GREENBERG, Kenneth S. 1947-

PERSONAL: Born November 2, 1947, in Brooklyn, NY; son of Samuel M. and Roslyn (Zimmerman) Greenberg; married Judith Leah Guttman (a professor of law), June 15, 1969; children: Laura, Amy, Lisa. Education: Cornell University, B.A., 1968; Columbia University, M.A., 1970; University of Wisconsin—Madison, Ph.D., 1976.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of History, Suffolk University, B Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Educator and author. Alfred University, Alfred, NY, assistant professor of American history, 1975-77; University of Massachusetts, Boston, visiting lecturer in history, 1977-78; Suffolk University, Boston, assistant professor, 1978-82, associate professor, 1982-87, professor of American history, 1987—, chair of history department, 1989—. Harvard University, visiting scholar in American history, 1977-78, Charles Warren fellow, 1988.

MEMBER: American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Southern Historical Association, American Studies Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Title III Grant, Suffolk University, 1982-86; Fellow of National Endowment for the Humanities, 1988; fellow, Harvard Law School, 1990-91; fellow, W. E. B. DuBois Institute, Harvard University.

WRITINGS:

Masters and Statesmen: The Political Culture of American Slavery, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1985.

(Editor and author of introduction) The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents, Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press (Boston, MA), 1996.

Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing As a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1996.

(Editor) Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of articles and reviews to history journals.

SIDELIGHTS: Author and historian Kenneth S. Greenberg has studied and written extensively on the antebellum South. Greenberg's books have covered diverse Southern topics such as pre-Civil War Southern politics, the culture of Southern gentlemen, and slavery and slave rebellions. Catherine Clinton declared in Southern Cultures, Greenberg "takes the seemingly impossible contradictions of southern honor and gracefully reconciles them. He leads us through the maze, which we cannot negotiate from the ground."

Greenberg's first book, Masters and Statesmen: The Political Culture of American Slavery, demonstrates how plantation owners and politicians in the South viewed power, valued truth, and felt about slavery and secession. Greenberg offers a fresh look at events leading to the secession of the South from the Union. In his Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing As a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South, Greenberg continues his study of the South before the Civil War. This time he focuses his attention on the culture of what he calls "gentlemen of honor," and the language they used to demonstrate their power and values.

Writing in Southern Cultures, Clinton remarked of Honor and Slavery, "only from the heights to which Greenberg's book elevates us can we truly grapple with the conundrum of antebellum power relations." Greenberg's book explains how "gentlemen of honor" felt about each of the topics in the subtitle and how their language and actions conveyed those feelings. He deftly describes the purpose of duels, the importance of truth and reputation, and the proslavery sentiment of the time. Beverly Greene Bond of Civil War History called Greenberg's Honor and Slavery "a valuable contribution to the study of the Old South by providing readers with a fresh perspective on relationships between master and slaves, Northerners and Southerners, and rich and poor."

Greenberg has also penned two books about Nat Turner, the leader of a slave rebellion in August of 1831. Turner led a group of rebel slaves in a protest against slavery that led to the deaths of both blacks and whites. Greenberg's The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents is part of the "Bedford Series on History and Culture," designed to help students learn American history. Greenberg's edition is the fifth in the series, and offers an explanation of the significance of the Nat Turner Rebellion. The book includes a deposition from Turner taken after the rebellion, as well as several documents and articles detailing the events leading to the uprising and its aftermath. Neil Sapper, a reviewer for H-Net Reviews, called The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents "an excellent collection of readings about this historical event." He concluded, "Teachers who want their students to address the problem of the color line in the antebellum era (and our own time) will find this book helpful in their quest."

In Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory, Greenberg continues his study of Nat Turner through works he compiled and edited from twelve history scholars. This collection of works examines the historical context of the rebellion. In addition, some of the authors discuss the controversial novel The Confessions of Nat Turner written by William Styron in 1967. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory "an illuminating stew of antebellum Southern history, ethnic relations, and contemporary social literature." Library Journal reviewer Randall M. Miller noted, "This collection is informed by much new work on the context of slave life and rebellion," and concluded that the readings offered in the collection "remind us how central understanding [Nat Turner] is to any hope of getting hold of slavery's place in the American mind and conscience."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Directory of American Scholars, 10th edition, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

periodicals

American Historical Review, June, 1997, Dickson D. Bruce, Jr., review of Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing As a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South, p. 894.

American Journal of Sociology, March, 1997, Bertram Wyatt-Brown, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 1458.

Book World, December 14, 1997, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 12.

Choice, November, 1996, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 525.

Chronicle of Higher Education, June 21, 1996, review of Honor and Slavery, p. A10.

Civil War History, December, 1997, Beverly Greene Bond, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 342.

Historian, fall, 1999, Christopher Doyle, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 153.

History: Review of New Books, winter, 1997, Bradley G. Bond, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 60.

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, October, 1998, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 668.

Journal of American History, June, 1997, Christopher Morris, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 225.

Journal of American Studies, April, 1999, Tim Lockley, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 190.

Journal of Social History, winter, 1997, Robert L. Paquette, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 441.

Journal of Southern History, August, 1997, Ted Ownby, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 663.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, September, 1997, Philip Thomas, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 630.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 1996, W. Walter Wicker, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 425; December 1, 2002, review of Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory, p. 1749.

Library Journal, April 15, 1996, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 100; November 15, 2002, Randall M. Miller, review of Nat Turner, p. 85.

National Review, September 16, 1996, James Bowman, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 66.

New York Review of Books, May 31, 2001, Edmund S. Morgan, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 36.

Publishers Weekly, March 18, 1996, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 51.

Review of Politics, winter, 1997, Robert Steed, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 146.

Southern Cultures, fall, 1998, Catherine Clinton, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 89.

Times Literary Supplement, February 7, 1997, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 32.

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, winter, 1997, review of Honor and Slavery, p. 98.

online

Front List Books Web site, http://new.frontlist.com/ (March 17, 2003), review of Honor and Slavery.

H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Sciences, http://www.h-net.org/ (July, 1997), Neil Sapper, review of The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents.

Oxford University Press-USA Web site, http://www.oup-usa.org/ (March 17, 2003), "A Kaleidoscopic Look at Nat Turner, His Rebellion, and His Place in History," review of Nat Turner.*