Biographers assume the daunting task of conveying the texture and depth of an individual life, while demonstrating its broader significance. From the start, William Seraile seems acutely aware of this challenge in his study of A.M.E. Church bishop, Benjamin Tucker Tanner. Indeed, the very title of his book promises readers insight into both the heart and the social world of this public figure. However, the structure and style of his narrative make this a difficult promise to keep.

Seraile grounds his study in exhaustive research into Tanner’s diaries, theological and ethnolological writings, and poetry, along with A.M.E. Church sources, particularly the Christian Recorder and A.M.E. Church Review, both of which Tanner edited. He uses these sources to give readers an inside view of the religious and secular politics that Tanner engaged, as well as his personal demons. Accounts of power struggles in individual churches, the ongoing financial problems that plagued the denomination and its press, and competition and debate among clergy and secular reformers stand alongside descriptions of Tanner’s political and religious views, his family tragedies, and frequent bouts of depression. Yet, the wealth of detail that Seraile offers begs for further analysis and greater conceptual clarity. In the end, the text provides a somewhat vague interpretation of Tanner’s significance in shaping the religious and political issues facing African-Americans between Reconstruction and the turn of the century. Moreover, those who are familiar with Tanner’s stature as a religious and political figure may wish for deeper analysis of his inner life, theological principles, and intellectual judgements.

Seraile uses the stages of Tanner’s career to frame his study. Tanner’s entry into the ministry, his four successive appointments as editor of the Christian Recorder, his tenure as the first editor of the A.M.E. Church Review, and his various assignments as a bishop structure the chronology of the biography. They frame snapshots of Tanner’s varied activities and arguments, rather than offering a moving picture of his development. The portrait of Tanner that emerges from the details of church service is of a devout, committed, and beleaguered man who worked tirelessly to build his denomination. Yet, his abiding interest in intellectual pursuits and his misgivings about race distinctions point to the denomination’s role in providing opportunities for creative and intellectual expression, even for leaders who questioned the validity of the race categories that shaped its existence. Seraile’s thorough descriptions enable us to see concerns about the coherence of racial discourse that formed a critical aspect of Tanner’s religious and political thought. Seraile sums up these views with the label, "integrationist." However, his discussion suggests that Tanner’s views were far more complex than this term implies.  It seems apparent that Tanner challenged the idea of race itself. Some analysis of the larger implications of the ideas about race he raised in the denominational press and his theological writings would have helped illustrate the complexity of racial thought among African-American church leaders.

This study will likely find its most appreciative audience among those who already have some knowledge of Tanner’s career, the A.M.E. Church , and this period of African-American history. Seraile offers this group endless data about Tanner that can deepen their own interpretations of his life. However, readers who desire an explanation of why and/or how Tanner is important, may be less satisfied, because Seraile does not fully explicate the lessons to be learned from examining this life. This reluctance to declare just what makes Tanner’s career significant cannot be dismissed as poor scholarship. Rather, it seems to stem from Seraile’s appreciation of the value of Tanner’s life on its own terms. Readers who are willing to follow him through the details may come to share his sentiment.

Despite the interpretive silences in his text, Seraile has made a useful and original contribution to African American religious history. The wealth of information he has amassed makes his text required reading for anyone interested in the A.M.E. Church in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and Tanner himself.