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calarco 's review for:
A Black Women's History of the United States
by Daina Ramey Berry, Kali Nicole Gross
True to its title, [b:A Black Women's History of the United States|45153160|A Black Women's History of the United States|Daina Ramey Berry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1575339748l/45153160._SX50_.jpg|55389836] is a great resource on the subject-matter. Truthfully, I picked up this copy for a work-related book club, and am now actually using it a source for other work projects centering on American history and gender equity. Truly, it's a solid piece of research.
Perhaps my favorite element of this book, is how it tackles early history of black women in the United States. Popular historical literature tends to be sparse when it comes to ethnic minorities in general prior to the 1800s, and I have seen this all too often used as an excuse by a number of historical sites to exclude or brush over critical histories. What Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross do exceptionally well, can be seen with their analysis of early black women’s stories in America.
In the face of sparse archival information, when forming narrative history the two fill-in the blanks, so-to-speak, with really good questions. This is by no means to be confused with bold speculations. Rather, after providing factually-based context, the two then expand the conversation of different individual’s experiences with questions geared towards building understanding and challenging pre-existing narratives derived from, in some cases, the same evidence.
This is a really solid read; my only critique would be that I wish they wrote more. Each chapter evaluates a time period, and centers its narrative around (at least) one woman’s experience during that time period. There is a great deal that can be learned from these stories, both for historical knowledge, as well as general life lessons. This book definitely has my recommendation.
Perhaps my favorite element of this book, is how it tackles early history of black women in the United States. Popular historical literature tends to be sparse when it comes to ethnic minorities in general prior to the 1800s, and I have seen this all too often used as an excuse by a number of historical sites to exclude or brush over critical histories. What Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross do exceptionally well, can be seen with their analysis of early black women’s stories in America.
In the face of sparse archival information, when forming narrative history the two fill-in the blanks, so-to-speak, with really good questions. This is by no means to be confused with bold speculations. Rather, after providing factually-based context, the two then expand the conversation of different individual’s experiences with questions geared towards building understanding and challenging pre-existing narratives derived from, in some cases, the same evidence.
This is a really solid read; my only critique would be that I wish they wrote more. Each chapter evaluates a time period, and centers its narrative around (at least) one woman’s experience during that time period. There is a great deal that can be learned from these stories, both for historical knowledge, as well as general life lessons. This book definitely has my recommendation.