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Patrick Rael, Reinhard O. Johnson. The Liberty Party, 1840–1848: Antislavery Third-Party Politics in the United States. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 2009. Pp. x, 500. $75.00, The American Historical Review, Volume 115, Issue 2, April 2010, Pages 544–545, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.115.2.544
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Extract
Reinhard O. Johnson offers the first modern comprehensive study of the antislavery Liberty Party, which flourished in the antebellum North from 1840 to 1849. His laudable effort to capture both national and state stories of the party reinforces his point that the party differed over space and time depending on local political conditions and the influence of individual leaders. Thus New York appears as an atypical but cornerstone Liberty state while Middle Atlantic peers such as New Jersey emerge as relatively weak. New England Liberty grew out of conflicts with Garrisonian abolitionism while western brands, unencumbered by such tensions, proved more likely to compromise their moral stridency for political expediency. The unique politics of individual states, such as New Hampshire and Rhode Island, could deeply shape the fate of the party, while in places such as western Pennsylvania only pockets of Liberty thrived thanks to the careful stewardship of powerful personalities.