The author of Killing the White Man's Indian reconstructs the Underground Railroad's 60-year history. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Though the Underground Railroad is one of the touchstones of American collective memory, there's been no comprehensive, accessible history of the secret movement that delivered more than 100,000 runaway slaves to freedom in the Northern states and Canada. Journalist Bordewich (Killing the White Man's Indian) fills this gap with a clear, utterly compelling survey of the Railroad from its earliest days in Revolution-era America through the Civil War and the extension of the vote to African Americans in 1870. Using an impressive array of archival and contemporary sources (letters, autobiographies, tax records and slave narratives, as well as new scholarship), Bordewich reveals the Railroad to be much more complicated-and much more remarkable-than is usually understood. As a progressive movement that integrated people across races and was underwritten by secular political theories but carried out by fervently religious citizens in the midst of a national spiritual awakening, the clandestine network was among the most fascinatingly diverse groups ever to unite behind a common American cause. What makes Bordewich's work transcend the confines of detached social history is his emphasis on the real lives and stories of the Railroad's participants. Religious extremists, left-wing radicals and virulent racists all emerge as fully realized characters, flawed but determined people doing what they believed was right, and every chapter has at least one moment-a detail, a vignette, a description-that will transport readers to the world Bordewich describes. The men and women of this remarkable account will remain with readers for a long time to come. Illus. not seen by PW. Agent, Elyse Cheney. (Apr.) Forecast: A marketing push that includes a six-city tour and praise from Cornel West, James McPherson and David Levering Lewis should help put the spotlight on this deserving book. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Perhaps the most important accomplishment of this highly accessible history of the Underground Railroad from its inception through its demise after the Civil War is that it emphasizes that the railroad had a history, rather than an emergence as a fully developed system. From the onset, the railroad used a clearly mapped network of fugitive-friendly homes on the way to Canada. Bordewich discusses the piecemeal development of the network that arose in the Northeast and Midwest in response to individual situations involving runaway slaves. He then engages in a more standard explanation of how the Underground Railroad worked and the difficulties faced by those who operated it and those who used it to run toward freedom. The book takes the form of a prosopography, framed around the detailed personal stories of those connected with this important movement in US history. Bordewich makes a valid contribution through his focus on the grassroots nature of the Underground Railroad and his insistence that African Americans such as David Ruggles and William Still played at least as critical a role in spiriting slaves to freedom as did benevolent whites. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels and libraries. S. N. Roth Widener University

The Underground Railroad was, in effect, the nation's first civil rights movement. Reflecting on the commitment and sacrifice of both blacks and whites to transport slaves to freedom, Bordewich brings to life the drama and extraordinary personalities involved in the Underground Railroad, challenging the mistaken assumption that it was run exclusively by high-minded whites with blacks playing a dependent role. Bordewich follows the routes from the upper South through Canada, crediting the abolitionist movement with fueling American feminism. But he is most compelling in describing the lives and heroic deeds of those with unfamiliar names associated with the Underground Railroad--George DeBaptiste, Jermain Loguen, Isaac Hopper, and numerous others. Exploring the personalities and motivations of those who helped escaped slaves, Bordewich examines the interplay between the various players--slaves, free blacks, and white abolitionists--who fostered a movement that had significant political and moral consequences on black-white relationships in America. Readers interested in learning about historical figures in the Underground Railroad other than Harriet Tubman will enjoy this work. --Vernon Ford Copyright 2005 Booklist

A vivid reconstruction of abolitionism's most daring act of rebellion, "an epic of high drama, moral courage, religious inspiration, and unexpected personal transformations played out by a cast of extraordinary personalities." The abolitionist movement, Bordewich (My Mother's Ghost, 2000, etc.) notes, began not long after the Revolutionary War ended, and it began in the revolutionary hotbed of Philadelphia. Its earliest members were religious activists, though as the 19th century progressed, the Underground Railroad--the term refers to an interlocking system of routes and way stations by which slaves were afforded escape--became hydra-headed, with very little central direction, a great deal of individual initiative, and no set ideology save for one overarching goal: "to provide aid to any fugitive slave who asked for it." In those early days, Bordewich writes, utmost secrecy was of the essence, for slavery was allowed and practiced everywhere in the US but Vermont; gradually, however, the North shed the "peculiar institution," while Thomas Jefferson hazarded that the South would soon follow. Thus turn-of-the-century law required that fugitive slaves be returned to their owners, one reason that the Underground Railroad's favored terminus was enlightened Canada, where fugitives found work as skilled construction workers, "as shoemakers, tailors, barbers, cooks, and agricultural laborers," and even as some of the first tourist guides at Niagara Falls. Things became more complicated when slave states and free states butted heads: for instance, when free blacks in Cincinnati surrounded slaves on the way to Kentucky and urged them not to go any farther, and when a Philadelphia court ruled that the slave of a South Carolina senator resident in the city was a free man, having lived in Pennsylvania long enough to establish legal residency. It might have shocked some of the pacifist founders of the Underground Railroad, Bordewich ventures, to learn that their actions would in time help spark the Civil War--and perhaps even to know that abolitionism would directly beget feminism. Rich in detail and solid storytelling: sure to awaken interest in the peculiar anti-institution. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.