Frederick Douglass Race and the Rebirth of American Liberalism by Peter C. Myers ISBN: 9780700615728 $34.95 Hardcover University Press of Kansas For the iconic 19th-century slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the foundations for his arguments in support of racial equality rested on natural rights and natural law, plus the bold proclamation of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. Since many Americans never observed this principle--and in Douglass's day even renounced it--he made it his life's work to move the nation toward this vision of a more noble liberalism. Peter Myers now considers that effort and the natural rights arguments by which Douglass confronted race in America.

Praise for Frederick Douglass: Race and the Rebirth of American Liberalism "Myers's book is an incisive and comprehensive examination of the political thought of the greatest of all black abolitionists. But it is more than that. As a fervent defense of Douglass's 'natural rights liberalism,' it makes a significant contribution to current debates on the meaning of liberty and equality."--George M. Fredrickson, author of Racism: A Short History