Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season

Book Description

April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front -- and Robinson had a chance to lead the way.

He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience in organized baseball. His swing was far from graceful. And he was assigned to play first base, a position he had never tried before that season. But the biggest concern was his temper. Robinson was an angry man who played an aggressive style of ball. In order to succeed he would have to control himself in the face of what promised to be a brutal assault by opponents of integration.

In Opening Day, Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime's most sacred myth. Along the way he offers new insights into events of sixty years ago and punctures some familiar legends. Was it true that the St. Louis Cardinals plotted to boycott their first home game against the Brooklyn Dodgers? Was Pee Wee Reese really Robinson's closest ally on the team? Was Dixie Walker his greatest foe? How did Robinson handle the extraordinary stress of being the only black man in baseball and still manage to perform so well on the field? Opening Day is also the story of a team of underdogs that came together against tremendous odds to capture the pennant. Facing the powerful New York Yankees, Robinson and the Dodgers battled to the seventh game in one of the most thrilling World Series competitions of all time.

Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.

Customer Reviews:

An engaging and elegantly written account of Jackie Robinson's groundbreaking rookie season with the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers.......2007-09-08

By the time the middle of the 1940's rolled around Branch Rickey, President of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was already widely acknowledged as one of the smartest, most innovative executives in all of baseball. After all, it had been Rickey who had conceived the notion of a system of minor league farm teams to supply talent to the major league club. In addition, Rickey knew how to evaluate talent like no one else. It got to the point that other general managers did not want to deal with him for fear of getting snookered again. It was sometime around 1944 that Branch Rickey made up his mind that he was going to be the one to integrate Major League Baseball. Always seeking an advantage, Rickey was the first to fully understand that there was a wealth of untapped talent playing in the Negro Leagues. And so it was that before the 1946 season Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was Rickey's plan to bring Robinson along slowing with the hope of Robinson contributing to the big league club in a year or two. After a magnificent season at AAA Montreal in 1946 it was apparent to most observers that Jackie Robinson would likely find himself suiting up for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. "Opening Day" is Jonathan Eig's splendid account of that historic and memorable season. It is a book that will grab your attention immediately and never let go.
I was quite surprised to learn that Jackie Robinson had really not played all that much baseball before signing with the Dodgers. While in college at UCLA Jackie Robinson had run track and been a star football player. He only dabbled in baseball. But Robinson was widely recognized as one of the best all-around athletes in the nation. It was this athleticism that intrigued Branch Rickey. On August 28, 1945 Robinson and Rickey would meet for the very first time. After taking careful measure of the man Rickey was convinced that Jackie Robinson had the proper temperment to endure the difficulties that were sure to arise as major league baseball attempted to integrate its game. After just one year in the minors Branch Rickey deemed Jackie Robinson ready to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. In "Opening Day" Jonathan Eig introduces us to Burt Shotten, the unassuming manager of the 1947 Dodgers and to the men who would be Jackie's teammates. Make no mistake about it. There was a ton of pressure on these men as well. Players like Eddie Stanky, Dixie Walker and Pee Wee Reese really had no idea what to expect in 1947. You will come to understand how the players coped with the drama unfolding all around them. And you see how a team that little was expected of would come together over the course of the long season and make this the most memorable season in the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
But of course it is important to understand that "Opening Day" is not just a book about baseball. For this is a story of courage and tenacity.
For one very special season Jackie Robinson took the whole world upon his shoulders. Rickey and Robinson were gambling that if this experiment was successful Major League Baseball would finally see the error of its ways and integrate the game. And it proved to be a risk worth taking. "Opening Day" managed to hold my interest from cover to cover. Jonathan Eig is a wonderful storyteller and I simply could not put this one down. One of the best sports books I have read in a very long time!
Highly recommended!

Walking in Jackie's shoes.......2007-08-04

Author Jonathan Eig does an excellent job of putting the reader in Jackie Robinson's shoes for the 1947 season. You get a good sense of what life was like for Robinson, on and off the field. He and his wife Rachael and young son, Jack Jr., shared a small bedroom in the Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment of a woman in a black neighborhood. The living conditions only added to the stress of Robinson's rookie season. Can you imagine any rookie living that way today?

Eig details how teammates and opponents treated Robinson. Many of his teammates were aloof, at best. Many were Southerns who didn't care for him. The role Dixie Walker played in supposedly circulating a petition protesting Robinson's addition to the Dodgers is covered.

Eig recounts each series of the 1947, detailing how opponents treated Robinson, how he performed on the field, and how he had to room with black families when he was on the road. It's interesting to see how some things changed as the season progressed.

This book is essential for any fan who wants to know more about Jackie Robinson and the 1947 season. It will increase whatever admiration you have for Robinson.

The opening day of my memories..........2007-07-18

indeed the book is about baseball, however it is about soooo much more.
From my perspective of someone who was four years old in 1947 Eig's work instantly turned the shadows on my wall of rememberances into a vivid dance of joy.

There was MacArthur, Rickey, Flatbush Ave, stars earning a few bucks more than Ralph Kramden, a guy named Moses who lead NYC to international prominence and forced "them Bums" out of Brooklyn. I can not tell you how much I signed bitter sweet tears of joy through out this Illid.

I had kept this Father's day gift ominously staring at me from my bedside night table for two weeks as I had declared it's purpose in life was to be my companion on a transatlantic trip w/my son to Spain and Italy.

It turned out to be the best traveling companion I ever had so I knew the era forgave me for letting it linger in the brink for those weeks.

I was reminded that in the late forties why my family, sterotypical Italianos, were die hard Yankee fans and why I had to be different. I flashed back to 1949 when I got a Leaf bubble card and opened to see a black face with a mesmerizing smile looking at me and how nonplused I was when I asked my dad who this "Negro" was since living in San Antonio at the time my exposure to there culture was next to nil.

My foggy view of the Korean "conflict" came to light as did all the references to Caro's _The Power Broker_ started to make sense. How social change evolved and the sturm un drang (sp)of the times accelerated the process. This and so much more kept me enchanted across the pond and I was only jarred back to 2007 when we touched down at Frankfurt and I had so kiss my friend farewell, blinked my eyes and uncremoniously place him in my overnight bag all the while thanking him for sixty years of memories brought to life.

a Must read.......2007-06-18

Jackie Robinson was a true Ambassador of the game of Baseball. it's well known about Branch Rickey signing Jackie to the Dodgers and the Historic Impact of Jackie Robinson being the first Black Baseball Player to break the Color Barrier in Major League baseball 60 years ago. Jackie Robinson was also a 4 letter Athlete at the University of UCLA. He was a Gifted Athlete and a Smart Man whose first Season hadn't been fully told until now. this is a Great Book and it answers so much about just how things went down 60 years ago. Jackie Robinson is a true Civil Rights Leader and a Ground-Breaker who paved the way for so many.

RICK SHAQ GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "I LOVE JACKIE ROBINSON!".......2007-06-12

I am a born and raised Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodger fan. In fact my family moved from New York to Los Angeles the same year as the Dodgers. Before my brothers and I were born, my parents went to Ebbets field every weekend. I still have a box full of Brooklyn scorecards from those days. I was too young to see Jackie in his prime, but my Dad took me to some games in 1956 and I got to see Jackie and all the "Boys Of Summer"! I was a Brooklyn Dodger fanatic even at that age. Besides watching the Dodgers, I read everything available on them, and still do, 50 years later. I can unabashedly say I love Jackie Robinson. One of my many fond memories of my Dad, was him talking to me in front of our tiny black and white TV watching the Dodgers. He said "I have gone to hundreds of baseball games, and have seen 1,000 players, and the most exciting player I ever saw was Jackie Robinson!" "What Jackie did, was not displayed only in the statistics. Over the history of baseball, many players stole more bases. (Such as Ricky Henderson stealing bases with a 7 run lead in the 8th inning.) But no one unnerved every player on the team just by leading off the base and dancing on his pigeon toes, like Jackie. This book points out little, subtle, beneficial affects, on the whole Dodger team, that the average fan wouldn't see. The pitcher and catcher would be so nervous with Jackie dancing around on the base paths, that they would be afraid to throw curve balls, so the batters got better pitches to hit. Jackie stole home more times, than just about anyone except Ty Cobb. When we moved to Los Angeles there was a program on called the "Million Dollar Theatre", in which they showed the same movie on TV every day for a week. When the "Jackie Robinson Story" was on, I watched it every night, and literally memorized the dialogue. People forget that the Brooklyn Dodgers were the "original America's team". And that was because of Jackie. When Jackie broke the color line, he wasn't only fighting for the blacks, but he also was fighting for the Jews, and every minority that has been suppressed. When I watch old sports shows, when they talk about Jackie, I actually get tears in my eyes, because I know what he went through. I've read just about every meaningful book on Jackie and the Brooklyn Dodgers. I would rate this book as the 2nd best Jackie book of them all. (My personal favorite is "Great Time Coming".)

This book was interesting to me as compared to many others, because it not
only zoomed in on his first year as a player, but also went deeper into
his personal life during that first year. All the way to the size of a little room he and Rachel rented, along with their infant son. If you were to ask me, what, with all my knowledge, I have on Jackie's playing, was the biggest thing I learned from this book, I would say his affect, and dominance, in every facet of the game, that didn't appear in his batting average, in a losing cause as a rookie in the 1947 World Series against the hated and despised Yankees. This is a great book and I recommend it to everyone. P.S. In my opinion Jackie was the greatest all around athlete since Jim Thorpe. A lot of people forget that Jackie was the first 4-sport letterman at UCLA. He was an All American football player, the top scorer on UCLA's basketball team, a record setter in the long jump, and of course baseball, which was actually his weakest sport at that time. Duke Snider tells a story about when Duke was in high school in Compton California, and Jackie was playing for Pasadena City College (A junior college). Duke went to see Jackie play a baseball game. One inning Jackie hit a homerun, and then in his full baseball uniform, with spikes on, ran over to the track field between innings, won the broad jump, and ran back to the baseball field in time to play the next inning!

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

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(5 Stars - 1 Star )Minus 1 for the author's (in her opinion inserts and excerpts)
Help Us !!
Great Summer Read
Awesome Book
A must read

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
Harriet A. Washington
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0385509936
Release Date: 2007-01-09

Book Description

From the era of slavery to the present day, the first full history of black America’s shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment.

Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions.

The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers—and indeed the whole medical establishment—with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.

Customer Reviews:

(5 Stars - 1 Star )Minus 1 for the author's (in her opinion inserts and excerpts).......2007-06-16

6/16/07 author Harriet Washington's book showed great research: I started with her Appendix " which is all of 1 sentence (Pg 405) which was entitled "Choosing a Clinic Trial: ; and then scanned the author's "Acknowlegements: Pg 407-412) in which she lauded many, mentioned many wished to be anonymous, and asked apologies of the many whose names she chose not to name ; and then scanned :the Notes Pgs 413-464* ,which with much detail beginning with "Chapt. 1 :Southern Comfort" to Epilogue: Medical Research With Blacks Today (*e.g Pg 436 note 18 from Chapter 6 "Diagnosis Freedom (author Albert Deutsch"s ""The First U.S. Census (1840) of the Insane and its use in Pro Slavery Propaganda read 2/2/1944 before the New-York Historical Society)...to the Biliography (Pgs 465-484): example: New York Times article(12/11/1934 "Tuberculosis Test Reported Success"..to the Index (Pgs 485-501 incl of Yale University (pgs 5,124,169,258,267). 6/16/07 abj

Help Us !!.......2007-06-14

It is a powerful book and must be read. The medical industry is effecting everyone because we really do not know if the medication being described is authentic or expermential.
Powerful insight!!!

Great Summer Read.......2007-05-28

The book is very informative and readable not too many medical terminologies. It is straight forward and to the point backed by documentation.

Awesome Book.......2007-05-22

I first learned about this book in a class at Florida A&M University. It is a must read for all African Americans. She presents unbiased views of the history of medical abuse that has inflicted African Americans from colonial times to the present.

A must read.......2007-05-21

I can't really describe this book except to say that this is a MUST read for anyone who has any interest in what has been done to blacks medically through out the years.
Excellent book.

The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why

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would love to.
Masterful exposition of an explosive topic
Words matter
An important book with flaws
It's not really about the N word....

The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why
Jabari Asim
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0618197176

Book Description

A renowned cultural critic untangles the twisted history and future of racism through its most volatile word.

The N Word reveals how the term "nigger" has both reflected and spread the scourge of bigotry in America over the four hundred years since it was first spoken on our shores. Asim pinpoints Thomas Jefferson as the source of our enduring image of th e In a seminal but now obscure essay, Jefferson marshaled a welter of pseudoscience to define the stereotype of a shiftless child-man with huge appetites and stunted self control. Asim reveals how nineteenth-centur y then colluded with popular culture to amplify this slander. What began as false generalizations became institutionalized in every corner of our society: the arts and sciences, sports, the law, and on the streets.

Asim's conclusion is as original as his premise. He argues that even when uttered with the opposite intent by hipsters and hip-hop icons, the slur helps keep blacks at the bottom of America's socioeconomic ladder. But Asim also proves there is a place for the word in the mouths and on the pens of those who truly understand its twisted history - from Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle to Mos Def. Only when we know its legacy can we loosen this slur'sgrip on our national psyche.

Customer Reviews:

would love to........2007-05-30

I would love to review this product if I ever receive it. It's been more than a month since it's been ordered and I'm sure I would have finished reading it in time for this review.

Masterful exposition of an explosive topic.......2007-05-15

The only bad thing to say about "The N Word" is what author Jabari Asim said himself. The subtitle, "Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why" is a marketing invention that missed the point of the book and does injustice to its purpose.

Asim follows the N word through America history, like a trail of bread crumbs through a dark and dangerous forest. There are times when the trail is rather sparse, and other times when the pile of crumbs is wide and deep. The first crumbs are laid by 1619, with the unloading of 30 Africans into the new world. From the beginning, the word has a brutally negative meaning. Some have attempted to soften the word's harshness by claiming that it originally meant little more than an observation about the darkness of a slave's skin. But Asim makes clear by quoting from period documents that pigmentation was considered a radical (and unsavory) deviation from the European standard of lightness. Some even considered it to be literally an infection of the skin. Very quickly, the word took on connotations of inferiority, debased humanity, servility and lack of intelligence. To use the word meant to distance oneself from and to deny another's personhood. Thus it was, thus it has always been. In fact, one thing I admire about Asim's approach is that he does not give in to the now-current opinion that one should not judge past generations by this generation's morality. Asim will have none of this - to capture, sell and own human beings, to separate them from wives and family, and then to ratify that action by creating an enduring culture that belittles and demeans them on account of skin color -- has always been and will always be an act of heartless depravity.

Asim takes us on a historical tour with stops at Monticello to hear Thomas Jefferson opine (without basis) compare the alleged lust of black men for white women with the lust of orangutans for black women. From there, we travel to the battlefields of the Revolutionary War, in an army where full 20% of the soldiers were black. We tour the racist and intolerant pre-Civil War North where even ardent abolitionists were convinced of Negro inferiority. Coming from Newburyport, MA, proud to be home to abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, this was a hard fact to acknowledge. Asim shows why "Uncle Tom's Cabin," intended as an abolitionist text, played on caricatures about blacks that were as offensive as they were inaccurate. Asim touches on the disgust of Union troops over fighting for black emancipation. We tour the Reconstruction Era South, which quickly and viciously shut the door to emancipation via lynchings, Jim Crow laws and propaganda. The propaganda took many forms, including popular music (with its depiction of "authentic" Negro dialect) and romances, which offered a sanitized and sanctified version of the glorious and pacific antebellum South in which beneficent whites and their willing slaves lived in symbiotic harmony. From here, we are treated to Northern race riots, the rise of minstrel shows and the caricatures of blacks in early films. Asim does the expected withering hatchet job on Klan-happy "The Birth of a Nation," but also eviscerates the revisionist tone of "Gone With The Wind," especially Margaret Mitchell's book, on which the film was based.

Asim shows also the quack-scientific and cultural beliefs that maintained whites' base (in both senses of the word) assumptions. Was a black man happy? Then he was born to servility. Was he angry and violent? Well, that's just his natural brutish temperament. Did he write thoughtful accounts of his life? He must have had the secret help of sympathetic whites. Asim also traces the original and development of the mythical "bad" black -- prone to criminality and sexually insatiable - from the 19th century to the present day, where it is firmly ensconced in the violence and misogyny of rap lyrics.

Asim gives us a glimpse into the science of race that used bad science to show that black brains were smaller than white brains. As Stephen Jay Gould demonstrated in "The Mis-measure of man," this was accomplished by comparing skulls from large-bodied European males to those of smaller Africans, even women, without accounting for the effect of body size on brain volume, a factor that would have erased nearly all correlations between brain size and racial "worth."

Asim brings us into the 20th century - from the Black Migration and the Harlem Renaissance through Emmett Till -- ending his history with a discussion of Lyndon Johnson, the champion of civil rights, who nonetheless held blacks in extremely low regard.

At this point, Asim falters somewhat as he tries to disentangle the complexities of modern cultural use of the N word. As the Civil Rights movement gained power and acceptability in 1950s and 1960s, whites began to self-regulate, socially punishing use of the word. But starting in the 1960s and 1970s, comics like Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor began using the word in their race-aware routines. This led the way to a more nuanced view of the term, but also opened the door to its misuse. It's one thing to listen to Pryor use the word to skewer lingering racial bias. But its use in the mouth of less talented and aware performers only served to reinforce the familiar "bad" black stereotype that both fascinated and repelled white audiences. Asim has the toughest time in this section, as he tries to detach "good" use of the N word (to attack racism) from bad uses (to reinforce stereotypes, to make cash). His heroes may be Pryor, Murphy, Chappelle, Rock and Tupac, but even he can't completely exonerate every use of the word by those he admires.

In the end, "The N Word" did its work. Asim expertly makes the case that the N word has always been associated with expressing the supposed inferiority of blacks, that its use continues to be a curse. For blacks to use it, Asim gingerly notes, is dangerous. Whether it is Chris Rock using it to brand criminally-minded blacks, or Quentin Tarantino (or Spike Lee) using it to sell movies, the word still has power to hurt and to reinforce race myths. Whether used by white racists to denigrate blacks, or by blacks to denigrate each other (and especially their women), the word has the ability to submerge entire populations into the quicksand of inferiority and self doubt. Its use always ends up confirming some of the worst and oldest facets of our culture.

In spite of the volatility of the topic, Asim's writes in cool, measure tones. Though his work is a survey that skims over the surface of his topic, Asim still conveys an enormous amount of information about history and race relations in the US. Though dispassionate in his exposition, he is passionate about the pain endured on account of the word he studies. "The N Word" is a must-read for those who think that racial bias is a thing of the past or that self-limits on language are nothing more than political correctness. Asim may be tentative about condemning those who continue to use the word, but his argument shows that there is no use of the word that will not eventually redound to the detriment of black aspirations. In a world in which talk show hosts regularly use racially-loaded language, we are well served by attending to the deeply-rooted and vicious social program that those words continue to promote.

Words matter.......2007-04-27

I saw Mr. Asim in Washington, DC during a discussion in April 2007 regarding this book, its origins and the history of the "N word". The discussion was lively, surprising and informational. Lively due to the subject matter, and surprising due to the number of black people, particularly black men, that supported the continued use of the word (in a particular context - read more below). Finally, it was informational because it shed some light - unfortunate though it is in my opinion - on why some blacks advocate for the continued use of this term in any way.

-- Now to the book. The book is thorough, well-written, and covers an astonishing period of time in just over 200 pages. Mr. Asim does not advocate the use of the word, but nor does he seek to ban it. Instead he makes a compelling argument that this word - unlike any other in the English language - has had such a significant contribution to the ongoing racism against and degradation and stereotyping of blacks in the US and elsewhere that it is appalling that the casual use of the N word has grown, rather than diminished, over the years. Asim argues that the N word's inability to disappear from the lexicon is hampered not strictly due to hip-hop artists of today, whom he doesn't let off the hook for their incessant use of the word, but by the larger society that began referring to blacks as "niggas, niggers and nagurs" etc. several centuries ago when they were sold as sub-human property. The word moved beyond slavery and continued on in popular culture (books, films and music), pseudo-science (including what is referred to as niggerology), politics (with politicians waxing about how they could "outnigger" each other) and even in war. Asim traces these uses - and the related prevailing and parallel views of blacks as sub-human - to well over 400 years ago, the more recent past and the present day. However, reading this book is not merely a history lesson. It is a chilling reminder of why words are the most fantastic weapons we have against one another.

In addition to the valuable historical context he uses to frame his argument, I think Mr. Asim offers a fresh perspective by dealing with the popular use of the term among black people. He makes a compelling point when he argues that of all of the words in the English language why use this word to supposedly show love or familiarity? As a black person are you okay with another black person saying to you "What's up my brother?" or "What's up nigger?" If you respond with both or the latter, your response to that question may change after reading Asim's book.

An important book with flaws.......2007-04-17

Nowadays, any time a hot-button issue garners a lot of chatter in the media a hot-button book can't be far behind. Enter The N-Word by Jabari Asim. Of course, the "Nigger issue" isn't exactly a new one. When I was 12 I had a badly designed button that was supposed to say "Stop using the word Nigger" but read as "Stop using Nigger the word" with a big circle-strike through the offending term. I'm a bit older than 12 now. We didn't abolish Nigger back then (in fact, its use has increased) and I'm pretty sure we're not going to abolish it now. Not without a history lesson, anyway.

Though it's tempting to write this book off as an insta-title put out to cash in on the discussion, I find that I cannot do so. Even if the author didn't think to write it until recently, it's a book that someone should have already written. What Asim tries to do is put the discussion and the word in context. What is this word? Where did it come from? Who first used it and what did they intend?

Does this stuff matter? Hell yes, it matters.

Asim does a good job of pointing out that the word Nigger never had anything but a negative connotation. That it's one of the tools white supremacists use to exert control over black people. Language is power. The highest placed black person in business, government, or education can be taken down in the eyes of others with just one label: Nigger.

That's why it's important to keep these things in context.

I do have problems with this book, but none of them have to do with the subject matter. As I said, Asim has an excellent grasp on the issue and provides a compelling argument against both the casual use of the N-Word and against banning the word all together. (More on that later.) As I read, I kept thinking that Asim could have benefited from a stronger editorial hand. It may be true that this book was put together quickly. It's not as focused as it could be. It's obvious he did a lot of research - there's a lot of history in here. But it isn't always clear how this history connects with the central point of the book. A stronger, less linear structure might have served the subject better.

Still, everyone could use a history lesson every now and then. Count me amongst the kind of people who couldn't stand history class but love a book that provides historical context surrounding something we're already interested in. And the stuff Asim offers up about the Founding Fathers, past presidents, and Charles Darwin won't make it into your typical high school history book.

In the last chapter or so -- by far the most moving and compelling part of the book -- Asim makes a forceful case for erasing the word from public discourse, but he is explicit in affirming people's rights to speak in whatever way they want in private.

The N-Word is definitely a worthy book, even with its flaws. I defy anyone to read it with an open mind and not come away feeling that the word Nigger ought to be retired. Hopefully its publication will keep the issue in front of the media in a meaningful way.

It's not really about the N word...........2007-04-16

The genius of Jabari Asim's book is not it's exposition of the word "Nigger", a subject that has been explored in contemporary detail by Randall Kennedy, Cornel West and others. Mr. Asim's book is really about the poisonous notion of Black inferiority, its pervasiveness in the American societal framework, and, finally, its expression through use of the word "Nigger". The N Word is destructive because of the vitriolic beliefs and attitudes that are associated with it. Asim teaches us this as straightforwardly as he knows how, and leaves us to make conclusions. I'm sending this book to my closest friends; it is a must for any comprehensive library on American race studies.

Walkin' the Talk: An Anthology of African American Studies

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Walkin' the Talk: An Anthology of African American Studies
Vernon D. Johnson , and Bill Lyne
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0130420166

Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War

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A Needed Corrective
Last Battle?
A needed corrective to the Reconstruction story
Mississippi Burning
America's Own Terrorists

Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War
Nicholas Lemann
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374248559
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Book Description

A century after Appomattox, the civil rights movement won full citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away.

Nicholas Lemann opens his extraordinary new book with a riveting account of the horrific events of Easter 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana, where a white militia of Confederate veterans-turned-vigilantes attacked the black community there and massacred hundreds of people in a gruesome killing spree. This was the start of an insurgency that changed the course of American history: for the next few years white Southern Democrats waged a campaign of political terrorism aiming to overturn the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and challenge President Grant’ssupport for the emergent structures of black political power. The remorseless strategy of well-financed “White Line” organizations was to create chaos and keep blacks from voting out of fear for their lives and livelihoods. Redemption is the first book to describe in uncompromising detail this organized racial violence, which reached its apogee in Mississippi in 1875.

Lemann bases his devastating account on a wealth of military records, congressional investigations, memoirs, press reports, and the invaluable papers of Adelbert Ames, the war hero from Maine who was Mississippi’s governor at the time. When Ames pleaded with Grant for federal troops who could thwart the white terrorists violently disrupting Republican political activities, Grant wavered, and the result was a bloody, corrupt election in which Mississippi was

“redeemed”—that is, returned to white control.

Redemption makes clear that this is what led to the death of Reconstruction—and of the rights encoded in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. We are still living with the consequences.

Customer Reviews:

A Needed Corrective.......2007-04-11

Nicholas Lemann's book "Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War," focuses on mostly forgotten and often sanitized versions of specific incidents that marked the end of Reconstruction and the regaining by White Southerns of state and local government institutions leading to Jim Crow and Segregation that continued for another 90 years or so. The book, relatively brief, examines in detail several incidents, one in Lousiana, the others in Mississippi where local vigalante groups seized control from local black officials through intimidation and massacres. It is perhaps not coincidential that the worst offenses took place in Mississippi, and perhaps some sort of rough justice that in exchange Mississippi remained for decades afterwards on the lowest rung of the ladder among the states in nearly every social and economic ranking.

Much of the book is through the eyes of one Adelbert Ames, a Union general, senator and governor of Mississippi, as revealed in the copius correspondence with his wife, Blanche Butler, who most of the time remained at home in the North. Because of weariness of the part of the North, insufficient troops, deliberate foot-dragging by US officials sympathetic to the South, and indecisiveness on the part of President Grant, these events from 1874-76 were allowed to precede with little intervention and protection of Black citizens. In effect, the withdrawal of Northern troops in 1877, the result of a compromise that ended the electoral stalemate in the Hayes/Tilden presidential election of 1876, overturned a major achievement of the Civil War, namely full citizenship and voting privileges for former African slaves. The result was another dark stain on American history and our pretenses of a just and equitable society where everyone has the chance to be president.

Because of its brevity, the book suffers from a lack of context of how overall Reconstruction had proceeded in the South, it's weaknesses and its victories. The book also would have been improved through a map, particularly Mississippi and the various places where the rampages of the vigantes took place. Another improvement would have been photographs of the several colorful characters portrayed. But all in all, for a brief look at an important moment in American history, the book is highly recommended.

Last Battle?.......2007-03-14

The subtitle is a little bit of a cheat, for the Civil War was long over by the time the massacres of 1875 began, but after reading Nicholas Lemann's book on the failure of Reconstruction and the life of Civil War General Adelbert Ames, I can see why he decided to bend the truth and capture the huge Civil War market.

he shows how JFK was a patsy to the Southern Conservative myth of Reconstruction and how, in PROFILES IN COURAGE (1956) Kennedy included Lucius Lamar of Mississippi as an avatar of courage, when in actuality he was a liar and a bigot and was personally responsible for the deaths of thousands of Mississippi freedmen. What was JFK thinking? Well, as Lemann points out, this was not an anomaly in Kennedy's otherwise antiracist public profile. Indeed it was part and parcel of his curiously suspect voting record and public stand towards the race question. It was as though, in the polarized 1950s, he had to keep the Southern Democrats happy in order to win their support for the campaign he saw coming his way. PROFILES IN COURAGE dismisses Adelbert Ames, Lemann's (admittedly flawed) hero, as a mere carpetbagger, not worthy of living in Mississippi, a `foreigner' and an Abolitionist. The strange thing is that, he lived so long (at age 98, he was the oldest surviving Civil War officer) his daughter Blanche was on hand to shame Kennedy into agreeing to change future editions of PROFILES. Then her years of disappointment began, for even though Senator, and then President Kennedy, had agreed to re-research Reconstruction, he never did, and when she kept bugging him he enlisted the help of her grandson, "Paper Lion" George Plimpton, to call his honorable kinswoman off his back. Of course all of these people had incredible privilege and wealth.

A needed corrective to the Reconstruction story.......2007-02-24

Having lived in the South for the first 21 years of my life, I can attest to the staying power of the myths of Reconstruction and the succeeding era which I was taught to call Redemption.

The central motif of these myths is that of courageous, heroic whites finally standing up to a brutal Northern occupation, but turning to violence only when physically threatened.

Some prominent historians -- Eric Foner in particular -- have been forthright and comprehensive in setting out the true facts. In my readings, there have been two aspects still missing from such large-scale works. First of all, a visceral, detailed accounting of the intensity of white-on-black violence has been needed. Second, we have lacked a nuanced, detailed biography of Adelbert Ames, perhaps the best exemplar of the promise interracial cooperation held for the South.

In "Redemption", journalist Nicholas Lemann makes an attempt to remedy both these insufficiencies in a narrative aimed at the non-specialist reader. Instead of giving us a comprehensive study of how integrated southern state governments were driven from power, Lemann chooses instead to focus primarily on the single example of Mississippi, with some inclusion of parallel events in neighboring Louisiana. And the story of Reconstruction Mississippi cannot successfully be understood without considering the career of New Englander Adelbert Ames, a Union veteran who became first the state's senator and then governor during this period.

Lemann recounts instance upon instance of politically-inspired and deadly violence that steadily drove Republican voters, especially blacks, from the polls. While many leading white Democrats maintained deniability and claimed that such attacks were rare and always provoked by the other side, and while President Grant's commitment to federal protection decisively waned, Governor Ames cast off his naivete and tried to counter with what forces he could muster. But without timely federal intervention, this proved an impossible task. Ames was finally forced to face facts, and he resigned the governorship and left the state for good. The Solid South was born with violence as midwife.

Lemann's choices mean that he needs to do three things well. First, with respect to bringing home the intensity, pervasiveness, and comprehensive effects of the violence, Lemann is especially convincing, at least within Mississippi (and to a less significant extent Louisiana). Second, his incorporation of an Ames biography is in itself valuable and multi-faceted. But it doesn't serve as a full-fledged biography due to the author's chronological boundaries. We do learn of Ames' background and his significant relationships with others, most notably his wife and father-in-law; these are important in understanding Ames' behavior in Mississippi. But for Ames' life after Mississippi, Lemann takes only a cursory wrap-up approach.

Finally, we should expect Lemann to do a convincing job of integrating these two intersecting narratives. In this he is largely successful. But there are moments when his attention to the details of Ames' life, while welcome to this reader, may yet seem only remotely relevant to the larger story of the Redemption era.

In 1933 Adelbert Ames became the last Civil War officer to die. The myths of Redemption have lived on long after, and Lemann's book is a significant contribution to puncturing those myths and establishing the truth.

Mississippi Burning.......2007-02-09

This is a story on how government failed, how the civil rights of freed slaves and blacks became a political playground of hate and deceit and how victory on the battlefield was lost to thugs & cowards. It clearly shows how history can be manipulated by the criminals who ushered in a sordid era of Jim Crow laws while others looked away.

Author Nicholas Lemann does a magnificent job in detailing the death of Reconstruction through white terrorism in Mississippi in the 1870s, which emboldened the white racists throughout the south to institute what became known as the "Mississippi Plan" of intimidation and murder to seize power in every government institution and to kick blacks back into servitude.

The heroes are the victims - the blacks and some white Republicans - who boldly stood alone while the mobs seized control in a revolution of aversion, and then afterwards wrote the articles and books, whose key lies are still being taught as factual history today.

You will be angered as Lemann explains as a reporter how Reconstruction was lost. But then look around, and realize that the subtitle, The Last Battle of the Civil War, may be incorrect. Unless this country confronts the harsh realities of the past, the last battle of the Civil War has yet to be fought, or won.

America's Own Terrorists.......2007-02-04

In this short historical account, Nicholas Lemann tells the disturbing story of how ex-confederates in Mississippi brought about the end of Reconstruction in 1875 through an orchestrated campaign of savagery and deception.

The "Mississippi Plan" employed an ugly and brutal pattern: when freed slaves attempted to exercise their political rights--by convening political rallies, becoming candidates for office or simply trying to vote--southern whites responded with hellish violence, not merely fighting the freed slaves, but coldly murdering them in front of friends or family or, worse, hunting them down if they fled.

To justify their heinous conduct, the whites invented an emotionally laden cover story that, to this very day, resonates among the American public. In their view, the violence was necessary to forestall imminent "Negro uprisings," prevent rape and pillage by brutish and bestial blacks, and redeem the honor of the south from the depredation of northern carpetbaggers who seized control of the political system by duping or bribing the newly freed slaves.

The key to the Mississippi Plan was the public relations tactic of presenting the organized slaughter of blacks as random local incidents, a tactic that discouraged President Grant from sending federal troops to secure the rights of the newly enfranchised citizens. Absent this safeguard, the intimidation worked, and the Democrats won control of key offices, despite significant Republican majorities among registered or potential voters. With the outcome of the presidential election of 1876 in dispute, the nation embraced the "Compromise of 1877" in which the Democrats agreed to let Rutherford Hayes become president and the Republicans agreed to the removal of the remaining federal troops from the South. Reconstruction was over.

Much of this tale is told through the eyes of Adelbert Ames, a Northerner and celebrated Union Army general who was elected Governor of Mississippi by the multitude of new black voters. Sometimes the book reads like a biography of Ames. Only at the end does Lemann step back from the detailed account and provide the larger picture of how the "Mississippi Plan" became the blueprint for the entire Southern strategy to end Reconstruction and how the nation shamefully abandoned its commitment to true citizenship for blacks.

As I read "Redemption," a profound sense of disgust and outrage rose within me. So horrific, repulsive, and needless was the conduct of the Southern Democrats that, at times, I felt Lemann must have been omitting facts that would have balanced the story. But this is precisely Lemann's point: when Southerners today celebrate the honor and courage of Dixie, they are endorsing a fiction that was invented in 1875. There was no honor, only terror of helpless black victims.

Average customer rating:

Grippingly Written, Moving, and Historically Powerful
Evangelical Pastor - 63 years old
A mixture of polemic, interesting recollections, and accounts of questionable credibility
Heartbreaking and Revelatory
essential

Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story
Timothy B. Tyson
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1400083117
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Amazon.com

When he was but 10 years old, Tim Tyson heard one of his boyhood friends in Oxford, N.C. excitedly blurt the words that were to forever change his life: "Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a nigger!" The cold-blooded street murder of young Henry Marrow by an ambitious, hot-tempered local businessman and his kin in the Spring of 1970 would quickly fan the long-flickering flames of racial discord in the proud, insular tobacco town into explosions of rage and street violence. It would also turn the white Tyson down a long, troubled reconciliation with his Southern roots that eventually led to a professorship in African-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison--and this profoundly moving, if deeply troubling personal meditation on the true costs of America's historical racial divide. Taking its title from a traditional African-American spiritual, Tyson skillfully interweaves insightful autobiography (his father was the town's anti-segregationist Methodist minister, and a man whose conscience and human decency greatly informs the son) with a painstakingly nuanced historical analysis that underscores how little really changed in the years and decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 supposedly ended racial segregation. The details are often chilling: Oxford simply closed its public recreation facilities rather than integrate them; Marrow's accused murderers were publicly condemned, yet acquitted; the very town's newspaper records of the events--and indeed the author's later account for his graduate thesis--mysteriously removed from local public records. But Tyson's own impassioned personal history lessons here won't be denied; they're painful, yet necessary reminders of a poisonous American racial legacy that's so often been casually rewritten--and too easily carried forward into yet another century by politicians eagerly employing the cynical, so-called "Southern Strategy." --Jerry McCulley

Book Description

“Daddy and Roger and ’em shot ’em a nigger.” Those words, whispered to ten-year-old Tim Tyson by a playmate, heralded a ?restorm that would forever transform the tobacco market town of Oxford, North Carolina.

On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a twenty-three-year-old black veteran, walked into a crossroads store owned by Robert Teel and came out running. Teel and two of his sons chased and beat Marrow, then killed him in public as he pleaded for his life.

Like many small Southern towns, Oxford had barely been touched by the civil rights movement. But in the wake of the killing, young African Americans took to the streets. While lawyers battled in the courthouse, the Klan raged in the shadows and black Vietnam veterans torched the town’s tobacco warehouses. Tyson’s father, the pastor of Oxford’s all-white Methodist church, urged the town to come to terms with its bloody racial history. In the end, however, the Tyson family was forced to move away.

Tim Tyson’s riveting narrative of that fiery summer brings gritty blues truth, soaring gospel vision, and down-home humor to a shocking episode of our history. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, Blood Done Sign My Name is a classic portrait of an unforgettable time and place.

Customer Reviews:

Grippingly Written, Moving, and Historically Powerful.......2007-08-16

I finally got around to reading this memoir this summer and was in awe of the author's narrative gifts. This story reads like a novel and is full of plain human wisdom, an emotional openness combining humility and pride, wry humor, sharp political analysis, and a can't-put-it-down story line that comes to terms with America's number one cultural problem: racism. This is a book of local history that gets at the human condition, and a work of history that reads like great literature. I'm telling everyone I can to read it, and that includes whoever reads this. Don't pay attention to any of the so-called "corrections" made by some other reviewers here. This is a must-read historical work that shows an astute and perceptive ability to understand its widely varying participants' points of view and experiences, while not shrinking from the moral and historical obligation to draw judgments. There is only one word to use: *brilliant.* (I'm not one to use that lightly when talking about either autobiography or
history.)

Disclaimer: The writer of this review is a professional historian with a Ph.D., but one who has never met Timothy Tyson.

Evangelical Pastor - 63 years old.......2007-07-29

Few books are as challenging for me as this one. I lived through the years of this story and consistently refused to believe that our racism was as extensive or deeply rooted as it was. Take away: the challenge to see it in our present day and to do something about it.

A mixture of polemic, interesting recollections, and accounts of questionable credibility.......2007-07-18

I was born and grew up in Oxford, North Carolina as a white boy, and graduated from the
University of North Carolina in 1949. I have lived in a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland for many
years.

Tyson deserves credit for deploring the murder and acquittal of the murderer in the book.
However, he tends to be polemic: all black people in it are noble; all but a few white people are
some combination of racist, ignorant, or narrow-minded. (It is similar in that respect to Leon
Uris's novel "Exodus", in which all Jews are noble and bigger than life, while all others are hateful
or, at best, not very bright.)

He often uses a down-home style of writing, calling his parents "Daddy" and "Mama" and being
addressed as "Little Buck" by his father, which he apparently feels makes him and his family seem
to be folksy, good plain people.

However, the book is not without its shortcomings.

Accounts of questionable credibility:

¶¶He states that tear gas was used by Oxford police in 1944 to dispel a crowd of black people
who were protesting the arrest of two men. I witnessed the event and remember no tear gas--had
there been, I think I would never have forgotten it.

¶¶An account of the torching of buildings in Oxford on May 25, 1970 by angry black people
following the killing of Marrow describes two tobacco warehouses which were among
them:"Inside these warehouses were eight hundred thousand pounds of golden cured tobacco, a
known flammable substance, with a total value of more than a million dollars." I find it hard to
believe that any tobacco would have been in those warehouses in May.

Tobacco was brought by the farmers to Oxford warehouses from mid-September through
mid-November, where it was sold at auction and immediately taken by the buyers to their Oxford
processing plants, and then shipped off to the cigarette manufacturers. By some time in late
November, all of the warehouses became empty.

Although the whole procedure I describe above could have changed somewhat by 1970, I still
find it hard to believe that there would have been tobacco in the warehouses in May, by which
time it would have probably become dry and crumbly.

¶¶The following exchange supposedly took place during the 1930's between Major T.G. stem (a
prominent white man in Oxford) and a man described in the book as "a local white bootlegger."
Having occurred long before Tyson was born, it was recounted to him by Thad Stem, the Major's
son and a close friend of the Tyson family.

"Major Stem was leaving Hall's drugstore with his son (Thad) and they passed Mrs. G. C. Shaw,
the wife of the principal at Mary Potter High, the local Negro high school.

'Good afternoon, Mrs. Shaw,' the Major said, tipping his hat.

A local white bootlegger, idling under the store awning, accosted Major Stem. 'Why'd you call
that [...] woman Mrs. Shaw'?" he demanded.

'Well, Mrs. Shaw's older than I am,' he began softly. 'She's better educated than I am,and she has
more money.' Then, thrusting the bootlegger away from him, the major exploded: 'But more to
the point, what I call Mrs. Shaw is none of your goddamned business, you low-life taxidermist,
you two-for-a-nickel jackal, you knee-crawling [...], net.' These were the days when
people really knew how to cuss. Back then, the appendage 'net' meant a real [...]...on the
way home (Thad) asked his father why on earth he had called the bootlegger a 'taxidermist.' The
major said quietly that a taxidermist is a man who mounts animals."

If not a total fabrication, the story seems to me to have been mostly made up.

In those earlier times, I never heard any white person in Oxford address or refer to a black person
as Mr./Mrs./Ms. (However, by some strange logic, a black doctor was referred to as Dr. X by
white people. Dr. Ellis Toney was a black practitioner there for many years and was so referred
to. The same was the case for some black ministers, who were referred to as Pastor or Reverend
such-and-such.)

¶¶In writing about the slave trade, Tyson speaks of "the dark Atlantic, where the bones of
somewhere around ten million Africans settled into the sand, thrown overboard by the slave ships
that plied those waters in the early days of the republic (the USA)."

Where did this 10 million figure come from? Tyson provides no source. One reference, "Slavery:
A World History", by Milton Meltzer, says that about 2.2 million died that way.

Degrading most of Oxford's black people by stereotyping them as uncultured:

The most puzzling aspect of the book is: On the one hand, Tyson makes the legitimate point that
black residents of Oxford and Granville County, after long having been subjected to a segregated,
inferior status in society, deserved to be recognized as having equal rights with white citizens.
Yet, at the same time, he consistently shows these same black people as being crude and unable to
say anything without massacring English grammar.

"I knowed him right good, and I liked him all right. He didn't hurt nobody." "Yeah, we was
listening to TV, that's how we got involved in the first sit-ins in Oxford, because we saw on TV
they was doing it up in Greensboro." "Me and a guy named Ronald Jordan, me and him climbed
up on the Confederate soldier..." And there are many more.

I know from personal experience that many black people in Oxford, then and now, are much more
cultured than Tyson portrays them. I also know from my volunteer work at the Helping Up
Mission in Baltimore, where I tutor men who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction in
the 3R's (all of whom to date have been black), that most black people, like anyone anywhere, will
grasp an opportunity to become more cultured.

Heartbreaking and Revelatory.......2007-05-18

An essential history and memoir of a time whose facts are often forgotten and even actively repressed. The present doesn't make sense without honestly examining the past, and this book does that with humility and emotional power. Even if you think you know this history (as I did) you very well may not.

essential.......2007-03-15

For those of us who think we understand by reading about racial prejudice and thinking about what it must be like, should read this book. We still won't really understand, but we will be a much closer than we were before.

Civil Rights Chronicle (The African-American Struggle for Freedom)

Average customer rating:

This deserves more than six stars!
Great Book!!
exceptional view of history

Civil Rights Chronicle (The African-American Struggle for Freedom)
Todd Steven Burroughs , Ella Forbes , and Jim Haskins
Manufacturer: Publications International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0785349243

Product Description

After three centuries of oppression, black Americans had reached their limit. Tired of inferior schools, "Jim Crow" laws, and the threat of being lynched for trying to vote, African-Americans risked their lives for justice - most notably in the 1950s and '60s.

Customer Reviews:

This deserves more than six stars!.......2005-02-24

Wow! I've always been interested in the Civil Rights movement, so naturally I was drawn to this book when I spied it in the bookstore. I especially liked that I got a discount on it, which is always a nice thing. I paged through it in the bookstore, was impressed, bought it, took it home, and was just blown away. It's a very informative and outstanding book on the subject and if you are interested in this topic, then you should definitely check this book out. It also contains scores of photographs, so it is somewhat like an encyclopedia. It definitely helped me gain a better understanding of this dark part of our history.

Once again - WOW!

Great Book!!.......2004-03-13

I highly recommend this book to teenagers because it tells you about a lot of things that you don't learn in the classroom.

exceptional view of history.......2004-02-29

The Civil Rights Chronicle belongs in every library, every school, and every home. This honest look at the enslavement of people is not to be missed. The struggle for independence and freedom is chronicled here for all, black, white, or 'other', to read and understand. There are so many things in this world that should never be allowed to happen again!

Book Description

Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister's letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.

Customer Reviews:

Issues of Feminism.......2007-09-21

"The Color Purple," involves struggles of women to achieve recognition as individuals deserving of fair and equal treatment, in face of male dominance. Both the book and the movie, of the same title, shed light on feminist issues.

The male dominance is in various forms and includes physical aggressiveness. Albert (Mr.) adamantly declares to Celie, "Men spose to wear the pants" (1982: 272).The narrator conveys by way of letters from one person (Celie) to another, the epistolary form. The feminist level of stance is powerful in the novel. Celie struggles to find peace and establish her worthiness. She was abused and raped by her "father," she was dispossessed of her infant children, she is forced to marry Albert (Mr___) who she does not want, she loses her sister Nettie because of her adulterous husband's sexual aggressiveness and philandering.

Women are heavily exploited, more so Celie who in the marriage is made to look after Albert's offspring, to toil on the farm, and to submit to all of Albert's demands and those of his offspring. Celie writes, "Mr...marry me to take care of his children. I marry him cause my daddy made me. I don't love Mr___and he don't love me" (1982: 64). The book dramatically displays how female inequality is rampant. The preacher condemns and attacks Shug for her looseness, whereas Albert's wanton infidelity is tolerated. Celie's relationship with Albert is unloving and vile. Mary Agnes solicits a white uncle to help get Sofia out of prison, the uncle rapes her. Albert attempts to force Nettie (Celie's sister) to submit to him, but she leaves after successfully fighting him off. Physical violence against the women is common, apparently even in relationships of lovingness, such as that between Harpo and his wife Sofia. Harpo beats Sofia because, as he says, "The wife s'pose to mind" (1982: 64). Harpo even considers it respectable to physically violate his wife.

The narrator conveys the message that woman must full-fledgedly oppose the treatment of unfairness meted on them by men, and that they should achieve this through uniting and helping each other. The women in the novel, often converge in taking a feminist stance. They band together to hold each other up in support and sustenance, even those with interest in the same men. Feminist bonds of sisterhood are borne out as important, these we see in Nettie and Celie, in Sophia and Odessa, even in Mary Agnes and Sofia, in Albert's sister and Celie. in Tashi and Olivia, and in Shug Avery and Celie. The latter, in their relationship, encapsulate the twin roles of sisters and lovers.

Some of the women, such as Sofia adapt to fighting for and defending themselves. Sofia is of strong character, she is not subservient, she is powerful and physically strong. She can be quite aggressive but this spills into a dreadful experience at the hands of the police after she had the nerve to talk back to the white mayor. Subsequently, Sofia is sentenced to be the mayor's servant; doing dull, irksome, and fatiguing work for many years. The sisterhood feminist bond between Sofia and Mary Agnes is stronger than their mutual interest of affection for Harpo. Mary goes as far as enduring rape on behalf of attempting to get Sofia released. And when Mary Agnes goes off to pursue a singing career, it is Sophia who looks after her child.

The most feminist liberated and independent-thinking woman, of them all, is Shug Avery; despite the verbal attacks meted on her by church elders because of her lifestyle. She is a career blues singer, an occupation that offers her much more freedom than the others who are under the confines of home, housework and bringing up children. Shug's stance on sexual freedom is stronger than that of many other women, she has numerous affairs. Her feminist strength still involves her strong belief in God, she does not worship or believe in the conventional way. Indeed it is the relationship between Shug and Celie that is the central theme in the novel. Shug will liberate Celie in numerous aspects of her life. Shug simultaneously becomes a sister, friend and lover to Celie as she guides her into emotional and financial independence. Shug's feminist stance stands out. Her gender and opinions do not preclude her from being humanly equal to everybody and possessing the integrity. She passes these qualities onto Celie. Paradoxically, it is the occupation of sewing, "a woman's job," that significantly gains Celie independence--but the product is trousers, to be worn by women. Celie becomes strong enough to point out to Albert that the qualities of honesty, integrity, and independence are valid for both genders. Celie criticizes Albert's contention that, "...Shug act more manly than most men. I mean she upright, honest. Speak her mind and the devil take the hindmost. You know Shug will fight...Just like Sophia. She bound to live her life and be herself no matter what" (1982: 270). This exemplifies addressing the issues of feminine and masculine temperament in the novel. The novel asserts that women, as people can be just as weak and strong as men, therefore gender should never be a yardstick for perceptions of human qualities.

The book is a complex weaving of events in a woman's life that are hard to completely represent in a movie. Nevertheless, the movie maintains most of the heartbreaking issues which mirror the hardships that happened in the author's life. Whoopi Goldberg artfully plays the shy and abused Celie, Oprah Winfrey is powerful as the strong and no-nonsense Sophia, Margaret Avery is the gifted and independent singer Shug Avery, and Danny Glover is the abusive husband who disallows Celie having contact with Nettie and others. The issues that were toned down or understated in this movie, such as the lesbian loving and the violence, would probably be more graphically played during this era. That was 1985, not that long ago, but film-makers were less blunt with their images. The "lesbian" (the word is not mentioned in the book) acts are not conceived as being lesbian at all, but as a means (for Shug) to show Celie that a person can be loved and not just used as a toilet for sex. Compared to the book the movie rendition can sometimes appear to be too glamorous, too glorified, and too sweet. Director Spielberg commendably images the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed.

The actors performed their roles exceptionally well. These include Whoopi Goldberg who plays the shy and abused Celie, Oprah Winfrey who plays the strong, no nonsense Sophia, Margaret Aver as the gifted singer Shug Avery, Danny Glover as the abusive husband to Celie who goes to the extent of not allowing Celie to have any contact with her sister Nettie, among others. The movie depicts the female characters as generally good persons, not flawless. The women are of unique backgrounds, conditions and talents, and they weave together to help each other out, in feminism strength. The men are generally likeable, save for abusive Danny Glover (who, anyway, later redeems himself); so it is difficult to look at the movie and the book as an attack on black masculinity in the course of displaying black (or overall) feminist strength. Consider that Rev. Samuel the missionary adopts Celie's children; Buster the boxer dates and does not try to overrule the strong-willed Sophia; even Shug's husband, Grady (in the movie version) accepts Shug for who she is, despite knowing her past of licentiousness.

Both the book and movie turn out to be amongst the most powerful in addressing issues of feminism in everyday life. Alice Walker prevalently employs black English and black characters, but this is a book and movie that almost anyone, near and far, can relate to. The book offers much more in that sphere than the movie, but both declare that triumph in a woman's life often happens when misfortune and adversity are challenged by feminist unity and forthrightness in face of a male dominated world. Women's issues come in various shapes and sizes, as the book and movie illustrate, but strength is indeed in numbers, ambitiousness, education, and becoming outward looking other than insular. A woman is to significantly love and cherish herself, get rid of the oppression blocking her, before she can fully appreciate and enjoy herself as well as others.

Incredible.......2007-09-14

I have seen the movie a million and one times but this book did it in for me. Although the movie was amazing, you have to read the book. There was a lot in the book I felt should have been in the movie. Overall this is a great book to read.

Excellent product........2007-09-11

Absolutely loved this book. It was in almost perfect condition. Better than described. Thanks for the great book and the great price.

a timeless story about redemption and the power of forgiveness.......2007-09-05

This gem of a story is about Celie, an abused
woman that uses the magic of reading and writing
letters to help her overcome the abusive life
she lives with Mister, her husband in an arranged
marriage. Through her friendship with Shug Avery,
and her belief in God, she learns to stand up
and value herself as a human being. She eventually
forgives those that abused her when she realizes
that they cannot have power over her if she doesn't
let them.

Some have accused the author and the story of being
anti-black men but the story is anti- a system that
oppressed the meak, and that's something that
everyone can relate to if they are willing to open
their minds to this wonderful book.

Lovely Reading.......2007-07-13

This story is a captivating and wonderful tale of a family torn apart by abuse. It's lovely but may not be suitable for younger audiences because of some sexual content. I feel in love with this book once I got to the end. I wont spoil it but I greatly recommend it.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party

Average customer rating:

I am in awe
It doesn't matter how it ended
Highly imaginative historical novel -- should be marketed to adults not teens
Challenge your perceptions
An Astonishing Novel/Puzzle

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party
M.T. Anderson
Manufacturer: Candlewick
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Historical Fiction | History & Historical Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Teens | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0763624020
Release Date: 2006-09-12

Book Description

A gothic tale becomes all too shockingly real in this mesmerizing magnum opus by the acclaimed author of FEED.

It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother — a princess in exile from a faraway land — are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments — and his own chilling role in them. Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson's extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.

Customer Reviews:

I am in awe.......2007-09-23

This book was profoundly disturbing to me on so many levels. At various points in the book, I almost had to put it down because I was so heartsick. (Before I begin my praise of this amazing work - I do have to ask...this is a work for young adults? Seriously?)

When I added this book to my list - I tagged it as Fiction and Science Fiction. When I started the book - I was sure I was reading some sort of Gothic, maybe post-apocalyptic cautionary tale. When I found out the book was set in pre-Revolutionary Boston - I was shocked.

Once I got over that...I was then shocked to find out that Octavian and his mother were slaves. I kept having to change my mindset as I went through the book...one of the reasons I think I was so affected by it. I was just starting to wrap my mind around the "knowledge for knowledge's sake - consequences be damned" philosophy of the "college" when the sickening reality of Octavian and his mother's imprisonment set in. The frills and finery were torn away to reveal the true inhumanity of their situation.

Again - this book was disturbing on so many levels. Was I more bothered by Octavian's defense mechanisms when confronted by despicable acts" "...after I saw the philosophers of this college acquire a docile child deprived of reason and speech...beat her to the point of gagging and swooning; after such experiments as these, I became most wondrous observant, and often stared unmoving at a wall for some hours together." (Reading that passage again turns my stomach.)

Or was I more disturbed by the complete lack of hope that permeates the book: "Do you feel it child?" he asked. "The wall is gone. Space is gone from behind us." I could feel nothing. "He said, "All that is there now is the eye of God." He shivered. "The pupil is black, and as large as a world." And later, "At long last, you may no longer distinguish what binds you from what is you."

Or was I most saddened by the hideous irony that the men who gave Octavian freedom of the mind were the ones that denied him the freedom of his body. "They gave me a tongue; and the stopped it up, so they would not have to hear it crying." And "...they told me of color, that it was an illusion of the eye, an event in the perceiver's mind, not in the object, they told me that color had no reality...And then they imprisoned me in darkness; and though there was no color there, I still was black, and they still were white; and for that, they bound and gagged me."

And I don't even have the words to address the powerful juxtaposition of the colonists struggle and cries for "Freedom from tyranny!" against the silent reality of slavery.

The way that Anderson phrases the most hideous of realities in the most matter of fact ways is by turns, startling and beautiful. It makes me think that there are no other ways these words could be put together - that the way they are set upon the page is the only way they can exist together.

"What have you observed?"

"The solidity of shackles. They increase the solidity of the body. When I walk free, I am not conscious of my solidity."

"Yes. Shackles, like all matter, are defined by resistance."

"Do not tell me," I said to them, "what is defined by resistance."

As I start into the above paragraph, I am observing as Octavian does. Then I am considering the truth of what he observes - that one does not FEEL freedom until one loses it. That it is difficult to experience a positive without knowing the negative. And then - with a killing blow - my eyes absorb that final sentence...and I feel ridiculous for not mourning Octavian's shackles with him...and then I feel a fierce admiration of his spirit and his refusal to accept shackles of the mind along with shackles of the body. All this - in under 50 words.

I am in awe.

This book made me feel like I do when watching movies like "Schindler's List" or "Saving Private Ryan". Every molecule in my body and soul rebels against the horror I am a witness to. All I can think about is turning my eyes away, making it stop, which is the one thing I am not allowed to do. These atrocities existed, they were real. Humans were and are capable of such evil, such cruelty, such viciousness. It is important to me that every once in a while, I remind myself of this. I am so incredibly lucky to have been born in the circumstances I was, and to have been given the privileges I have, and to have lived in the time an place I do. The least I can do is to acknowledge the pain of those who are not as lucky as I.

This book, like those movies, is one where the reader cannot put aside after finishing and think, "It was just a movie/book." These times and events were real. These things happened, even if details have been changed.

Octavian, and those real people he is representative of, experienced horrors I hope I never do. Horrors that most of our world would say happened in the past..and yet we all know are happening every day - somewhere, to someone. My soul aches for those who are robbed of their humanity by beings inhuman themselves.

Because I am who I am, I must end this review with a beautiful and tragic set of passages - mirror images of the same truth:

"I lifted up the first, blank, page, and surveyed those beneath, to see, as Bono quoth, what the man on the street was wearing. It was a catalogue of horrors. Page after page of Negroes in bridles, strapped to walls,...masks of iron with metal mouth bits...razored necklaces...collars of spikes that supported the head..."

"...Mr. Gitney burned Bono's fashion catallogue an hour later."

"Let us rid ourselves," he said, "of this noisome object."

"But I could not rid myself of it. It was the common property of us all."

Previous to this - there was one of the few glimmers of hope in the book:

"Music hath its land of origin; and yet it is also its own country, its own sovereign power, and all make take refuge there, and all, once settled, may claim it as their own, and all may meet there in amity; and these instruments, as surely as instruments of torture, belong to all of us."

Octavian and his story belongs to all of us. Though not as fully to those who experience such events in their lifetime...it belongs to those of us who must make sure that the realities contained within the fiction become less and less prevalent. We need these "noisome objects" today more than ever.

Any time I find myself feeling complacent about our world? I need only look at the cover of this book.

It doesn't matter how it ended.......2007-08-20

Okay... here's the deal, I love to read. I love to read good books. Our librarian, excuse me, media specialist whatever, at school suggested this book to me. "I don't have time to read it, and I need an opinion. It seems like something you would like. Take as much time as you need."
Believe me, I was extremely excited to read this book. It was different than anything I've ever really read before. So I took it on with great enthusiasm.
At first, I was very intrigued with Octavian and his situation. I really did think that the story was good. But only the story. I was so bored with the book, it seemed to drag on forever. Pages of writing, and I only needed a paragraph. But I persevered because it was so interesting, only bits at a time though, because I could only handle so much.
Then I talked with my friend Katie who was also reading this book. Pretty much in the same situation I was in only a little farther along in the book. She said it didn't get any better and gave up. And that's not like Katie, she reads A LOT and EVERYTHING so I was surprised. But I liked the story so I continued. Farther than Katie had read and farther than I wish I would have read. It never became worth it. NEVER! It sat in my locker for possibly two months because I was determined to finish it no matter how much I hated it. But in the end I couldn't do it. I had moved on to other books and I have trouble reading more than one novel at a time, if I really like one.

So in the end, I say you can try BUT if it doesn't satisfy you within the first couple chapters... don't put yourself through it.

Highly imaginative historical novel -- should be marketed to adults not teens.......2007-07-28

This is a well-written, well-plotted historical novel with an unusually imaginative premise. It takes place in the late 18th century.

I have no idea why it is marketed as a "teen" novel -- it is not a fantasy, nor is it light reading, and it has a number of very disturbing sequences. This is not to say that a well-read, intelligent teen with mature tastes would not enjoy the book -- but the book should be marketed to adults, who are far more likely to appreciate it.

I won't spoil the book by giving a synopsis -- it has a number of surprises, so I advise potential readers to read the book without too much foreknowledge.

I am very much looking forward to the sequel.

Challenge your perceptions.......2007-07-10

Octavian Nothing a historical fiction set in 18th century America illuminates society, politics, education, philosophy and science including a very controversial human experiment. I found it truly thought provoking and look forward to the sequel.

This is rated for grades 9 and up. The writing style and concepts are not lightweight by any means. I think adults will appreciate it as much as teens who are looking for challenging literature.

An Astonishing Novel/Puzzle.......2007-06-22

The bad news is, since you are reading this in the Customer Review section, you have probably read enough about the setting and plot of this excellent novel to have spoiled the carefully crafted setup chapters. (Fortunately, the book's dust jacket contains no spoilers.) One of the central themes follows the boy Octavian's process of solving the mystery of who he is and how he is being raised and, reflecting thi