Douglas A. Blackmon. Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II. New York: Doubleday 2008
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Perhaps you can't tell a book by its cover but a book-signing-talk by the author may provide some illumination. Such was the case recently while watching C Span Book TV one Saturday morning that I encountered Douglas Blockman, the Wall Street Journal's Atlanta bureau chief, presenting his book about neoslavery. With C Span's rather slavish adherence to the false doctrine of fair and balanced I had braced myself for the worst. Shame on me.
This is an important and a powerful book. Its power resides in making an argument that seems almost self evident once you see it. If you have delved into the tragedy/ outrage that the betrayal of Reconstruction was and read works such as Eric Foner's Reconstruction: Unfinished Revolution or John Hope Franklin's Reconstruction After the Civil War or most prominently of all W.E.B. Du Bois' Black Reconstruction in America one develops a sense of what a vicious white insurgency did to subvert the union occupation and destroy any hopes of black citizenship.
Despite the efforts of historians like the aforementioned the prevailing historiographical view was that the recently freed slaves showed a determined proclivity to criminality. The basis of the Jim Crow social compact required the deference of blacks to whites and a black fear of law enforcement. That compact also fostered the creation of a mythology of an honorable southerner with his contented slaves tragically defeated in the quest for secession. The pernicious lie that the civil war was fought over regional patriotism and not slavery was thusly created.
Certainly serious readers of American history are aware of the Jim Crow exceptionalism of apartheid in the United States and the Civil Rights movement that was ultimately its undoing. But almost no one has explicitly made the connection that Douglas Blackmon makes. Slavery did not end in 1865 it merely evolved. It did not entirely cease until the 1940s when considerations of possible propaganda use by the Japanese and Germans compelled the administration of Franklin Roosevelt to finally extinguish this forced labor scheme.
The ground work for the southern apartheid regime was laid by virtually every southern state from the late 1860s to 1877. A series of interlocking laws were enacted that criminalized black life. Charges such as vagrancy, using obscene language, adultery, and obtaining goods under false pretenses were examples of imprisoning blacks. Times being what they were a black man arrested in the south was bound to be found guilty of something. It was this misdemeanor forced labor system that was the sine qua non of southern whites reestablishing political control. The slave owners no longer were plantation owners but country sheriffs and their deputies were incentivized to round up all the available black labor they could. The victims of this system were leased to mines, lumber mills, and steel factories which served as the basis for southern industrialization and the emergence of what Atlanta Constitution editor Henry Grady labeled as the “New South” in 1886.
Blackmon estimates that between 100,000 and 200,000 blacks were enslaved by this forced labor system. An initially small fine could keep a black man in the Jim Crow south imprisoned for years working at forced labor. The prisoner-laborers in this system were subjected to physical violence and even torture if they failed to comply. The also faced multiple dangers in the work place and death was anything but a rare occurrence. Additionally the Southern captains of industry received another benefit from their preferred system of labor relations. Slave labor has a way of undermining unionization efforts by non incarcerated workers. Forced labor served as “a bulwark against labor unrest.”
Blackmon concludes the book by backing away from the seemingly logical conclusion of the work. He explicitly states that “This book is not a call for financial reparations.” Based on the evidence presented in Slavery by Another Name it certainly could be. One of the standard arguments against reparations has always been slavery ended with the Civil War. If this is demonstrably not the case then perhaps it is time to reconsider the question.
Available at Grinnell College Libraries. Please ask at circulation desk if you would like to check this out.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Brothers
Yu Hua. Brothers: A Novel. New York: Pantheon Books, 2009. Translated by Eileen Cheng-yin and Chow and Carlos Rojas.
R. Stuhr
This epic novel follows two brothers, Baldy Li and Song Gang, through the cultural revolution and into China's embrace of capitalism. Published as two books in China, it was a best seller. I admit to not having finished this 600+ page book, I'll though I have finished book 1 and well into book 2 with just about one hundred pages to read. I suddenly needed to take a break from this tragicomic novel. Always a little wary of entering into such a long novel, I found that after the first chapter or so, I was completely captivated.
At first the characters seemed a bit cartoonish. Young Baldy Li marched through the town after having been caught trying to get a look at the women's behinds in the town latrine. His father, also a latrine peeper, died when he fell in while trying to get a view of the women's side of the latrine. Song Gang on the other hand is a steady, generous, and studious child. But, as the novel progresses, and the characters struggle against the brutality of poverty, political expediency, selfishness, and fear, they become three dimensional and compelling.
Both Song Gang and Baldy Li are smart in their own ways and it is good because at an early age they must fend for themselves. Brought together by their parents' marriage, they are separated when Song Gang's father dies, a victim to the political extremism of the cultural revolutionaries. When Baldy Li's mother dies, they are rejoined. Baldy Li is all bravado, having earlier fed himself on his story of having glimpsed the town beauty's behind (told for a bowl of house special soup), and Song Gang's steady and thoughtful nature, causing him to be careful with money, and a nurturer like his father, cooking and maintaining the household. Both Baldy Li and Song Gang find work. Baldy Li is given a job in the local charity factory that employs "idiots" and disabled members of society. He quickly takes over making the factory a raging success. Song Gang works in a factory as well. He wins the heart of the town beauty, something that Baldy Li wanted for himself. The brothers are separated by this love triangle. As the cultural revolution fades away and capitalism becomes the new way of doing things, Song Gang and his true love are beset by bad health and unemployment while Baldy Li masterminds another financial success.
Despite their falling out Baldy Li, a strange mix of thoughtlessness and generosity, continues to care about Song Gang, his pride never overtakes him. He attempts to help Song Gang, but either Song Gang's wife is unwilling, or Song Gang himself refuses the help. Baldy Li's enterprises remake the small village that he and Song Gang grew up in. His loss of his true love to Song Gang keeps him on an insatiable search for female affection. Finally, he holds a virgin beauty contest, which creates a market for the means for returning women to a physical state of virginity. I'll have to revisit this blog posting when I finally finish the book.
Brothers is filled with vulgarity and brutality and the characters are painted in broad strokes--subtlety is not a term that can be used to describe this novel. Yu Hua tells the story of
recent Chinese history as experienced within one small village. I was fortunate to hear Yu Hua talk shortly after the novel was released in the United States. He said that you could compare the change that happened in 500 years of European history to the change that took place in China over a period of 40 years--and this change has manifested itself in all ways, from modernization, to social morés, to political and economic philosophy.
This is indeed a hefty novel, but it is also a fascinating and rewarding read.
Burling 3rd Floor: PL2928.H78 X5613 2009
R. Stuhr
This epic novel follows two brothers, Baldy Li and Song Gang, through the cultural revolution and into China's embrace of capitalism. Published as two books in China, it was a best seller. I admit to not having finished this 600+ page book, I'll though I have finished book 1 and well into book 2 with just about one hundred pages to read. I suddenly needed to take a break from this tragicomic novel. Always a little wary of entering into such a long novel, I found that after the first chapter or so, I was completely captivated.
At first the characters seemed a bit cartoonish. Young Baldy Li marched through the town after having been caught trying to get a look at the women's behinds in the town latrine. His father, also a latrine peeper, died when he fell in while trying to get a view of the women's side of the latrine. Song Gang on the other hand is a steady, generous, and studious child. But, as the novel progresses, and the characters struggle against the brutality of poverty, political expediency, selfishness, and fear, they become three dimensional and compelling.
Both Song Gang and Baldy Li are smart in their own ways and it is good because at an early age they must fend for themselves. Brought together by their parents' marriage, they are separated when Song Gang's father dies, a victim to the political extremism of the cultural revolutionaries. When Baldy Li's mother dies, they are rejoined. Baldy Li is all bravado, having earlier fed himself on his story of having glimpsed the town beauty's behind (told for a bowl of house special soup), and Song Gang's steady and thoughtful nature, causing him to be careful with money, and a nurturer like his father, cooking and maintaining the household. Both Baldy Li and Song Gang find work. Baldy Li is given a job in the local charity factory that employs "idiots" and disabled members of society. He quickly takes over making the factory a raging success. Song Gang works in a factory as well. He wins the heart of the town beauty, something that Baldy Li wanted for himself. The brothers are separated by this love triangle. As the cultural revolution fades away and capitalism becomes the new way of doing things, Song Gang and his true love are beset by bad health and unemployment while Baldy Li masterminds another financial success.
Despite their falling out Baldy Li, a strange mix of thoughtlessness and generosity, continues to care about Song Gang, his pride never overtakes him. He attempts to help Song Gang, but either Song Gang's wife is unwilling, or Song Gang himself refuses the help. Baldy Li's enterprises remake the small village that he and Song Gang grew up in. His loss of his true love to Song Gang keeps him on an insatiable search for female affection. Finally, he holds a virgin beauty contest, which creates a market for the means for returning women to a physical state of virginity. I'll have to revisit this blog posting when I finally finish the book.
Brothers is filled with vulgarity and brutality and the characters are painted in broad strokes--subtlety is not a term that can be used to describe this novel. Yu Hua tells the story of
recent Chinese history as experienced within one small village. I was fortunate to hear Yu Hua talk shortly after the novel was released in the United States. He said that you could compare the change that happened in 500 years of European history to the change that took place in China over a period of 40 years--and this change has manifested itself in all ways, from modernization, to social morés, to political and economic philosophy.
This is indeed a hefty novel, but it is also a fascinating and rewarding read.
Burling 3rd Floor: PL2928.H78 X5613 2009
Librarianship and Legitimacy
Raber, Douglas. Librarianship and Legitimacy: The Ideology of the Public Library Inquiry. Westport, CT: Greenwod Press, 1997.
R. Stuhr
Raber analyzes the 1949 Public Library Inquiry which had as its conclusion that public libraries could not possibly serve all people and their needs and so they should focus on readers and intellectually motivated inquirers. This set off a firestorm in the public library community because of its elitist overtones.
Public libraries have long served those least served by society. Although there has always been a corner of public libraries as represented by the large imposing structures that have often been the anchors of urban library systems that were meant as "temples of learning" for those occupying the upper rungs of society, there has also been a larger segment of the public library world serving the working class, the children, the immigrants.
Raber looks at the whole history of public libraries in the United States, and follows the attempt of library practitioners to determine a philosophy of service and to define their mission. The philosophy and mission has changed as society has changed but also as librarians have sought to find their place in the professional world.
The Public Library Inquiry was intended to both solidify the place of the professional librarian and to define a mission. Raber concludes that the Public Library Inquiry failed to provide a "lasting identity." He writes, that the public library must "become a dynamic institution capable of adapting to change while remaining true to its democratic purpose." However the library does evolve and as librarians face dilemmas of "purpose, direction, and identity," they should keep in mind the the role public library and librarians have served in sustaining American democratic society.
R. Stuhr
Raber analyzes the 1949 Public Library Inquiry which had as its conclusion that public libraries could not possibly serve all people and their needs and so they should focus on readers and intellectually motivated inquirers. This set off a firestorm in the public library community because of its elitist overtones.
Public libraries have long served those least served by society. Although there has always been a corner of public libraries as represented by the large imposing structures that have often been the anchors of urban library systems that were meant as "temples of learning" for those occupying the upper rungs of society, there has also been a larger segment of the public library world serving the working class, the children, the immigrants.
Raber looks at the whole history of public libraries in the United States, and follows the attempt of library practitioners to determine a philosophy of service and to define their mission. The philosophy and mission has changed as society has changed but also as librarians have sought to find their place in the professional world.
The Public Library Inquiry was intended to both solidify the place of the professional librarian and to define a mission. Raber concludes that the Public Library Inquiry failed to provide a "lasting identity." He writes, that the public library must "become a dynamic institution capable of adapting to change while remaining true to its democratic purpose." However the library does evolve and as librarians face dilemmas of "purpose, direction, and identity," they should keep in mind the the role public library and librarians have served in sustaining American democratic society.
The Devil's Whisper
Miyuki Miyabe. The Devil's Whisper. Translated by Deborah Stuhr Iwabuchi. NY: Kodansha International, 2007 (first published in Japan in 1989).
R. Stuhr
Revenge is at the heart of this mystery by popular and prolific Japanese author Miyuke Miyabe. Mamoru is a young man who lives with his aunt and uncle after his mother dies. His father disappeared years before after being accused of embezzling his employer. Mamoru lives under the cloud of his father's wrong doing. In the meantime, several young women have inexplicably committed suicide. All of them knew each other and one from their group still survives but fears for her life. Mamoru's uncle, a taxi cab driver, is the unwitting accomplice in the third young woman's death when she runs out in front of his cab. Mamoru, wanting to clear his uncle's name, sets out to investigate her death. He finds out that the three women were involved, along with a fourth, in a scam to woo lonely men with the aim of taking their money. Through his diligent investigation, now as interested in saving the fourth woman as well as restoring his uncle's reputation, Mamoru stumbles onto the mastermind or sorcer, Harasawa, behind the deaths of the three women. The murder's motivation is revenge.
At the same time as Mamoru is coming closer to solve the crime, a prominent businessman, Yoshitake, claims to have witnessed the accident. His testimony absolves Mamoru's uncle of any guilt. Mamoru discovers that the businessman has his reasons for coming to the aid of Mamoru's family, reasons that do not sit comfortably with Mamoru. Mamoru becomes better acquainted with the Harasawa and learns how he has compelled the three women to their deaths. Harasawa offers Mamoru the means to exact his own revenge. Mamoru must now decide whether he is a person capable of murder or can he be a person who can forgive wrongdoings. Harasawa finds ways to try to persuade Mamoru to his way of thinking even after his death.
The intricate plot of this novel pits two tormented souls seeking revenge against tormented souls begging to be absolved for their crimes. Mamoru, however, knows their is another way, and he is surrounded by friends and family who care about him, and who may possibly bring out his better side. Gramps, who teaches Mamoru to pick locks, is also the strongest influence on Mamoru not to use these skills in a criminal way. He is telling Mamoru that he trust him to do the right thing even when he has the means to do the wrong thing. It is this trust that Mamoru strives to live up to and that may save his soul.
Other books by Miyako Miyabe
Crossfire PL856.I856 K8713 2005
Shadow Family PL856.I856 R213 2004
All She Was Worth PL856.E856 K3713 1999
R. Stuhr
Revenge is at the heart of this mystery by popular and prolific Japanese author Miyuke Miyabe. Mamoru is a young man who lives with his aunt and uncle after his mother dies. His father disappeared years before after being accused of embezzling his employer. Mamoru lives under the cloud of his father's wrong doing. In the meantime, several young women have inexplicably committed suicide. All of them knew each other and one from their group still survives but fears for her life. Mamoru's uncle, a taxi cab driver, is the unwitting accomplice in the third young woman's death when she runs out in front of his cab. Mamoru, wanting to clear his uncle's name, sets out to investigate her death. He finds out that the three women were involved, along with a fourth, in a scam to woo lonely men with the aim of taking their money. Through his diligent investigation, now as interested in saving the fourth woman as well as restoring his uncle's reputation, Mamoru stumbles onto the mastermind or sorcer, Harasawa, behind the deaths of the three women. The murder's motivation is revenge.
At the same time as Mamoru is coming closer to solve the crime, a prominent businessman, Yoshitake, claims to have witnessed the accident. His testimony absolves Mamoru's uncle of any guilt. Mamoru discovers that the businessman has his reasons for coming to the aid of Mamoru's family, reasons that do not sit comfortably with Mamoru. Mamoru becomes better acquainted with the Harasawa and learns how he has compelled the three women to their deaths. Harasawa offers Mamoru the means to exact his own revenge. Mamoru must now decide whether he is a person capable of murder or can he be a person who can forgive wrongdoings. Harasawa finds ways to try to persuade Mamoru to his way of thinking even after his death.
The intricate plot of this novel pits two tormented souls seeking revenge against tormented souls begging to be absolved for their crimes. Mamoru, however, knows their is another way, and he is surrounded by friends and family who care about him, and who may possibly bring out his better side. Gramps, who teaches Mamoru to pick locks, is also the strongest influence on Mamoru not to use these skills in a criminal way. He is telling Mamoru that he trust him to do the right thing even when he has the means to do the wrong thing. It is this trust that Mamoru strives to live up to and that may save his soul.
Other books by Miyako Miyabe
Crossfire PL856.I856 K8713 2005
Shadow Family PL856.I856 R213 2004
All She Was Worth PL856.E856 K3713 1999
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Oberlin College graduates are reading!
Helen Stuhr-Rommereim, Oberlin College '09 is graduating with a major in Russian and Art. Considering this, her reading list is not surprising:
--Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The First Circle by New York: Harper and Row, 1968. (highly recommended!! A novel about a special prison where the prisoners perform high-level scientific research for the Soviet Union. It was published in 1968 and takes place in 1949 and is based on Solzhenitsyn's time in prison)
Burling 3rd floor PG3488.O4 K713x
--Vassily Aksyonov. Generations of Winter. New York: Vintage Books, 1994 and A Winter's Hero. New York: Random House, 1996. by Vassily Aksyonov (a little bit of a soap opera that covers the trajectory of three generations of a family from around 1929 until after the death of Stalin)
Generations of Winter: Burling 3rd floor PG3478.K7 M6713 1995
Winter's Hero: Burling 3rd floor PG3478.K7 T5813 1996
--Gary Shteyngart (an Oberlin grad!). The Russian Debutante's Handbook. New York: Riverhead Books, 2002.
Burling 3rd floor PS3619.H79 R87 2002
--Lydia Chukovskaya. Sofia Petrovna. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1988 (Tragic story of a woman who's son is arrested and sent to Siberia during the purges of 1937)
Burling 3rd floor PG3476.C485 S5913 1988
--Jorge Luis Borges. The Aleph (a short story) found in The Collected Fictions. Translated by Andrew Hurley. New York: Viking 1998.
Burling 3rd floor PQ7797.B635 A24 1998
Max Stasser Oberlin College '09 is graduating with a history major with an emphasis on the Middle East. His reading list includes:
--Jane Mayer. Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. New York: Doubleday, 2008.
Burling 2nd floor HV6432 .M383 2008
--Ron Suskind. The Way of The World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism.
New York: Harper, 2008
Burling Library 1st floor Smith Memorial HV6432 .S875 2008
--Carol Spencer Mitchell and Ellen Spencer Susman. Danger Pay: Memoir of a Photojournalist in the Middle East, 1984-1994.
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2008.
--Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The First Circle by New York: Harper and Row, 1968. (highly recommended!! A novel about a special prison where the prisoners perform high-level scientific research for the Soviet Union. It was published in 1968 and takes place in 1949 and is based on Solzhenitsyn's time in prison)
Burling 3rd floor PG3488.O4 K713x
--Vassily Aksyonov. Generations of Winter. New York: Vintage Books, 1994 and A Winter's Hero. New York: Random House, 1996. by Vassily Aksyonov (a little bit of a soap opera that covers the trajectory of three generations of a family from around 1929 until after the death of Stalin)
Generations of Winter: Burling 3rd floor PG3478.K7 M6713 1995
Winter's Hero: Burling 3rd floor PG3478.K7 T5813 1996
--Gary Shteyngart (an Oberlin grad!). The Russian Debutante's Handbook. New York: Riverhead Books, 2002.
Burling 3rd floor PS3619.H79 R87 2002
--Lydia Chukovskaya. Sofia Petrovna. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1988 (Tragic story of a woman who's son is arrested and sent to Siberia during the purges of 1937)
Burling 3rd floor PG3476.C485 S5913 1988
--Jorge Luis Borges. The Aleph (a short story) found in The Collected Fictions. Translated by Andrew Hurley. New York: Viking 1998.
Burling 3rd floor PQ7797.B635 A24 1998
Max Stasser Oberlin College '09 is graduating with a history major with an emphasis on the Middle East. His reading list includes:
--Jane Mayer. Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. New York: Doubleday, 2008.
Burling 2nd floor HV6432 .M383 2008
--Ron Suskind. The Way of The World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism.
New York: Harper, 2008
Burling Library 1st floor Smith Memorial HV6432 .S875 2008
--Carol Spencer Mitchell and Ellen Spencer Susman. Danger Pay: Memoir of a Photojournalist in the Middle East, 1984-1994.
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2008.
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