A review by withtheclassics
The Lives of Frederick Douglass by Robert S. Levine

4.0

A fascinating look at the many different ways Frederick Douglass portrayed himself in the three autobiographies that he published over nearly fifty years. It's academic in focus, but quite readable and accessible to the non-academic reader. I would recommend having some familiarity with Douglass's life before reading this book (perhaps through one of his autobiographies - the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is good, and short). Levine's focus is not on the events of Douglass's life, but on how he presents those events.
I did feel like it got a little repetitive in places; not terribly so, but enough that I skimmed some passages.