🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About James Oakes
Oakes won the 2008 Lincoln Prize for his work “The Radical and the Republican.” The jury for the award highlights how the author made use of innovative comparative frameworks in exploring the lives and careers of Douglass and Lincoln and how the two men viewed race. The prize administrators also asserted that it was a scholarly work that was easy to read even for people that are not scholars. His more recent works have been about the implementation of emancipation across the states of the south. “Freedom National” by James Oakes is a novel that tells the history of emancipation. It chronicles the initiatives brought by the Republican and Lincoln in Congress. It also couples this with the actions of runaway slaves from the South and the bold actions of the soldiers of the Union.
All Book Series by James Oakes
Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders
Series opener · book 1 of 9 · published 1982
Slavery and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Old South
Book 2 of 9 · published 1990
The Oakes Diaries: Business, Politics, and the Family in Bury St Edmunds, 1778-1827
Book 3 of 9 · published 1991
The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics
Book 4 of 9 · published 2007
Of the People
Book 5 of 9 · published 2009 Co-authored · Jeanne Boydston,Michael E. McGerr,Jan Ellen Lewis,Nick Cullather
Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
Book 6 of 9 · published 2012
The Scorpion's Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War
Book 7 of 9 · published 2014
When You Walk Through A Storm: A heartbreaking true life story, chronicling how two people struggle for survival against all the odds.
Book 8 of 9 · published 2021
The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution
Latest in the series · book 9 of 9 · published 2021
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is James Oakes?
Oakes won the 2008 Lincoln Prize for his work “The Radical and the Republican.” The jury for the award highlights how the author made use of innovative comparative frameworks in exploring the lives and careers of Douglass and Lincoln and how the two men viewed race. The prize administrators also asserted that it was a scholarly work that was easy to read even for people that are not scholars. His more recent works have been about the implementation of emancipation across the states of the south. “Freedom National” by James Oakes is a novel that tells the history of emancipation.
Which James Oakes series should I start with?
James Oakes's books stand alone rather than forming a numbered series, so there is no reading order to follow. The natural first pick is Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders (1982).
How many books has James Oakes written?
James Oakes has 10 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1982 and 2022. They are filed under 2 categories rather than in numbered series — chiefly Non-Fiction and Anthologies.
In what order should James Oakes's series be read?
No reading order is needed: none of the 10 books catalogued here do not form a numbered series, so any title can be picked up first. Within each category they are listed by publication year.
How are James Oakes's books organised into series?
This guide splits James Oakes's 10 books into categories rather than numbered series: Non-Fiction (9 books); Anthologies (1 book).