Rescues antebellum Southern thinkers from intellectual obscurity

Eugene Genovese explores the efforts of American slaveholders to reconcile the intellectual dilemma in which they found themselves as supporters of freedom but defenders of slavery. In The Slaveholders' Dilemma, Genovese argues that the spokespeople for the Southern position demonstrated much greater intellectual talent than has been recognized in the past.

Eugene D. Genovese is Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the University Center in Atlanta, Georgia. His other books include The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South and Fruits of Merchant Capital: Slavery and Bourgeois Property in the Rise and Expansion of Capitalism

"Once again Genovese subjects the contradictions of conservative proslavery thought to a respectful if withering critique."—American Historical Review