David Brudnoy on a study of black history by Eugene Genovese O Sheldon M. Smith on Andrew M. Greeley’s reaction to phony relevance in the Church

In Red and Black: Marxian Explorations in Southern and Afro-American History By Eugene D. Genovese Pantheon, 435 pp., $10 Lest by my enthusiasm I contribute to legitimizing Eugene Genovese’s unsought role as NR’3 House Leftist (or Token Marxist, if you like), which his fifteenth anniversary issue appearance seemed to imply, I should note right now that no one will ever housebreak, keep, or—thank God—tame him. If the enemy of our enemy is our friend, then he is surely our friend, since the madmen of the Left loathe him with a passion matched only by his scorn for them; more on that later. In this book, Professor Genovese’s meticulous scholarship and clarity of exposition (to quote him in generous praise of another academician) are readily apparent, as is his emerging stature as one of the finest younger historians of America.

The paradox of the South, constant fascination of slavery, emergence of the Negro as a focus of serious study, vicissitudes of Marxian scholarship— all receive ample investigation in this score of his essays written during the past five years. If Dr. Genovese is almost boringly insistent on his dreary Marxist “class” interpretation of everything in sight, it is a small price to pay for the humanism, sophistication, devastating razor-slicing annihilation of

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David Brudnoy

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In Red and Black: Marxian Explorations in Southern and Afro-American History By Eugene D. Genovese Pantheon, 435 pp., $10 Lest by my enthusiasm I contribute to legitimizing Eugene Genovese’s unsought role as NR’3 House Leftist (or Token Marxist, if you like), which his fifteenth anniversary issue appearance seemed to imply, I should note right now that no one will ever housebreak, keep, or—thank God—tame him. If the enemy of our enemy is our friend, then he is surely our friend, since the madmen of the Left loathe him with a passion matched only by his scorn for them; more on that later. In this book, Professor Genovese’s meticulous scholarship and clarity of exposition (to quote him in generous praise of another academician) are readily apparent, as is his emerging stature as one of the finest younger historians of America.

The paradox of the South, constant fascination of slavery, emergence of the Negro as a focus of serious study, vicissitudes of Marxian scholarship— all receive ample investigation in this score of his essays written during the past five years. If Dr. Genovese is almost boringly insistent on his dreary Marxist “class” interpretation of everything in sight, it is a small price to pay for the humanism, sophistication, devastating razor-slicing annihilation of