Ethnic studies / Ethnicity Books

Book SynopsisThe first full-scale sociological survey of the assimilation of minorities in America, this classic work presents significant conclusions about the problems of prejudice and discrimination in America and offers positive suggestions for the achievement of a healthy balance among societal, subgroup, and individual needs.Trade ReviewImportant and entirely admirable....Gordon's review of theories of Anglo-conformity, the melting pot, and cultural pluralism is the best I have ever seen. Specialists in intergroup relations will find Gordon's book a most useful addition to their personal bookshelves and an indispensable newcomer to their pedagogical repertoire. * American Sociological Review *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn intimate and sensitive psychological portrait, a well informed intellectual sketch, and and unusually readable scientific treatise, this biography of Carver has a depth and a breadth of research rarely found in such studies.Trade ReviewA superb book that will supplant the two dozen or so Carver biographies already on the library shelves. It is an engaging treatment of a fascinating man. * History: Reviews of New Books *A remarkable study of a remarkable man. * The History Teacher *An intimate and sensitive psychological portrait, a well-informed intellectual sketch, and an unusually readable scientific treatise, this biography of Carver has a depth and a breadth of research rarely found in such studies. * John Blassingame, Yale University *

Read more less

Book SynopsisConsidered one of the original texts foretelling the black feminist movement, this collection of essays, first published in 1892, offers an unparalleled view into the thought of black women writers in nineteenth-century America. A leading black spokeswoman of her time, Anna Julia Cooper came of age during a conservative wave in the black community, a time when men completely dominated African-American intellectual and political ideas. In these essays, Cooper criticizes black men for securing higher education for themselves through the ministry, while erecting roadblocks to deny women access to those same opportunities, and denounces the elitism and provinciality of the white women''s movement. Passionately committed to women''s independence, Cooper espoused higher education as the essential key to ending women''s physical, emotional, and economic dependence on men.Trade ReviewAn excellent book....Highly complex but not complicated. * James N. Upton, Ohio State University "A first-class series of essays that cut to the heart of the issues as much today as when it was first published.Robert Carr, George Mason University *A very useful and thorough presentation of black woman's lives during the post-reconstruction era. * James N. Upton, Ohio State University *So glad to have this important text available for my course. * Elizabeth Keyser, Hollins College *A brilliant example of how to discuss together the issues of both gender and race, one of the first in US American discourse to so approach such matters. * Dr. Imafedia Okhamafe, University of Nebraska *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst published in May 1900, the Colored American Magazine provided a pioneering forum for black literary talent previously stifled by lack of encouragement and opportunity. Not only a prolific writer for the journal, Pauline Hopkins also served as one of its powerful editorial forces. This volume of her magazine novels, which appeared serially in the journal between March 1901 and November 1903, reveals Hopkins'' commitment to fiction as a vehicle for social change. She weaves important political themes into the narrative formulas of nineteenth-century dime-store novels and story papers, which emphasize suspense, action, complex plotting, multiple and false identities, and the use of disguise. Offering both instruction and entertainment, Hopkins'' novels also expose the limitations of popular American narrative forms when telling the stories of black characters.Trade ReviewBrilliant....It is not hard to imagine that, once her fiction is given the attention it deserves, Hopkins could replace Chestnutt as the foremost black novelist of the period. * Eric J. Sundquist in The New York Times Book Review *The three novels published in the Schomburg Library for the first time since their appearance in The Colored American Magazine from 1901 to 1903 not only represent an early example of black people producing popular fiction for and about themselves, but extend the cultural and political discourse introduced in Harper's novel [Iola Leroy]. * The Women's Review of Books *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is a reissue of Native American Tribalism with a new Introduction by Peter Iverson. In this book the late D''Arcy McNickle, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Saskatchewan, member of the Flathead Tribe of Montana, and founding member of the National Congress of American Indians reviews the history of almost four hundred years of contact between North American Indians and the dominant - and often domineering - Western civilization. McNickle shows that contrary to the white man''s early expectations, the Indians of North America have maintained their cultural identity, social organization, size, locations of their population, and unique position before the law. He points out that even while stigmatized with the generalization of being an inferior race, harsh treatment by the white North American cultures, and severe obstacles such as epidemics of small pox, Indians have managed to remain an ethnic cultural enclave within American and Canadian society from colonial timesTrade Review"One of the best books I've seen on the subject."--Steven Kane, RISD "A classic treatise about the ability of Native Americans to maintain their cultural identity despite 500 years of cultural oppression."--Gregory R. Campbell, University of Montana "I am glad to have this old "classic" in an accessible new reprinting."--C.I. Mason, University of Wisconsin "As terrific as it ever was. Shows that Native Americans are not artifacts of the past, but part of a vibrant, surviving culture."--Larry Zimmerman, University of South Dakota "Offers a valuable perspective from an important period of challenges for the tribes of North America."--Howard Meredith, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma "An excellent, concise treatment of Native American-U.S. Government relations."--Douglas D. Anderson, Brown University "Brief but still comprehensive. The illustrations are excellent. Overall, a solid work as an introduction to the history of Indian tribes from colonial times to the 1970s."--S. Carol Berg, College of St. Benedict "An affordable reprint of a true classic on the trail of Indian history. Iverson's introduction is useful in placing McNickle's work in its progressive context."--Books of the Southwest "One of the best books I've seen on the subject."--Steven Kane, RISD "A classic treatise about the ability of Native Americans to maintain their cultural identity despite 500 years of cultural oppression."--Gregory R. Campbell, University of Montana "I am glad to have this old "classic" in an accessible new reprinting."--C.I. Mason, University of Wisconsin "As terrific as it ever was. Shows that Native Americans are not artifacts of the past, but part of a vibrant, surviving culture."--Larry Zimmerman, University of South Dakota "Offers a valuable perspective from an important period of challenges for the tribes of North America."--Howard Meredith, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma "An excellent, concise treatment of Native American-U.S. Government relations."--Douglas D. Anderson, Brown University "Brief but still comprehensive. The illustrations are excellent. Overall, a solid work as an introduction to the history of Indian tribes from colonial times to the 1970s."--S. Carol Berg, College of St. Benedict "An affordable reprint of a true classic on the trail of Indian history. Iverson's introduction is useful in placing McNickle's work in its progressive context."--Books of the Southwest "A great book!"--Charles Cambridge, University of Colorado at Boulder

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe relation between history and memory has become an object of increasing attention among historians and literary critics. Through a team of leading scholars, this volume offers a complex picture of the dynamic ways in which an African-American historical identity constantly invents and transmits itself in books, art, performance, and oral documents.Trade Review...an excellent collection of pieces that makes one more aware of the major markets and repositories of an African American identity and culture, while it helps one recognize the important role of contemporary, collective action in the shaping of that identity. * Journal of American Ethnic History *...an excellent collection of pieces that makes one more aware of the major markets and repositories of an African American identity and culture, while it helps one recognize the important role of contemporary, collective action in the shaping of that identity. * Journal of American Ethnic History *

Read more less

Book SynopsisUpon his arrival in the North, Frederick Douglass found, to his utter astonishment, persons who could speak of the singing among slaves as the evidence of their contentment and happiness. As late as 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois observed that African American spirituals had led naive whites to believe that life was joyous to the black slave, careless and happy. While these misconceptions have largely disappeared, the history of African American culture--and its importance to American history as a whole--is still a subject little understood by the majority of Americans. In Going Through the Storm, Sterling Stuckey offers a compelling look at one of the world''s richest cultural traditions. He traces the fertile legacy of African American art from its roots in tribal myth, through its blossoming in slave music and dance, to its fruition in the great gospel-singing movements of the 1960s. In the process he shows how this tradition, grounded as it was in adversity, represents one of the great triumTrade Review"Stuckey skillfully explores the lives and/or cultural theory of significant personalities...to reveal crucial African cultural connections in the New World that are vital to African survival and transcendence."--Journal of American Ethnic History "Plenty of history and culture of all Afro-American artistic endeavors is included in a study which will attract readers seeking to link Afro-American culture and history with artistic evolution."--Diane C. Donovan, The Midwest Book Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is the first comprehensive history of antisemitism in America. Dinnerstein draws on an extraordinary number of sources and provides a cogently argued yet complex narrative for the history of this prejudice from its roots in Colonial America to the rantings of Henry Ford and present day prejudices.Trade ReviewDinnerstein has delved into a number of differenct disciplines, including theology, psychology and sociology. Equally impressive in scope is his use of original archival sources...following the dearth of Jacob Rader Marcus, Dinnerstien should rightfully inherit his title as the greatest living historian of American Jews. This book will no doubt become a benchmark for future historians. * Patterns of Prejudice *

Read more less

Book SynopsisBold and original, The Power of Black Music offers a new way of listening to the music of black America, and appreciating its profound contribution to all American music.Trade Review"Diligently traces the history of Black music--its African influences and evolution."--Emerge "Dares to take on the whole span of black musical history."--Chicago Tribune "Important...An exceptionally erudite and thoroughly readable work."--I.S.A.M. Newsletter "Impressive."--Booklist "[I]t brilliantly illuminates the centuries-old linkage between the music, myths, and rituals of Africa and the continuing evolution and enduring vitality of African-American music....Floyd clearly shows that black folk culture remains a driving force in the black music of America, a force with the power to enrich cultures the world over."--Black Media News "Samuel A. Floyd Jr...illuminates the connections between the music, myths, and rituals of Africa and the continuing evolution of African-American music."--The Washington Post Book World "A classic study inspired by pioneering monographs, it advocates a fresh critical account founded in the forms and traditions of the music itself."--Come-All-Ye of Legacy Books "Floyd's theories give him a solid basis by which to make judgments about black music, and also to describe that music."--Fanfare "In this singularly focused and highly articulate study, [Floyd] is attempting to place in proper perspective the true foundation of all forms of African-American music, a complex of several related core-culture practices generally ignored in previous histories. His work can only be judged fairly by its adherence to his intentions, and on that score he succeeds beyond measure."--The Mississippi Rag "A deeply personal and passionate book that dares to take on the whole span of black musical history, from ancient Africa to modern America....Striking....Bold....Never before has a black musical history drawn such sweeping links between centuries past and present, and Floyd is one of the few writers with the scholarly techniques, the musical training and the personal passion to make them persuasive."--The Chicago Tribune "An important contribution to scholarship on African-American music....By examining the ways in which a concern with the vernacular was reflected in diverse forms of African-American musical expression, from classical compositions to gospel music and blues, Floyd offers fresh readings of creative cultural production in its broadest reaches during the period....Floyd deploys his sophisticated theoretical framework in fruitful ways....The range of this book...is impressive....Floyd makes deft use of the tools of critical theory, yet his lucid writing style avoids the dense jargon often associated with this approach. As a result, The Power of Black Music is an exceptionally erudite and thoroughly readable work."--I.S.A.M. Newsletter "Floyd...diligently traces the history of Black music in America (the jazz of New Orleans funeral parades, blues, bebop, 1960s concert hall composers, rock)--its African influences and evolution."--Emerge "Floyd's work shows an uncanny coordination of ear, heart, and intellect. The author brings his subject into the realm of ideas while manifesting a love for the music and respect for the people who have made it. His grasp of the continuity of ring-shout values, and of what it means to Signify musically, uncovers and explains the vital core of African-American music making more convincingly than any other account I have read."--Richard Crawford, Professor of Music, University of Michigan "The most scholarly and imaginative exploration yet of the origins and development of black music....An invaluable contribution."--Sterling Stuckey, Professor of History and Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside "African American music deserves but seldom gets as much attention from academics as from music critics. Floyd takes a rare scholarly approach to it and sets a standard for subsequent studies. The range of genres he discusses is comprehensive...and the connections he makes are particularly perceptive....Academics, critics, scholars, and fans alike stand to gain much from carefully reading this impressive work."--Booklist "Offers a new way of listening to the music of Black America and appreciating its profound contribution to all American music."--National Black Employment Directory "Scholarly but never stuffy...a lively historical overview of all styles of African-American music....Contributing mightily to the book's excitement is Floyd's willingness to interpret music through folklore, literary criticism and soulful personal memories."--Pulse (Tower Records publication) "A sweeping, selective overview of black music in the US, beginning with the role of music in African society."--ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction 1: African Music, Religion, and Narrative 2: Transformations 3: Syncretization and Synthesis: Folk and Written Traditions 4: African-American Modernism, Signifyin(g), and Black Music 5: The Negro Renaissance: Harlem and Chicago Flowerings 6: Transitions: Function and Difference in Myth and Ritual 7: Continuity and Discontinuity: The Fifties 8: The Sixties and After 9: Troping the Blues: From Spirituals to the COncert Hall 10: The Object of Call-Response: The Signifyin(g) Symbol 11: Implications and Conclusions Appendix

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book offers a philosophical interpretation and critical analysis of the African cultural experience in modern times. In their attempt to evolve ways of life appropriate to our modern world culture, says Kwame Gyekye, African people and societies face a number of challenges, some stemming from the values and practices of their traditional cultures, and others representing the legacy of European colonialism. Defending the cross-cultural applicability of philosophical concepts developed in Western culture, Kwame Gyekye attempts to show the usefulness of such concepts in addressing a wide range of specifically African problems. Among the issues he considers are: economic development, nation-building, the evolution of viable and appropriate democratic political institutions, the development of appropriate and credible ideologies, political corruption, and the crumbling of traditional moral standards in the wake of rapid social change. Throughout, Gyekye challenges the notion that moderTrade ReviewDr. Gyekye makes wonderfully illuminating contribution to theoretical debates, while also having acute remarks to make on their practical political implications. Moreover this book contains a penetrating discussion of African culture. It is a genuinely exciting book. * Alasdair MacIntyre, Duke University *Gyekye makes wonderfully illuminating contributions to theoretical debate, while also having acute remarks to make on their practical political implications. Moreover, this book contains a penetrating discussion of African culture. It is a genuinely exciting achievement. * Alasdair MacIntyre, Duke University *I find this an excellent work on a topic which has been generally overlooked in the historiography of Africa. Not only does the author discuss philosophies of Africa, but how these philosophies in terms of traditions must compete in a changing world. * Sundiata A.K.M. Djata, Northern Illinois University *An excellent text and ueful in a variety of courses. It combines traditional African ideas with modern concepts very effectively. * Dennis Brutus, University of Pittsburgh *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis collection of 12 original essays brings together two themes of American culture - law and race. Cases discussed include Amistad, Dred Scott, Regents v. Bakke and O.J. Simpson.Trade Review"Overall, Gordon-Reed had compiled a fascinating collection by impressive scholars on important racially-oriented trials" Daniel Lipson, Law and Politics Book Review"Together, the twelve cases in Race on Trial cover a long span of U.S legal history, anf the authors provide fascinating biographies of the litigants behind the court cases" Daniel Lipson, Law and Politics Book Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Shades of Freedom, A. Leon Higginbotham provides a magisterial account of the interaction between the law and racial oppression in America from colonial times to the present. The issue of racial inferiority is central to this volume, as Higginbotham documents how early white perceptions of black inferiority slowly became codified into law. In Shades of Freedom, a noted scholar and a celebrated jurist offers a work of magnificent scope, insight, and passion. Ranging from the earliest colonial times to the present, it is a superb work of history and a mirror to the American soul.Trade ReviewReviews of the cloth edition: "Judge Higginbotham's book is customarily well researched, extensively documented, persuasively written, and offers compelling insights on the painfully slow process of racial progress in America. While W.E.B. DuBois reminded us that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line, Judge Higginbotham has documented DuBois's prophecy in Shades of Freedom, the seminal work on race in the legal system for the twenty-first century."--Charles J. Ogletree, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School"In his powerful treatise, Judge Higginbotham has exposed both the pathology and the potential of the law in either eliminating or perpetuating racial injustice. He has written with the eloquence of a Martin Luther King, the scholarship of a W.E.B. DuBois, and the superb legal craftsmanship and wisdom of Chief Justice Warren and Thurgood Marshall. For all individuals who believe that history is relevant, Shades of Freedom must be read and reflected on. A must-read book for every generation of Americans."--Kweisi Mfume, President & CEO, NAACP"Shades of Freedom is a worthy successor to In the Matter of Color. With eloquence and authority, Judge Higginbotham chronicles and analyzes the long, sordid history of the use of law in establishing and maintaining a system in which 'Equal Justice Under Law' is a mockery of the actual practice. Anyone interested in race in America should read this important book."--John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus, Duke University"Shades of Freedom magnificently reflects on the systematic denial and betrayal of our past and present rights to full liberty and justice, while providing a sobering and disturbing prognosis of our future progress in achieving our full Constitutional guarantees. It superimposes a historical mosaic of denial and unkept promises. The Judge brilliantly chronicles the insidious patterns of racism that have always short-circuited our quest for unconditional freedom, as embraced by America's most enduring concept 'We the People.' In Shades of Freedom, as in In the Matter of Color, Judge Higginbotham passionately sounds the trumpet for a Rainbow of Freedom for 'We the People.'"--Dr. C. DeLores Tucker, President/Founder, The Bethune-DuBois Fund"Judge Higginbotham is once again the smithy, wielding, as a mighty hammer, his powerful intellect, scholarship, historical, and logic, in the forge of justice, seeking to reshape on the anvil of the Constitution, minds badly twisted by racism. In this classic work, Shades of Freedom, Higginbotham takes his readers through historical and social time zones with their sunlight and shadows, showing forward movement and retreat. Given the confused state of race relations today this remarkable book could not be more timely."--Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit"Higginbotham's masterful work is a compelling and convincing examination of how the law developed the official American doctrine of racial inferiority."--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton"Once again, this great freedom fighter, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., has masterfully presented a remarkable and refreshingly honest assessment of the role of race in American society and law. With great clarity and perception, Higginbotham exposes underlying cultural assumptions of inferiority and the impact such assumptions have on our collective progress. Shades of Freedom is aptly entitled because in describing the vast spectrum of freedoms enjoyed by African Americans today, it serves as a poignant reminder that there are many miles yet to travel on the road to freedom and equality."--Honorable Damon J. Keith, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit"In my lifetime, two giants of the bench did not make the Supreme Court: Learned Hand and Leon Higginbotham. Now one has written a book that you would expect from him: eloquent, scholarly, compassionate, and a ringing call for justice."--Senator Paul Simon"In Shades of Freedom one of our greatest legal minds makes a powerful case for turning the use of law to the service of justice. Judge Higginbotham carefully explains the role of law in reinforcing the concept of African American inferiority since the colonial period."--Mary Frances Berry, University of Pennsylvania, and Chairperson, United States Commission on Civil Rights"Eighteen years is a long time to hold one's breath, but it has been worth the pain and effort. Shades of Freedom is in its own way as remarkable a book as Leon Higginbotham's magnificent In The Matter of Color. It reflects the same mastery of historical research, passion for equality and the rule of law, and judicial temperament. With the publication of this volume, Judge Higginbotham confirms my judgement that he is our leading judicial scholar, and my hope that, with his leadership, this nation will resume its progress toward equal protection of the law for all."--Stanley N. Katz, President, American Council for Learned Societies, and Professor, The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

Read more less

Book SynopsisLouise Newman reinterprets an important period (1870s-1920s) in the history of women''s rights, focusing attention on a core contradiction at the heart of early feminist theory. At a time when white elites were concerned with imperialist projects and civilizing missions, progressive white women developed an explicit racial ideology to promote their cause, defending patriarchy for primitives while calling for its elimination among the civilized. Exploring how progressive white women at the turn of the century laid the intellectual groundwork for the feminist social movements that followed, Newman''s book thus speaks to contemporary debates concerning the effect of race on current feminist scholarship.Trade ReviewA compelling investigation of how racial questions informed the creation of white feminist thought in the United States ... I highly recommend this book. * Journal of American History *The book opens up the possibility of redirecting the framework through which a discourse of rights, any discourse of rights, can be understood. * Years Work in Critical Cultural Theory *Because its argument is both widely drawn and carefully detailed, Newman's book is engaging, often insightful, and always provocative. * The Journal of American History *

Read more less

Book SynopsisSaints in Exile studies, from an insider''s perspective, the worship practices and social ethics of the African American family of Holiness, Pentecostal, and Apostolic churches known collectively as the Sanctified Church. Cheryl Sanders identifies the theme of exile, both as an idea and an experience, as the key to understanding the dialectical nature of African American religious and intellectual life, that W.E.B. Du Bois called double-conscious. Sanders''s saints in exile are a people who see themselves as in the world but not of it; their marginalized status is both self-imposed and involuntary, a consequence of racism, sexism and other forms of elitism. When joined with the biblical tropes of homecoming and reconciliation, the concept of exile serves as a vital vantage point from which to identify, critique, and remedy the continued alienation of blacks, women, and the poor in the United States.Sanders''s interpretive approach clarifies many paradoxical features of black existence,Trade ReviewThose who have an affinity for or an interest in the culture of black holiness and Pentecostal churches will gain rich new insights and historical background from Sanders's work. * Christian Century *A valuable piece of work that will fill a void in current scholarship on black church culture. Her 'insider' perspective pays off in insights often missing in black theology. * Robert Franklin, Candler School of Theology *A major contribution to an area of African-American religious studies where there is a great void in the literature....This is definitely very good and very important. * Cheryl T. Gilkes, Colby College *Sanders' study is a very carefully drawn portrait of African American religious experience, and her use of the dialectical axes offers considerable insight and analysis that makes this volume a must read. * Christian Sociologist Newsletter *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking, interdisciplinary study Anne Anlin Cheng argues that we have to understand racial grief not only as the result of racism but also as a foundation for racial identity. The Melancholy of Race proposes that racial identification is itself already a melancholic act--a social category that is imaginatively supported through a dynamic of loss and compensation, by which the racial other is at once rejected and retained. Using psychoanalytic theories on mourning and melancholia as inroads into her subject, Cheng offers a closely observed and carefully reasoned account of the minority experience as expressed in works of art by, and about, Asian-Americans and African-Americans. She argues that the racial minority and dominant American culture both suffer from racial melancholia and that this insight is crucial to a productive reimagining of progressive politics. Her discussion ranges from Flower Drum Song to M. Butterfly, Brown v. Board of Education to Anna Deavere Smith'Trade ReviewOne measure of a healthy and thriving literature is the health of its critics and theorists. If measured against the work of Anne Anlin Cheng, Asian-American literature is not only alive and thriving, but in the midst of a renaissance. Her discussion of race theory goes far beyond the often muddled binary discussion of racialized difference, historical chronology, or sociological case study, offering a new view of race and ethnicity in literature and psychoanalysis. * Shawn Wong, University of Washington *

Read more less

Book SynopsisPrior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as a means of forging community and effecting political change. But as Richard Iton shows in this provocative and insightful volume, despite the changes brought about by the civil rights movement, and contrary to the wishes of those committed to narrower conceptions of politics, black artists have continued to play a significant role in the making and maintenance of critical social spaces. Iton offers an original portrait of the relationship between popular culture and institutionalized politics tracing the connections between artists such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Pryor, Bob Marley and Erykah Badu and those individuals working in the protest, electoral, and policy making arenas. With an emphasis on questions of class, gender and sexuality-and diaspora and coloniality-the author also illustrates how creative artists destabilize modern notions of the proper location of politics, and politics itself. Ranging from theatre to film, and comedy to literature and contemporary music, In Search of the Black Fantastic is an engaging and sophisticated examination of how black popular culture has challenged our understandings of the aesthetic and its relationship to politics.Trade ReviewA fascinating history and analysis of the nexus of black popular culture and activism from the Jazz Age to the hip-hop era...a timely reminder of the significant influence African American artists and entertainers have had on the political front--not necessarily in enacting laws, but in the symbolic impact of words and actions. * Los Angeles Times *By interweaving many complex issues, In Search of the Black Fantastic moves across the disciplines with ease--politics, history, sociology, American studies, and African American studies--thereby representing one of the most thorough examinations of post-war black culture. * Political Science Quarterly *Iton's work possesses the depth of wide reading in modernist theory and the breadth of wide-open eyes and ears for the popular... challenging, illuminating and groundbreaking. For both lay reader and academician, it may well 'compel a revision of our notions of the political. * Publishers Weekly *A fresh, meticulously well researched study...The book is grounded in a solid historical base, surveying the dilemmas faced by black artists from the Cold War to the present...I strongly recommend In Search of the Black Fantastic to serious scholars of black literature and culture. By so perceptively engaging the relationship between popular art and the politics of marginalized people, it helps to clear the way to a truer, deeper understanding of an important subject which rarely gets such penetrating analysis. * African American Review *Brimming with ideas... In Search of the Black Fantastic offers thought-provoking insights throughout its 400 pages and will certainly stimulate further work in numerous areas of African American history. * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsNOTES;; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS;; INDEX

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhy has Islam spread among Blackamericans but not among white Americans or Hispanics? Thus far, no one has offered a convincing answer to this question. The assumption has been that there is an African connection, but the historical record does not bear this out. In Islam and the Blackamerican, Sherman Jackson offers a trenchant examination of the career of Islam among Blackamericans.Trade ReviewDestined to become a fixture in any course dealing with Islam in America, Jackson's treatment of the subject offers many helpful insights while giving a voice to often-ignored Blackamerican Muslims. ...his work will contribute to the lively and growing debate over the place of Islam in America and the role of Blackamerican Muslims in the contemporary American religious scene. * The Virginia Quarterly Review *No one has ever analyzed the actual dynamics of Blackamerican Muslims with more acute insight, or more palpable good will, than Sherman Jackson. For both black and white Americans, Jackson sets forth a vision of Islam that is at once holistic and pragmatic: a source of inner strength, a builder of human character, and a bridge to salvation. This book is required reading for anyone who has ever pondered how the long span of Muslim history connects to the Blackamerican stake in an ongoing and enabling Islamic identity. * Bruce Lawrence, author of New Faiths, Old Fears: Muslims and Other Asian Immigrants in American Religious Life *No author is better positioned than Sherman Jackson to write Islam and the Blackamerican. A prominent scholar of Islam and major Muslim leader, Jackson draws on his impeccable scholarship and experience, providing a perspective on the past and charting a future course for Blackamerican Muslims. * John L. Esposito, author of What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam *This seminal examination of Blackamerican Islam is an excellent theoretical seating for and analysis of various communities since the beginning of the twentieth century. What makes this text groundbreaking is that it stands the tradition of the only real religion among African Americans is Christianity on its head. For almost all of the 20th century, Black Christian scholars have claimed hegemony over what is said about religion in the black community without mentioning the influences of Islam or even its increasing adherence. Well, Sherman Jackson has forced a new conversation with a skilled and sophisticated investigation from the point of view of a Blackamerican Islamic scholar. Things will never be the same again in the scholarship around black religion. * Aminah Beverly McCloud, author of African American Islam *A must read for anyone interested in an important and challenging interpretation of Islam and African Americans. * James H. Cone, author of Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Islam and Black Religion 2. The Third Resurrection and the Ghost of Edward Wilmot Blyden 3. Black Orientalism 4. Between Blackamerica, Immigrant Islam, and the Dominant Culture 5. Blackamerican Islam Between Religion, Nationalism, and Spirituality Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book offers a comprehensive ethnographic study of African-American Muslims. Drawing on hundreds of interviews conducted over a period of several years, Dannin provides an unprecedented look inside the fascinating and little understood world of black Muslims. He discovers that the well-known and cult-like Nation of Islam represents only a small part of the picture. Many more African-Americans are drawn to Islamic orthodoxy, with its strict adherence to the Qur''an. Dannin takes us to the First Cleveland Mosque, the oldest continuing Muslim institution in America, on to a permament Muslim village in Buffalo, and then inside New York''s maximum-security prisons to hear testimony of the powerful attraction of Islam for individuals in desperate situations. He looks at the aftermath of the assassination of Malcolm X, and the ongoing warfare between the Nation of Islam and orthodox Muslims. Accessibly written, filled with gripping first-hand testimony, and featuring superb illustrationsTrade Review"an important and ground-breaking book"-- Journal of African American History"I highly recommend this text for those interested in Islam in America, black religion, and American religious ethnography."-- The Journal of Religion"A welcome and important work.this book is an essential acquisition for any student of African American Islam and could be incorporated successfully into courses on wither African American religion or modern Islam."-- The Journal of the American Academy of Religion"[An] effort to promote cross-cultural understanding and to give an image and voice to thousands of African Americans. He succeeds admirably. Among the book's greatest strengths are the Muslims' testimonies of conversion, presented in their own words."--Sonsyrea Tate,The Washington Post Book World"In Black Pilgrimage to Islam, Robert Dannin gives us a rare and fascinating insight into the minds and sensibilities of black Americans who have embraced Islam. His research is impeccable, his judgements are acute, and his prose is uncommonly graceful. This book is an important contribution to American social history." -- Howard Zinn, Author of A People's History of the United States"This book provides a major contribution to our understanding of the process of conversion and its liberating influences in general and of the power of Islamic ideas in transforming rural former African American slaves into urban activists seeking the redemption of society." --Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University"Robert Dannin provides a very informative and useful contribution to the study of African American Islam. He has investigated a great range of sources, through research and personal interviews, and in this work he allows his subjects to speak first-hand about their experiences and beliefs. The result is a work that is unique both in its presentation and in its range." --Jane I. Smith, Author of Islam in America"Fascinating"--Booklist

Read more less

Book SynopsisMob violence in the United States is usually associated with the southern lynch mobs who terrorized African Americans during the Jim Crow era. This book uncovers what is by contrast a neglected chapter in the story of American racial violence, the lynching of persons of Mexican origin or descent. Over eight decades lynch mobs murdered hundreds of Mexicans, mostly in the American Southwest. Racial prejudice, a lack of respect for local courts, and economic competition all fueled the actions of the mob. Sometimes it was ordinary citizens who committed these acts because of the alleged failure of the criminal justice system; other times the culprits were law enforcement officers themselves. Violence also occurred against the backdrop of continuing tensions along the border between the United States and Mexico aggravated by criminal raids, military escalation, and political revolution. Based on exhaustive research on both sides of the border, the first half of Forgotten Dead explores the cTrade ReviewOverall this work is very well done and provides an extremely important historiographical advance not only for Mexican American historry, but also for the study of lynching, vigilantism, and mob violence in the US. * C. L. Sinclair, Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Note on Terms ; Introduction ; 1. Manifest Destiny and Mob Violence against Mexicans ; 2. Judge Lynch on the Border ; 3. Mexican Resistance to Mob Violence ; 4. Diplomatic Protest and the Decline of Mob Violence ; Conclusion: Remembering the Forgotten Dead ; Appendix A: Confirmed Cases of Mob Violence against Persons of Mexican Origin and Descent in the United States, 1848-1928 ; Appendix B: Unconfirmed Cases of Mob Violence against Persons of Mexican Origin and Descent in the United States, 1848-1928 ; Notes ; Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Plantation Church, Noel Leo Erskine investigates the history of the Black Church as it developed both in the United States and the Caribbean after the arrival of enslaved Africans. Typically, when people talk about the Black Church they are referring to African-American churches in the U.S., but in fact, the majority of African slaves were brought to the Caribbean. It was there, Erskine argues, that the Black religious experience was born. The massive Afro-Caribbean population was able to establish a form of Christianity that preserved African Gods and practices, but fused them with Christian teachings, resulting in religions such as Cuba''s Santería. Despite their common ancestry, the Black religious experience in the U.S. was markedly different because African Americans were a political and cultural minority. The Plantation Church became a place of solace and resistance that provided its members with a sense of kinship, not only to each other but also to their ancestral past. DespTrade Review... it is an indispensable addition to the acreage of texts detailing Black Church history ... Noel Leo Erskine has produced a major text of great import, which will continue to stir debate for many years to come. * Anthony G. Reddie, Black Theology: An International Journal *This book is one of those rare scholarly corrections that offers profound wisdom for academic and popular audiences. Noel Erskine mounts compelling evidence that the black religious experience began in the Caribbean and not in the United States. How refreshing that he does so with fluid storytelling and a writing style that urges the reader to pursue each page with expectations of new knowledge. * Dwight N. Hopkins, co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Black Theology *A brilliantly provocative and unprecedented book, told with both intimately personal prose and comprehensive and convincing data, with insights that will radically change the way we have conceptualized Black Atlantic religious traditions. This is the book that we have been waiting for. It is truly a tour de force, a must read for all! * Kamari M. Clarke, Professor of Anthropology and International and Area Studies, Yale University *Table of ContentsPreface ; Introduction: Remembering Ancestors ; 1. Migration, Displacement, Resistance ; 2.The Memory of Africa ; 3.Black Church Experience South of the Border ; 4. Plantation Church ; 5.The Making of the Black World ; 6.Towards A Creolized Ecclesiology ; Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first slaves imported to America did not see themselves as African but rather as members of ethnic groups such as the Temne, Igbo, or Yoruban. In Becoming African in America, James Sidbury reveals how an African identity emerged in the late eighteenth-century Atlantic world, tracing the development of African from a degrading term connoting savage people to a word that was a source of pride and unity for the diverse victims of the Atlantic slave trade. In this wide-ranging work, Sidbury first examines the work of black writers - such as Ignatius Sancho in England and Phillis Wheatley in America - who created a narrative of African identity that took its meaning from the diaspora, a narrative that began with enslavement and the experience of the Middle Passage, allowing people of various ethnic backgrounds to become African by virtue of sharing the oppression of slavery. He looks at political activists who worked within the emerging antislavery moment in England and North America inTrade Review...a fine and welcome addition to the literature on the history of the African diaspora and the black Atlantic world...the book...will serve as a generative source for further research and inquiry. There can be no greater tribute to a person's scholarship, nor any greater reward. * Michael A. Gomez, African History *Taking us on a journey that stretches from New York and Philadelphia to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leon, Jim Sidbury tells an elegant tale of how several generations of thinkers shaped, pursued, and transformed the idea of Africa. In the process, he provides a deeply engaging, and deeply human, portrait of intellectuals and communities in motion and in struggle. * Laurent Dubois, Duke University *The most sophisticated, best researched, and subtly argued book yet on the complex story of how Africans became African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This is a genuinely Atlantic book in its scope and importance. * David W. Blight, author of A Slave No More *An outstanding, detailed survey emerges which blendsrich source writings with a history of ethnic identity development. * The Bookwatch *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; EPILOGUE THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW OF 1850 AND RENEWED ASSERTIONS OF AFRICAN IDENTITY

Read more less

Book SynopsisWe are currently witnessing the global diffusion of multiculturalism, both as a political discourse and as a set of international legal norms. States today are under increasing international scrutiny regarding their treatment of ethnocultural groups, and are expected to meet evolving international standards regarding the rights of indigenous peoples, national minorities, and immigrants. This phenomenon represents a veritable revolution in international relations, yet has received little public or scholarly attention. In this book, Kymlicka examines the factors underlying this change, and the challenges it raises. Against those critics who argue that multiculturalism is a threat to universal human rights, Kymlicka shows that the sort of multiculturalism that is being globalized is inspired and constrained by the human rights revolution, and embedded in a framework of liberal-democratic values. However, the formulation and implementation of these international norms has generated a numbeTrade Review...it is the first of its kind in breadth and depth of research...A theoretician, Kymlicka is at home writing conceptually, but his writing is wonderfully clear...he has offered a hugely important volume, and a readable one at that. * Jenifer Curtis, in Globe and Mail *Table of ContentsPART I: THE (RE)-INTERNATIONALIZATION OF STATE-MINORITY RELATIONS; PART II: MAKING SENSE OF LIBERAL MULTICULTURALISM; PART III: PARADOXES IN THE GLOBAL DIFFUSION OF LIBERAL MULTICULTURALISM

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe role of race in politics, citizenship, and the state is one of the most perplexing puzzles of modernity. While political thought has been slow to take up this puzzle, Diego von Vacano suggests that the tradition of Latin American and Hispanic political thought, which has long considered the place of mixed-race peoples throughout the Americas, is uniquely well-positioned to provide useful ways of thinking about the connections between race and citizenship. As he argues, debates in the United States about multiracial identity, the possibility of a post-racial world in the aftermath of Barack Obama, and demographic changes owed to the age of mass migration will inevitably have to confront the intellectual tradition related to racial admixture that comes to us from Latin America.Von Vacano compares the way that race is conceived across the writings of four thinkers, and across four different eras: the Spanish friar Bartolomé de Las Casas writing in the context of empire; Simón BolivarTrade ReviewDiego von Vacano puts Latin American and Hispanic political thought in the forefront as he examines, with originality and precision, the role that race has played and can play in both political thought and theory. As a central factor of the lived experience of individuals in the modern world, race as a synthetic concept illuminates the workings of politics, power, and citizenship and challenges the ways in which race has traditionally been elided in Western political thought. * Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University *Diego von Vacano's important new book forces us to rethink central assumptions about modernity and race that have long been part of European and North American intellectual traditions. Through the writings of four major Spanish American intellectuals, spanning fully 400 years, 'The Color of Citizenship' explores the evolution of racial ideas based on mixture and fluidity rather than purity and stability. With 'The Color of Citizenship', the important contributions of Latin Americans to thinking about race can no longer be ignored. * Edward Telles, Professor of Sociology, Princeton University *The Color of Citizenship' is an excellent genealogy of racial thinking and post-colonial states in the Americas. Scholars of philosophy, political theory, and race will better understand the complicated and 'synthetic' nature of racial discourse in the Americas from reading this book. * Mark Q. Sawyer, Professor of Political Science & African American Studies, UCLA *By examining what a selected number of Spanish American thinkers had to say about race, regardless of their politics, Diego von Vacano's book is a most valuable contribution on various fronts. It offers a fruitful and exceptional interdisciplinary engagement between political philosophy and the history of ideas, which is also an invitation to take more seriously Latin American political thinkers. More substantially, it traces a 'particular intellectual tradition' towards a 'modern synthetic conceptualization of race,' one that accepts the values of miscegenation against hierarchical and dualistic paradigms of race. By placing a reconceptualised notion of race at the centre of political philosophy, von Vacano identifies the basis of a universally inclusive notion of citizenship. What is discussed here is undoubtedly relevant to key debates in our contemporary societies. * Eduardo Posada-Carbo, Latin American Centre, Oxford University *This stunningly original and thoughtful work demonstrates the tremendous potential of comparative political theory. Highly recommended * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Paradox of Empire: Las Casas and the Birth of Race ; 2. Mixed into Unity: Race and Republic in the Thought of Simon Bolivar ; 3. Race and Nation in the Democratic Caesarism of Vallenilla Lanz ; 4. The Citizenship of Beauty: Jose Vasconcelos's Aesthetic Synthesis of Race ; Conclusion: Making Race Visible to Political Theory

Read more less

Book SynopsisBrokering Belonging traces several generations of Chinese brokers, ethnic leaders who acted as intermediaries between the Chinese and Anglo worlds of Canada. At the time, most Chinese could not vote and many were illegal immigrants, so brokers played informal but necessary roles as representatives to the larger society. Brokers'' work reveals the changing boundaries between Chinese and Anglo worlds, and how tensions among Chinese shaped them.By reinserting Chinese back into mainstream politics, Brokering Belonging alters common understandings of how legally alien groups'' helped create modern immigrant nations. Over several generations, brokers deeply embedded Chinese immigrants in the larger Canadian, U.S. and Chinese politics of their time. On the 19th century Western frontier, bilingual Chinese businessmen competed with each other to represent their community. By the early 1920s, a new generation of brokers based in social movements challenged traditional brokers, shifting the poweTrade ReviewHighly innovative .This study of politics from the middle will shape the way political, immigration, and ethnic historians view power politics. * American Historical Review *Lisa Mar has written a history from neither above nor below, but from the middle. Her account of Chinese Canadian immigrant brokers during the exclusion era shows an active world of politics taking place 'off stage,' in patronage deals made in the back rooms of political parties, law offices, and in the Chinese-language press. This is a fascinating study that changes the way we think about Chinese immigrant communities and the ways in which power operates. * Mae M. Ngai, Columbia University *Lisa Mar's work uncovers the complex political and social life in Vancouver's Chinese community to a depth that goes beyond earlier scholarship. Mar's ability to follow the lives of the 'brokers' who could operate both in Chinese and English language worlds-tracing their ability to translate and represent each side to the other and to take advantage of their advantageous position as go-betweens-gives us insights into the complicated world of political deal-making and betrayal that almost no other scholar has been able to achieve. * Henry Yu, author of Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact, and Exoticism in Modern America *Brokering Belonging reinscribes general scholarship concerning ethnicity and immigration with the adventures of politically adroit, transnational yet highly acculturated Chinese Canadian 'brokers' who successfully strategized for greater access and rights on behalf of an otherwise legally and ideologically marginal minority population. Despite the inherent contradictions between their roles as advocates, interpreters, and influence peddlers, Mar persuasively argues that brokers made it possible for even small immigrant groups to sink roots into hostile soil. * Madeline Y. Hsu, University of Texas at Austin *Short but riveting...A work that is vast in its implications...By using transnational lives and experiences to inform our understanding of the Chinese experience in Canada, Mar offers a convincing portrait of how transnationalism and national experiences intersect and effectively broadens the scope of the national lens. * H-Net Reviews *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; CONCLUSION; NOTES; BIBLIOGRAPHY

Read more less

Trade ReviewCreating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists is an exemplary piece of scholarship. Rich in information and images, it is contextualized in socio-economic, political and artistic facts. This tome is a brilliant history reflecting the aesthetics and the social and metaphysical traditions of African-American women artists and their artistry. A Must Read!! * Tritobia Hayes-Benjamin, Howard University *Farrington's survey work fills gaps in the history of American art, and should keep these artists from being overlooked in the future.. * CHOICE *A clearly written and beautifully illustrated text that presents the myriad and nuanced experiences, visions, and talents of African-American women artists. * April F. Masten, Reviews in American History *From 'women's work' in fabric art of the slavery era to 'post-black' artists working in a stunning range of styles and mediums, Lisa Farrington's Creating Their Own Image presents an important survey of the extraordinary contributions African-American women artists---unknown and known, past and present---have made and continue to make to our visual culture. This is a book we will consult, and enjoy, often. * Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University *Farrington gives the reader a layered narrative and a dazzling array of artworks.... It is the kind of book anyone interested in art, women's art, or African American art will want to own and refer to constantly. Anyone teaching women's studies, gender studies, or African American women's studies will want to own this as well. * History *Table of Contents1. THE IMAGE; 8. ABSTRACT EXPLORATIONS; NOTES/ BIBLIOGRAPHY/ INDEX

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book features a comprehensive collection of essays by Alain Locke (1885-1954), the most formidable African American public intellectual of his generation. It is by far the largest collection of his brilliant essays, gathered from a career that spanned forty years. The range of the work covers an impressively broad field of subjects: philosophy, literary criticism, art and music criticism, value theory, race, politics, and multiculturalism. His inquisitive mind, his refined taste and his pragmatic temperament brought him renown as the godfather of the Harlem Renaissance. But his contributions to many fields extended well beyond that remarkable period, to the very beginning of the civil rights movement. Locke''s standing among today''s readers will be secured through this presentation of his skillful writing and impressive thought. By virtue of his learning and his commitment to intellectual excellence, Locke can now be seen in the sweep of American culture. Here he can take his rigTrade ReviewMolesworth has compiled fascinating essays on art, aesthetics, race, and democracy written by Locke well before and after, not just during, his so-called deanship of the New Negro Renaissance in the 1920s. Anyone interested in Locke and his place in American intellectual history should read this book. * Gene Jarrett, author of Representing the Race: A New Political History of African American Literature *Table of ContentsForeword by Henry Louis Gates Jr. ; Introduction ; Note on the Text and Acknowledgments ; I. Literature ; 1. On Paul Laurence Dunbar (1905) ; 2."The Romantic Movement As Expressed by John Keats" (1907) ; 3. "Emile Verhaeren" (1917) ; 4. "Colonial Literature of France" (1923) ; 5. "The Younger Literary Movement" (1923); co authored with Du Bois ; 6. Review of Countee Cullen's Color (1926) ; 7. Review of Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926) ; 8. Review of Langston Hughes' Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927) ; 9. "The Poetry of Negro Life" (Preface to Four Negro Poets, 1926) ; 10. "American Literary Tradition and the Negro"(1926) ; 11. Review of FIRE!!(1927) ; 12. "Message of the Negro Poets"(1927) ; 13. Foreword to Georgia Douglas Johnson's An Autumn Love Cycle (1928) ; 14 ."Both Sides of the Color Line" (Review of W. Thurman and J. Fauset (1929) ; 15. "Negro Minority in American Literature"(1946) ; II. Art, Drama and Music ; 1. "Steps Toward the Negro Theatre" (1922) ; 2. "A Note on African Art" (1924) ; 3. "The Negro Spirituals" (1925) ; 4. "More of the Negro in Art" (1925) ; 5. "The Negro and the American Stage" (1926) ; 6. "Drama of Negro Life" (1926) ; 7. "The Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection" (1927) ; 8. "The American Negro as Artist" (1931) ; 9. "Toward a Critique of Negro Music"(1934) ; 10. Excerpt from The Negro and His Music (1936) ; 11. Excerpt from Negro Art: Past and Present (1936) ; 12. "Negro Music Goes to Par" (1939) ; 13. "Broadway and Negro Drama" (1941) ; III. Esthetics ; 1. "Impressions of Luxor"(1923) ; 2. "Internationalism: Friend or Foe? (1925) ; 3. "Negro Youth Speaks" (1925) ; 4. "The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts" (1925) ; 5. "African Art: Classic Style" (1935) ; 6. "Negro in American Culture"(1929) ; 7. "Our Little Renaissance" (1927) ; 8. "Beauty Instead of Ashes" (1928) ; 9. "Art or Propaganda?" (1928) ; 10. "Beauty and the Provinces" (1929) ; 11. "Spiritual Truancy" (1928, on Claude McKay) ; 12. "Propaganda - or Poetry?" (1936) ; 13. "The Negro's Contribution to American Culture" (1939) ; IV. Race ; 1."Race Contacts and Inter-Racial Relations" (1915) ; 2. "Apropos of Africa" (1924) ; 3. "The Concept of Race as Applied to Social Culture" (1924) ; 4. "The Problem of Race Classification" (1923) ; 5. "Should the Negro be Encouraged to Cultural Equality" (1927) ; 6. "Contribution of Race to Culture" (1930) ; 7. "Slavery in the Modern Manner"(1931) ; 8. "Harlem: Dark Weather-Vane" (1936) ; 9. Foreword to Frederick Douglass's Life and Times(1940) ; 10. "Whither Race Relations? A Critical Commentary" (1944) ; 11. "The Negro in the Three Americas" (1944) ; A SPECIAL SECTION: ; When Peoples Meet: A Study in Race and Cultural Contacts (1942): Interchapters, written by Locke. ; V. Value and Culture ; 1. "Oxford by A Negro Student" (1909) ; 2."The American Temperament" (1911) ; 3. "The Ethics of Culture" (1923) ; 4. "The New Negro" (1925) ; 5. "Values and Imperatives" (1935) ; 6. "Value" (1935) ; 7. "A Functional View of Value Ultimates"(1945) ; 8. "Self-Criticism: The Third Dimension of Culture" (1950) ; 9. "Frontiers of Culture" (1950) ; 10. "Values That Matter" (Review of Perry, 1954) ; 11. "Freud and Scientific Morality" (n.d.) ; VI. Democracy ; 1. "The Mandate System: A New Code of Empire"(1927) ; 2. "The Negro Vote and the New Deal" (1936) ; 3. "Ballad for Democracy" (1940) ; 4. "Color: Unfinished Business of Democracy" (1942) ; 5. "Democracy Faces a World Order" (1942) ; 6. "Cultural Relativism and Ideological Peace"(1942) ; 7. "Moral Imperatives for World Order" (1944) ; 8. Review of Du Bois's Color and Democracy (1945) ; 9. "Pluralism and Intellectual Democracy" (1946) ; 10. "Pluralism and Ideological Peace"(1947) ; Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Democracy Remixed, award-winning scholar Cathy J. Cohen offers an authoritative and empirically powerful analysis of the state of black youth in America today. Utilizing the results from the Black Youth Project, a groundbreaking nationwide survey, Cohen focuses on what young Black Americans actually experience and think--and underscores the political repercussions. Featuring stories from cities across the country, she reveals that black youth want, in large part, what most Americans want--a good job, a fulfilling life, safety, respect, and equality. But while this generation has much in common with the rest of America, they also believe that equality does not yet exist, at least not in their lives. Many believe that they are treated as second-class citizens. Moreover, for many the future seems bleak when they look at their neighborhoods, their schools, and even their own lives and choices. Through their words, these young people provide a complex and balanced picture of the intersecTrade ReviewClear, hones, and insightful, Cohen authors an incredibly important and well-researched book that provides and analysis of the state of black youth in the US today. The real contribution of this book is Cohen's success at connecting politics and culture to demonstrate that black youth continue to be promised equality, but the structures in place limit that possibility...Summing Up: Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Table of Contents1. "My Petition": Black Youth and the Promise of Democratic Citizenship ; 2. "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It": Bill Cosby, Don Imus, and Black Moral Panics ; 3. "Baby Mama": Black Love, Black Deviance, and the Sexual Politics of Morality ; 4. "Minoritiy Report": Kanye West, Barack Obama, and Political Alienation (with Jamila Celestine-Michener) ; 5. "Fight the Power": From Jena to the White House ; 6. "My President Is Black": Barack Obama and the Postracial Illusion ; Epilogue Policy and Politics ; Appendix A

Read more less

Book SynopsisHere is an annotated, scholarly, multilingual edition of the only lengthy text personally written by Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture: the memoirs he wrote shortly before his death in the French prison of Fort de Joux. The translation is based on an original copy in Louverture''s hand never before published.Historian Philippe Girard begins with an introductory essay that retraces Louverture''s career as a slave, rebel, and governor. Girard provides a detailed narrative of the last year of Louverture''s life, and analyzes the significance of the memoirs and letters from a historical and linguistic perspective. The book includes a full transcript, in the original French, of Louverture''s handwritten memoirs. The English translation appears side by side with the original. The memoirs contain idiosyncrasies and stylistic variations of interest to linguists. Scholarly interest in the Haitian Revolution and the life of Toussaint Louverture has increased over the past decade. LouverTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Introduction ; Preface to the Transcript and English Translation ; Map of Place Names Mentioned in the Memoir ; Memoire du General Toussaint Louverture:Transcript ; Memoir of General Toussaint Louverture: English Translation ; Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is widely accepted that the liberal project in America, which was so powerful for most of the twentieth century, has been in crisis for decades. Voters have rebelled against it, the right built its resurgence on antipathy to liberalism, and even the left played a part in its demise. In short, it has died by a thousand cuts. But even as its fortunes in public life and the world of politics declined, there was a renaissance in liberal political theory and philosophy, where sophisticated defenses of and rationales for liberalism came to dominate the field. Why did a re-energized defense of liberalism, especially in the works of Robert Putnam, Michael Sandel, Robert Bellah, and John Rawls (to name four), fail to take hold? There have been many answers on offer for liberalism''s anemic approval ratings, but as Nick Bromell shows in The Time is Always Now, we may have been looking in the wrong places and using the wrong defenses for liberal democracy. Focusing on the long history of black political participation and protest, Bromell contends that it offers object lessons for liberalism. From the 1830s to the present, black intellectuals have almost necessarily identified with the subjugated and demanded that every person''s inherent dignity be recognized. Despite the fact that this tradition has lasted nearly two centuries, political philosophers have mostly ignored it as an inspiration for reconstructing democracy on more egalitarian grounds. Bromell argues that blacks'' reflections on their painful experience and their ability to advocate for people ''both black and more than black'' (an Obama quote) provides us with the foundation for constructing a democracy that is less angry and more welcoming of a cosmopolitan polity. While this is not a history book, Bromell comes out of an American studies tradition that insists on the importance of historical and social context in shaping ideas. Concise yet sweeping in scope, Black and More than Black will force people who think hard about democracy to incorporate the insights of black Americans over time, from James McCune Smith to W.E.B. DuBois to Barack Obama.Trade ReviewIn this fine book, Nick Bromell's aim is to think through the ontological, epistemological, ethical and political registers of racial inequality, prejudice, and domination and to unleash the powers of imagination and vision on behalf of a new, more just social order and a transformed public philosophy. In the process, he enacts the 'now' on behalf of which he writes, with empathic and imaginative readings of major texts of political theory and literature, oriented by the worlds of African American letters and critical race theory. Synthetic and innovative, political, historical and literary, The Time Is Always Now will interest anyone who cares about US racial politics, 19th- and 20th-century American literature, democratic theory and black political thought. * Bonnie Honig, Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Modern Culture and Media, and Political Science, Brown University *Table of ContentsIntroduction: <"'Black and More than Black'>" ; Chapter One: <"The Tension Perpetually Sustained>" ; Democratic Indignation and the Dynamics of Black Philosophy ; Chapter Two: <"An Almost Contemptuous Fairness>" ; Styles of Democratic Indignation ; Chapter Three: <"This Is Personal>" ; Human Relationships and the Production of Democratic Dignity ; Chapter Four: <"The Network of Complex Relationships Which Bind Us Together>" ; Chesnutt, Larsen, and Baldwin on Seeing and Knowing Others ; Chapter Five: <"The Full Understanding of My Relationship to America>" ; Black Imaginings of Patriotic Cosmopolitanism ; Chapter Six: <"The Moral Force of the Universe>" ; Faith and Pluralism in the Black Democratic Imagination ; Chapter Seven: <"The Moment We're In>" ; The Democratic Imagination of Barack Obama

Read more less