A graphic narrative gives an unjustly neglected period in American history a labor-of-love illumination.
Mitchell’s rigorous academic research confirms that Oscar Dunn (1826-1871), the first Black lieutenant governor (and acting governor) in American history, is a worthy subject for such a biography, but for the author, this was clearly personal: “Dunn is my ancestor.” As he explains, what started him on the road toward his doctoral dissertation was the lack of knowledge about Dunn in his native state of Louisiana. In New Orleans, his great-grandmother had told him about the familial connection. “Some of these facts I learned that day sitting on my Grandmaw’s couch,” writes Mitchell, “and others I filled in over the years as I came to learn more about my trailblazing ancestor.” However, when he tried to tell his class about his illustrious ancestor, his teacher responded that there had never been a Black governor or lieutenant governor in Louisiana, and the whole class laughed at him. In this powerful work of historical excavation, the author sets the record straight, showing how Dunn navigated his way through the complicated politics and race relations of the state as well as a bitter rivalry with the corrupt governor (the two offices were elected separately). Dunn’s funeral procession drew a crowd of 20,000, “one of the largest funeral gatherings in the history of New Orleans.” In 1873, the new governor allocated funds for a monument, but it was never built, likely due to “the looming collapse of Reconstruction and increasing governmental chaos in Louisiana.” Throughout, Edwards’ vivid illustrations ably capture Dunn’s dignity and the era’s turmoil, providing narrative momentum to a story that features a few twists and turns. The incisive combination of text and illustrations creates an entirely satisfying historical story of both Dunn’s legacy and that of Reconstruction in general.
An exemplary graphic work built on a foundation of impressive scholarship.Pub Date: March 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-917860-83-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: The Historic New Orleans Collection
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Categories: HISTORICAL & MILITARY | HISTORY | AFRICAN AMERICAN | GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS | UNITED STATES | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
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The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | PSYCHOLOGY | HISTORICAL & MILITARY
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A concise personal and scholarly history that avoids academic jargon as it illuminates emotional truths.
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The Harvard historian and Texas native demonstrates what the holiday means to her and to the rest of the nation.
Initially celebrated primarily by Black Texans, Juneteenth refers to June 19, 1865, when a Union general arrived in Galveston to proclaim the end of slavery with the defeat of the Confederacy. If only history were that simple. In her latest, Gordon-Reed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and numerous other honors, describes how Whites raged and committed violence against celebratory Blacks as racism in Texas and across the country continued to spread through segregation, Jim Crow laws, and separate-but-equal rationalizations. As Gordon-Reed amply shows in this smooth combination of memoir, essay, and history, such racism is by no means a thing of the past, even as Juneteenth has come to be celebrated by all of Texas and throughout the U.S. The Galveston announcement, notes the author, came well after the Emancipation Proclamation but before the ratification of the 13th Amendment. Though Gordon-Reed writes fondly of her native state, especially the strong familial ties and sense of community, she acknowledges her challenges as a woman of color in a state where “the image of Texas has a gender and a race: “Texas is a White man.” The author astutely explores “what that means for everyone who lives in Texas and is not a White man.” With all of its diversity and geographic expanse, Texas also has a singular history—as part of Mexico, as its own republic from 1836 to 1846, and as a place that “has connections to people of African descent that go back centuries.” All of this provides context for the uniqueness of this historical moment, which Gordon-Reed explores with her characteristic rigor and insight.
A concise personal and scholarly history that avoids academic jargon as it illuminates emotional truths.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63149-883-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Categories: HISTORICAL & MILITARY | AFRICAN AMERICAN | HISTORY | UNITED STATES | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS
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