Ray Smock Book Mentioned in Wall Street Journal List

(This is older news originally posted December 15, 2023)
​A 2009 book written by Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education Interim Director Ray Smock is listed in the December 6, 2023, issue of The Wall Street Journal Books and Arts section as one of the five best books on Gilded Age politics. Writer C.W. Goodyear, author of “President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier,” lists Smock’s biography about Booker T. Washington, saying “Smock succeeds where Washington’s previous biographers fell short: distilling the life while losing none of its scale, and deftly untangling Washington’s legacy of appeasement toward whites. Mr. Smock does not dismiss the criticism of Washington, nor does he fault Washington’s attempt to bridge racial divides.”   ​