Black Judas

This finely nuanced, dispassionate study of self-imposed racial marginality ranks among the very best of recent biographies and is a major contribution to black intellectual history.

* American Historical Review *

A remarkable research achievement . . . Only a scholar of rare skill and sensitivity could create such a rounded portrait . . . Thomas's work, however repugnant to contemporary minds, needs to be treated in the careful and measured way that Smith approaches the issues.

* Cambridge University *

Excellent . . . The work is based on a deft examination and analysis of a rich combination of archival, manuscript, and published sources and numerous secondary ones. . . . Smith provides insights into the mind of one of the least understood African Americans during the age of Booker T. Washington.

* Journal of American History *

It took not only skill and perseverance to produce such a work, but it also took courage.

By introducing modern readers to the strange and sordid history of this repugnant black man, John David Smith alleviates to a considerable degree what Henry Louis Gates has called 'the poverty of our imagination' about the complexities of race in American life.

* Reviews in American History *

A disturbing book about a disturbing historical character, but the author's treatment of this 'Black Judas' is excellent. Smith's research, analysis, and writing are solid and thought-provoking.

* Journal of Southern History *

The author successfully portrays Thomas as a 'reformer-gone-wrong,' a self-hater whose book was more autobiographical than anything else.

* Library Journal *

William Hannibal Thomas is one of the most scandalous figures in African American history. . . . Smith details the physical and emotional deterioration that led Thomas, an occasional lawyer, preacher, and opportunist, to scathingly denounce blacks and provoke rebuke by some of the most prominent black leaders of the time. Although Smith cautions against the temptation to psychoanalyze historic figures, he shows Thomas as a man deeply troubled by racism who ended up essentially writing his autobiography in one of the most hated books of the century.

* Booklist *

A significant contribution to the historical literature on race and the intellectual life of African Americans at the beginning of the twentieth century. This is an outstanding biography of William Hannibal Thomas, who found himself buried under a mountain of criticism after the appearance of his book.

* American Nineteenth Century History *

Well-told and carefully researched . . . Part history, part psychological study, Smith's book resurrects the all-but-forgotten 'American Negro' and is the first work to attempt to study Thomas, an ambitious, tormented man who sabotaged his own success at every turn during a life that spanned ninety-two years.

* Associated Press *

Smith tells the story of Thomas and traces his transformation from a champion of his race to one of its most outspoken critics. Smith not only shows how Thomas destroyed himself, but also how his writings affected attitudes of black and white Americans in the early twentieth century.

* Atlanta Journal-Constitution *

Black Judas is a deeply researched, gracefully written, and richly detailed treatment of an African American soldier, preacher, lawyer, teacher, trial justice, state legislator, and journalist. A superb book.

* author of Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880–1920 *

Black Judas is one of the most satisfying, stimulating, and important works I have ever read. The research for this book is nothing short of extraordinary.

* author of W. J. Cash: A Li