Description
Book SynopsisReckoning with History brings together original essays from a diverse group of historians who consider how writing about the past can engage with the urgent issues of the present. Covering a broad range of topics, these essays illuminate what it means to be a socially and politically engaged historian.
Trade ReviewTo recover a long-buried past in the archives is to experience the most extraordinary joy. But, as
Reckoning with History shows so beautifully, doing true justice to the past is at the real heart of what it means to be a historian. This moving volume reminds us all why the writing of history matters so very much to the world we live in and to the one we hope yet to make. -- Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its LegacyI love these essays. They are among the best ever written about the craft of history writing, the indispensability of creating and using archives, as well as the power of hindsight and new perspective to reconsider the meaning of the past. This brilliant anthology is perfect for this moment, just when we need to understand more than ever how American history becomes part of the public narrative of who we are. -- Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban AmericaReckoning with History is a celebration and testament to how one’s changing social and political commitments can—and indeed must—inform one’s historical work, as modeled by Eric Foner. The editors have put together a timely and insightful group of essays about why history matters and why engaging with the public should matter to historians. -- Adrienne Petty, author of
Standing Their Ground: Small Farmers in North Carolina Since the Civil WarReckoning with History: Unfinished Stories of American Freedom transports the reader from the mundane names, dates, and events often associated with history class and into the world of the professional historian, opening students’ eyes to a world of research, interpretation, discussion, argumentation, and revision. By doing so, the authors of its well-written essays connect their thought-provoking work to contemporary social, cultural, and political events. -- Richard J. Stocking * The History Teacher *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction, by Jim Downs, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, T.K. Hunter, and Timothy Patrick McCarthy
Part I: Archives1. Looking for Ona Judge: An Unfinished Story of Freedom, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
2. “Like People in History”: Why Social History Matters to the LGBT Community, by Jim Downs
Part II: Revisions3. American Founders Reconsidered: The Case of Thomas Jefferson and Henry Christophe, by Ashli White
4. The Civil War, Slavery, and the Problem of Neutrality, by April E. Holm
5. Historians, Lincoln, and “the Ruining of America," by Matthew Taylor Raffety
6. In Search of the Costs of Segregation, by Elizabeth A. Herbin-Triant
Part III: History Matters7. Why Historical Film Matters, by Kellie Carter Jackson
8. A Mob Museum Matters, by Michael Green
9. On Living History and Stories Unfinished, by Timothy Patrick McCarthy
10. In the Matter of Worth: The Value of Black Lives and the Law, by T.K. Hunter
Epilogue: Eric Foner: Historian of American Freedom, by Katrina vanden Heuvel
Contributors
Index
