4 out of 5 stars
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Since the early 16th century, the white man has abducted Africans from their homes and forced them into slavery in the West. This white man appears metaphorically in this book, and the author refers to him as "Marse"—an alteration of the word "Master." The black slave has endured considerably at the hands of his master, from forced human labor to being punished gruesomely for the smallest of offenses. This type of treatment is unquestionably harmful to the psyches of both the slave and the slaveholder. The author goes into detail in this book about how this heinous act affects Marse and even his descendants some 500 years later, in the 21st century.
The concept of white supremacy evolved with the dawn of slavery, when Marse determined that he was a superior race to the black man, and thus the black man was made to serve him. The author goes into great depth, offering his professional judgment as a forensic psychologist as to why Marse thought that way in the first place. The author contended that some portion of Marse's psychological constitution must have been disconnected from his emotional aspects, resulting in his behaviors. The major objective of this book is to explain why Marse made excuses and convinced himself that nothing he did was erroneous in any way.
The author, H. D. Kirkpatrick, offered sufficient evidence for his claims by presenting quotes from diverse sources to support his assertions. Slaveholders in the Victorian era had their own justifiable grounds, even with support from the papacy and the Bible, which were pro-slavery. This allowed us to examine the subject of slavery from several angles, and it was without a doubt the most appealing aspect of the book for me. This enabled a critical evaluation by incorporating as much data as possible and demonstrating the author's level of expertise in the composition of this piece of writing. Kirkpatrick found a means to deliver a final conclusion on his analysis in a chapter called "The Throughline" at the end of the book. He explained the inhumane treatment of slaves and Marse's arguments for it in simple terms so that the average reader might understand why. I enjoyed how everything in the novel seemed to be connected and that it had a satisfying conclusion.
To suggest that this book was faultless would be an extreme exaggeration. First and foremost, this book was littered with errors. The preliminary pages bore the brunt of these problems, and I believed the editing on these pages was shoddy. Second, as a way to give appropriate support for his ideas, the author digressed a lot in this book. Certainly, this book might have been shorter while still conveying the major idea of the story. I found myself becoming distracted and more interested in the minor details at times. That isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but when I got back, I had to backtrack to find where I left off, which was a little annoying. Finally, I thought the author could have gone a little farther in drawing similarities between Marse and modern-day Americans. This was only apparent in the epilogue, in which the author focused on Donald Trump and his attacks on American democracy of near-fatal proportions. However, because several of the claims made were based on unsubstantiated data from the mainstream, I thought that this section lacked the same level of study as the rest of the book.
This would be an excellent read for someone who wants to get a glimpse into Marse's head and understand his motivation for acting the way he did. Despite the criticism, this book succeeded in its primary goal of providing a glimpse into Marse's thoughts; therefore, I give it 4 out of 5 stars. The criticisms I stated had little impact on the book and were primarily my personal viewpoint. Even so, another round of editing and a minor change to the book's layout would earn it a flawless grade.
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Marse
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