bahareads's Reviews (1.09k)

The Jews in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica has a great primary source section. Stanley Mirvis has many of the wills he used for his analysis at the end of the book. Each chapter of The Jews in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica covers a section of Mirvis analysis; Port Royal and live there, Plantation Jews, End of the 1700s, Jewish Communal Life, Ethnic Identity of Jamaican Jews Households, and Creole Jews of Jamaica. Readers can get a timeline of Jamaican Jews history in Jamaica. Mirivis goes through religious toleration, the social outlook of a tolerated minority, trading persecution, and race perceptions, I personally really enjoyed The Jews in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica. It could read pretty dry because Mirvis developed this from his PhD dissertation. Mirvis worked well with the limited resources that were available for research. Somethings we will never truly know because of a lack of sources. If you want to learn about the Atlantic Jewish Diaspora, Jamaica Jews, Jamaican history, or Jewish involvement in slavery and the slave trade The Jews in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica is a great book.

Yeah... this fell flat for me in many ways. Opening up the POVs to multiple people throughout the story was lazy storytelling and character development for me. (Yes, I know all there were other POVs in The Beautiful but it was LIMITED). The plot picking up was fantastic throughout the narrative. However, the cliffhanger was not enough to make me seek the next book in the series quickly. I hate love triangles, so another strike against The Damned . I did love the angst and the drama. I needed more sexy vampireness going on in here. I did love the world expanding, it was good world-building. The supernatural politics was well laid out too. I had wrongly assumed this was a duology so when the plot was not wrapping up I was quite confused.

I loved how quick a read The Beautiful was but I hated so many tropey aspects of it. The plot has everything I enjoy in a good YA fantasy/romance. Paranormal characters, forbidden romance, and albeit somewhat morally grey characters. I do not like love triangles which Ahdieh kept trying to push during the plot. The POVs were interesting, I enjoyed Bastian and Celine's. I could have done without the evil anon. I wish the historical aspect was pushed more because the ideology of the characters was very modern. Many of the characters fell into various stereotypes but it wasn't too overt. I loved how the entire plot was very dramatic.

As my one good classmate has stressed that Eric Foner is THAT man when it comes to this era in American history.<I> Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men</i> tells about the radicalisation of the party. The title is straightforward on what the ideology of the Republican party was pre-civil war. I'm not a fan of American political history, yet this book was fascinating to see the petty politics of the time. There was so much information in <I> Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men</i> and I have no interest in diving into it. If you're interested in the American Civil War/ Reconstruction Era this book is for you. 

Joshua Rothman's The Ledger and The Chain tries to show how the American slave trade shaped America. The book's narrative is told through the most prominent slave traders in the American slave trade industry, Isaac Franklin, John Armfield, and Rice Ballard. In the acknowledgements, Rothman states he wants to show his children that the future must tell the truth about the past. A well-researched work Rothman should appeal to a wide audience. Rothman sets to break down the narrative that the atrocity of the American domestic slave trade was atypical of American slavery.

Rothman does not shirk from his opinions throughout this book on the slave traders themselves. Periodically throughout the book, he remarks on how the slave traders were evil people. The reminder jolts the reader to remember that these were real people who actually did the terrible things Rothman writes about. The ideal to disassociate people from their work or misrepresent their actions is what Rothman crushes with these continued statements. Showing how ruthless Isaac Franklin, John Armfield, and Rice Ballard were in their dealings with enslaved people exemplifies how terrible life was for the enslaved. The letters between these three show the chilling actions they dealt with enslaved people under them. The casual brutality they leveled on their slaves will strike the reader as genuinely evil. Men without a conscience are the only words to describe these three traders adequately

Rothman says that the enthusiasm and collaborative pleasure James Franklin, Isaac Franklin, Rice Ballard, and John Armfield derived from hurting, degrading and terrorizing enslaved people made them successful. The age-old adage 'love the work you do' appears to ring true in this case. Rothman shows how the sex slave trade became very profitable and pleasurable for the traders. Franklin, Armfield, and Ballard would sample their beautiful 'goods' before selling them off to buyers.

Rothman traces the lives of these three traders, ending the book with Ballard's death. Reading the rise of each trader shows the reader how enticing the slave trade was for making money. The idea of the industry generating so much money shows what a powerful motivator money is to humans. The modern-day equivalent sums of Franklin, Armfield, and Ballard's estates will leave the reader reeling. The enticement of possible wealth would have attracted many to the slave trade as Rothman shows throughout the book.

Isaac Franklin's death helped to project the American trope of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Franklin was praised for being "a self-made man." The death of Rice Ballard and John Armfield shows the public has a short memory for evil and money will always garner praise. The praising tributes for Armfield and Franklin were incredibly ignorant of the dark side of their work. John Armfield's obituary writer claimed that enslaved black people looked to Armfield as their "fastest friend." The obituaries show how sanitizing these men's memories were made at this time.

Rothman succeeds in showing the traders as being multifaceted people. John Armfield's mourning of Isaac Franklin's death shows deeply connected these men were with each other. The level of intimacy that they had with each other is shocking. In an emotional preview about Franklin's death, Armfield wrote to Ballard, "You may imagin yet I cannot describe my present feelings." These men being each other's only true friends show how lonely the trader life could be.

Rothman does a great job in The Ledger and the Chain. He lays out the thesis of how domestic slave traders built America decently; there was less analysis and more narrative throughout this work. I lay this on the fact The Ledger and the Chain. was printed by a non-academic press. The narrative thread of the lives of each of these men and how they impacted America were well laid out. The wide array of sources Rothman uses, such as newspapers, letters, wills, and other books on the slave trade, was interesting. The fascinating part of Rothman's research for me was how he found Franklin descendants. Discovering how they helped contribute to the book was the best part for me.

The Water Has Come details the story of Hurricane Dorian survivors in The Bahamas. Hurricane Dorien is one of the most powerful hurricanes on record in the Atlantic Ocean. Dorien stuck the Abacos and Grand Bahama, stalling over both land areas for at least a day each. Heavy rainfall, high winds, and storm surges saw many homes and businesses destroyed and lives lost. I believe the official death toll is around 74 persons but the true death toll is unknown (and definitely way higher. There were/are a lot of unidentified bodies). Bahamians are still suffering from Dorian.

The Water Has Come tells the story of the Pinder family, and other friends and family connected to them (though the names have been changed). The narrative is powerful and heartwrenching. Pinder takes the reader through every thought and fear that occurred during the storm. In some ways, the scenes reminded me of a movie but then I reflected back on the fact that this was real life. Thinking about the psychological trauma that many people are still dealing with makes me so sorrowful and tired. Hope is a big theme in The Water Has Come, hope that help would come, hope that the storm would leave, hope that God would make a way, hope that there would be another day to live. Pinder highlights her personal faith in God many times throughout this memoir. The actions of brave Bahamians who risked their lives to save their neighbours are well portrayed in The Water Has Come. There were times tears flooded my eyes while I read. I couldn't help but reflect back on that time in my life. I was away at school and every storm update had me in shambles. I was very worried about my extended family in Grand Bahama (thankfully everyone made it through safe). I hope to see many more memoirs like this one come to light (writing this review too had me tearing up). The Water Has Come is a must-read, if you want to know what it's like to experience one of the worst hurricanes on record and survive to tell the tale.

There were structural issues throughout The Water Has Come that I didn't enjoy. The POV narrative changes were a bit confusing throughout the book. The narration did not help, I think I would have preferred first person over third. There were a lot of people to keep track of, and I wonder if telling the stories one at a time might have helped instead of spreading them out based on the storm timeline.

Metaphors of Spain was lackluster for me. *The book is translated from Spanish though, so that could play into why I did not like the essays so much.* Most of the essays' arguments were not convincing enough for me. Various authors failed to show just exactly how different subjects reflected on Spanish identity. Metaphors of Spain did teach me more about Spanish history, adding to the very, very small portion that I had. Metaphors of Spain was another decent look at how NAtionalism affects countries through various avenues of social, cultural, and political means.

Bound in Wedlock is by far one of my favourite reads for this semester. Tera Hunter does a great job at shedding light on the world of Black marriage in the 19th century. From free black to enslaved marriages Hunter does tenacious research and it shows. I love how she lets the readers know it started off as a personal project, stemming from her own family tree. As a historian why not let your audience know that this topic is personal to you. (She talks about how when she traces her family tree back, many of her enslaved family members were raped by their masters or forced into unwanted marriages). Hunter points out that black people were faulted for not conforming to the white norms for marriage, yet many black marriages would have been perceived as civil unions or official marriages if the couple had been white. Exploring how marriage was used to force enslaved people to conform to their masters' will, by marrying unwanted partners or by being separated from those who they did want. Tera Hunter has opened my eyes to another aspect of slavery, showing how deep control goes with enslaved lives. The fabric of African American families being destroyed, even after the American civil war shows how deep the effects of slavery still go.

What stuck out to me with this topic is how black marriage was both recognized and ignored when it was convenient for the white authorities. Historian Michael Tadman writes "To have believed that the black family was really anything like as important as the white family would have meant permanent moral crisis for whites," and while I'm not writing on the historical thought of the black family as a whole it is important to point out that according to slave literature and slave traders maternal feelings for children faded as the children grew older, and familial separation was not as felt by the enslaved family unit.

(I have other thoughts but my notes aren't accessible at the moment.)

I wasn’t feeling it. I might come back to this in the future. 

 Germans Into Nazis takes a great look at regular German people can become Nazis. Fritzsche uses all modes of media in his book as sources. The narrative Fritzsche uses are photographs that connect with the time periods he is discussing. The book is split up into four chapters, or time periods, that are: July 1914, November 1918, January 1933, and May 1933. These are key dates Fritzsche believes reflects the different changes of the German population.

*These are some of my notes from class
- Reflecting back to German history, the Unification of Germany happened in 1871 so Germany is fairly young.
- "Volk" develops over time and it was seen as political legitimacy.
- Nazism does not equal facism. Emotion was a binding factor for nazism.
- Nazi campaigns were not based on foreign policy. There were so many German political parties, the Nazi party had to use other things to separate themselves.
- Nazis never got the majority of the vote. However, anti-Semitism is not enough to keep people from voting for Hilter. Anti-Semitism was engrained in the people (Germany have a deep history of it as a culture).
- Nazism had racial purity at the centre of its worldview.