Bound for Canaan

The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America

By: Fergus Bordewich

Narrated by: Fergus Bordewich

An important book of epic scope on America's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for change.

The true story of the Underground Railroad is much more morally complex and politically divisive than even the myths suggest. Against a backdrop of the country's westward expansion arose a clash of values that evolved into a fierce fight for nothing less than the country's soul. Beginning six decades before the Civil War, freedom-seeking blacks and courageous whites worked together to save tens of thousands of lives, often at the risk of great physical danger to themselves. Not since the American Revolution had the country engaged in an act of such vast and profound civil disobedience that not only challenged prevailing mores but also subverted federal law.

Meticulously researched and uncommonly engaging, Bound for Canaan shows why it was the Underground Railroad and not the civil rights movement that gave birth to this country's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for social change.

Written and read by Fergus M. Bordewic

Should have used a professional reader

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Generally I like to hear the author read, but Mr. Bordewich has a habit of starting a sentence loudly and trailing off to a half-whisper at the end. It makes it difficult to find a comfortable volume, and very annoying to listen to. Despite an otherwise engaging narrative, I couldn't make it past the first chapter. Maybe I'll try the Kindle version.