John Hope Franklin (1915-2009) was James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus and professor of legal history at Duke University. For many years he was the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He served as president of the Southern Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, the American Studies Association, and the Society of Phi Beta Kappa. He received more than eighty honorary degrees. His books include From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans; Racial Equality in America; George Washington Williams: A Biography; and Race and History: Selected Essays, 1938-1988.

In Race and History, John Hope Franklin, one of the nation's foremost historians, collects twenty-seven of his most influential shorter writings. The essays are presented thematically and include pieces on southern history; significant but neglected historical figures; historiography; the connection between historical problems and contemporary issues; and the public role of the historian.
Collectively these essays reveal Franklin as a man who has exhibited immense courage and intellectual independence in the face of cultural and social bias, a scholar who has set the tone and direction for twentieth-century African-American studies, and a writer whose insistence on balance and truth has inspired two generations of historians.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

"These essays are examples of first-rate scholarship. Even when treading his way through the most treacherous issue of American life, race, Franklin is a model for us all...To read this collection is to be reminded of just how important John Hope Franklin has been in the historical profession." -Dan T. Carter, Emory University

"This book is packed full of hard truths that needed saying. It is our fortune that they are said so well and in a voice that carries much authority." -C. Vann Woodward, New Republic

"Readers will find these twenty-seven essays eloquent, barbed, timely and outspoken. Franklin's assessment of a widening socioeconomic chasm between blacks and whites, his sweeping surveys of racism from the American Revolution to the Civil War and beyond, are hard-hitting." -Publisher's Weekly

"Franklin is a brilliant teacher, with something to teach us all. If only we will listen." - Christian Science Monitor

John Hope Franklin is James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus and professor of legal history at Duke University. He has received more than eighty honorary degrees. His books include From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans; Racial Equality in America; A Southern Odyssey: Travelers in the Antebellum North; and George Washington Williams: A Biography.