The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985 Page: 438

438 Southwestern Historical Quarterly
General readers with a trans-Pecos bent will appreciate the re-
counting of range techniques, and they will enjoy character sketches
of individuals, like Jerome Dees, Clay Espy, Ram6n Hartnett, Dick
Riddle, and Gabino Romero, whose friendship and dependability
were crucial to the attainment of one of Gray's primary goals, financial
security. A twentieth-century cattleman's philosophy is ever present:
skepticism of government programs, defense of individualism, belief
that drought is the test of a good rancher, the notion that formal edu-
cation is fine but not essential for success, and the preference for a
horse over a pickup. While old ways die hard, change is inevitable,
although its value must be proven.
Gray acted wisely when he asked Nelson to put his story into read-
able form. Each of the book's twelve chapters begins with Nelson's
overview of that segment of her subject's memoir; and with few ex-
ceptions, Gray's prose is well edited. Overall, the insight and candor
of a seasoned ranchman are unmistakable.
Southwest Texas State University JAMES A. WILSON
The Road to Redemption: Southern Politics, 1869-1879. By Michael
Perman. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press,
1984. Pp. xiv+353. Acknowledgments, introduction, notes, bibli-
ography, index. $32.)
But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of
Reconstruction. By George C. Rable. (Athens, Ga.: The Univer-
sity of Georgia Press, 1984. Pp. xiii+257. Acknowledgments,
introduction, notes, bibliographical essay, index. $23.50, cloth;
$1o.oo, paper.)
Explaining the course of Reconstruction in the South is a problem
perennially struggled with by American historians. Despite years of
scholarly activity no single interpretation of the Reconstruction pro-
cess dominates the field. Revisionists, neo-revisionists, neo-Dunningites,
and still even a few Dunningites offer their theories concerning the
forces that determined Reconstruction's outcome. Michael Perman's
new study of Reconstruction politics and George C. Rable's examina-
tion of southern violence offer two new models that attempt to make
overall sense of the Reconstruction issue and that will be useful to
anyone seeking to understand this period in Texas history.
Perman offers an important new interpretation of state politics in
the South during Reconstruction. The central theme of his study is
that differences within state Democratic and Republican parties were