MR. LINCOLN AND THE NEGROES

Although the book suffers from an unusual organization (chapters are tied into some fragment of Lincoln's second inaugural address) there is much to recommend Justice Douglas' attempt to clarify the early history of civil rights for the Negro. He draws on letters and public documents of the post-Civil War era and the interpretations of the course of Negro history seem well supported by these sources. Good supplementary reading in an important and still hotly contested subject area.