In two papers (delivered at Baylor in 1982) and 61 pellucid pages, McNeill (The Rise of the West, Plagues and Peoples, The Human Condition) revives and renews Walter Prescott Webb's thesis that European expansion created a Great Frontier around the globe—where not only progress, freedom, and equality prevailed, but also destruction, compulsion, and slavery: "the persistent double-edgeness of change." The aim is to rid us of provincialism—put "the States back into the world as one of a family of peoples and nations similarly situated"—and also to expose the "romantic delusion" of an Arcadian past. The evidence derives from McNeill's unsurpassed knowledge of steppe and veldt and Outback, of disease and demographics, of transportation, communication, agriculture, and trade—in which he perceives patterns. The two papers divide at 1750. In the two centuries before, the Europeans' diseases ("epidemiological superiority"), combined with their "greater or lesser superiority of skills," destroyed native populations (in the US, USSR, Latin America); the resulting labor shortage, for agricultural or mineral production, brought recourse to compulsory labor (slaves, serfs, indentured servants, peons); "the arts and skills of civilization" made little headway. After 1750, however, transportation and communication links grew—and, most crucially, population soared. (McNeill reviews the possible reasons—with particular attention to the spread of American food crops, like potatoes and peanuts, yielding "more calories per acre than anything grown before.") When there was no more land to be tilled, and no other livelihood at hand, migration set in (to Australia and South Africa, as well as North and South America)—reducing the differences between European and frontier societies, and bringing the legal abolition of slavery and serfdom. But, McNeill emphasizes, "legally sanctioned compulsory labor" persisted—in Australia and the Congo, in the transport of Indian and Chinese "coolies" to the fringes of British and American settlements (carrying "three times as many persons across the world's oceans as ever left Africa in Atlantic slave ships"). Once again: a monumental thesis, compactly and matter-of-factly put.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1983
ISBN: 0691046581
Page Count: 73
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An intriguing but uneven essay on the enduring influence and image of Malcolm X, by the author of Reflecting Black (not reviewed). Dyson (Communications Studies/Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) prefaces his book with an arresting anecdote about leading a Malcolm X seminar at Brown University, where he publicly scolded black male students who imposed a ``racial litmus test'' to claim for themselves exclusive rights to Malcom's legacy (i.e., ``because I'm black, poor, male and angry, I understand him better than you''). Had Dyson drawn more frequently on classroom experiences, this book might have been energized. He first briefly sketches Malcolm's life and thought (avoiding lionization by noting his harsh attitudes toward women) and the complexity of his political evolution away from the Nation of Islam and black nationalism. Next comes a long assessment of the ``uncritical celebration and vicious criticism'' that mark so many books on Malcolm; Dyson identifies ``four Malcolms'' that emerge from these assessments: hero/saint; public moralist; victim and vehicle of psychohistorical forces; and revolutionary socialist. He then analyzes Malcolm's role in the resurgence of black nationalism, noting that his defiance has been adopted by rappers and other disaffected black youth. However, while calling for a ``new progressive black politics,'' Dyson doesn't analyze the role of the Nation of Islam or of black leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton on the contemporary black political scene. His next chapter, on masculinity in 1990s black film, strays somewhat from his subject; more interesting is his take on Spike Lee's Malcolm X, which Dyson considers hagiographic but also ``often impressive...richly textured and subtly nuanced.'' The book concludes with a heartfelt meditation on how to make the best use of Malcolm's legacy. Dyson calls for a more complex debate on the state of black males, suggesting that Malcolm's message of self- discipline and self-love might be redemptive. Not as rich as Joe Wood's collection, Malcolm X: In Our Own Image (not reviewed), but useful for serious students.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-19-509235-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
Egerton's examination of the South in the period immediately preceding the civil rights movement is less history through group biography than history through cameo appearance. Calling himself ``a middle-aged, middle-class, white Southern male with moderately liberal biases,'' Egerton (Southern Food, 1987, etc.) gracefully combines the narrative techniques of fiction with the richness of historical fact to examine the South in the period immediately preceding the civil rights movement. Covering the years from 1932 (the beginning of the New Deal) to 1954 (when the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education), the story unfolds chronologically, as most good history does, so the causes and effects are clear. Chronicling the Southern Tenant Farmer's Union and other groups, Egerton reminds us that conscience and opposition to racism existed in the South before Rosa Parks took her seat on the bus. But all these considerable strengths are dissipated by the way Egerton uses the huge cast he has selected. Those—black and white, rich and poor—who set the stage for Martin Luther King Jr. appear, disappear, and reappear in dizzying fashion. Far less known than King, some of the most interesting are Will Alexander, Mary McLeod Bethune, W.J. Cash, Frank Porter Graham, James Weldon Johnson, Lucy Randolph Mason, and Ralph McGill. If Egerton had explained their lives more fully, he would leave readers more satisfied. Still, the author does ultimately wrestle successfully with his wonderment at who and what transformed the politics and culture of the South in the space of a single generation. Those devoted to the study of Southern history will read this book avidly. Newcomers will learn a great deal from the author's inspired conceptualization but will need frequent respites from the flood of humanity he presents. (48 pages photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 18, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-40808-8
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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