In the Wall Street Journal, Harvard prof John Stauffer writes a review of the new book by Yale historian David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation.

Now, almost 50 years after the first volume appeared, Mr. Davis concludes his trilogy with “The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation.” A brilliant capstone, the book extends Mr. Davis’s story still further—to encompass the growing anti-slavery agitation in 19th-century America and the efforts of free blacks to urge forward the cause of abolition and equality even as the forces of reaction sought to protect the status quo. Like its predecessors, “The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation” is deeply researched and possesses great narrative power.

It’s a thoughtful and well-written review, as one would expect from John….and there’s a human interest angle for me here: Davis was my academic advisor at Yale College, and Stauffer’s dissertation advisor in graduate school.

In addition to being a brilliant historian, Davis, now 86, is an incredibly kind and decent person. He came to my aid when I was a college senior and had an argument with the professor who graded my senior thesis; when I went to visit the man (by appointment) to ask about some oddly personal comments he had made on the document, he became irate and threw me out of his office. (Trust me, it was bizarre.) I’d never had an interaction like that before, and was pretty freaked out; I spoke with Professor Davis about it, and he was terrific—calm and reassuring; the matter ultimately went to the Dean of Yale College, and my senior essay wound up getting another read by a different professor. It will never be my favorite Yale memory, but the way he handled it—listening, taking it seriously—kept a difficult situation from becoming an awful one.

More important, I took Professor Davis’ course on intellectual history for two semesters. He was not a flashy lecturer, nor particularly charismatic. But he was so damn smart, he didn’t need to be; he gave the kind of lecture where you wanted to write everything down, because it all seemed so revelatory and new. Professor Davis was quietly brilliant, and although I was confident I would never get there myself, I thought that was a wonderful way to be.

It makes my day to see that he is still writing, still thinking, still trying to help us better understand the world and some painful parts of its history.