AND THE LIMITS OF SOUTHERN DISSENT
"This well-crafted dual biography examines the lives of Kenneth Rayner, a notable North Carolina Whig, and his mulatto son, John b. Rayner, a leading Texas Populist. Gregg Cantrell depicts both father and son as dissenters who tried but failed to liberate southern politics from the grip of North-South and black-white polarization. . . . Canterll brings a judicious sensitivity to his complex task. He refuses to depict his subjects in a heroic mode. No comparable study of a white father and a black son has ever before appeared."
"The author admirably weaves together the story of the political activites of the father and the son . . . . it would be difficult to fault the range, depth, and sophistication of politial analyses. . . . there is new information here, and the ideological coupling of white father and mulatto son offers a unique and sometimes compelling picture of southern politics spanning three-quarters of a century."
"In a brilliant dual biography, Cantrell argues that there were striking similarities between the two southerners. . . . Cantrell skillfully uses the available evidence to create two vivid portraits. . . . A felicitous writer, Cantrell is particularly good at illuminating the political choices available to Kenneth Rayner in the 1850s, as he sought to resist the increasing power of sectionalism, and the even more limited options open to John B. Rayner during the Populist revolt and its aftermath."
"The author investigated a wide range of manuscript sources . . . . Besides extensive and imaginative research in manuscripts, Cantrell read a host of newspapers, more than fifty, that ranged from those published in Washington, D.C. and New York to those published in North Carolina and Texas. The author interviewed descendants of both the Rayners as well as some people who knew John Rayner. In short, the research is impeccable. . . . This is an exceptional book."
"Gregg Cantrell writes well, a great help when deciphering the causes and effects of the perplexing and often confusing area of Southern dissent and racist politics. The Introduction and Epilogue neatly organize and summarize the issues of this biographical narrative. The body of the work becomes more personal through Cantrell's incorporation of speeches, newspaper columns, and private letters by both Rayners. Best used at the senior and graduate level, this work remains distinct enough in content and analysis that an educated layman should find it an excellent and provocative read. It deserves a place on the shelves of all historians involved with race and politics of the nineteenth-century South.