nonsense are all old ideas used by those who use to own people, controlling them with "stripes" (lashing with rough leather whips). The vilification of Lincoln is often only a few words different than those used now for President Obama.

The slave masters controlled the majority of Southerners by ignorance, rhetoric and pleas for their unique "Christian" doctrine. When one looks at the makeup of the current majority of the US House of Representatives it is too weird to be coincidence. There are numerous quotes from slave masters which document their designs to stay in power and preserve a form of slavery through laws to control former slaves economically.

Oh my, what we will do to each other for money and power over our fellow citizens on our short time on this rock. Will we ever take a lesson from history to move forward? I thank Providence for historians like Mr. Levine.… (mais)