A British stage star turned Georgia plantation mistress; Fanny Kemble is perhaps best remembered as a critic of slavery--and an influential opponent of this institution during the years leading up to the Civil War. By the mid-1830s; American society was firmly in the grip of Kemble's celebrity as an actress--young ladies adopted "Fanny Kemble curls;" a tulip was named in her honor; and lecture attendance at Harvard fell so sharply on afternoons of Kemble's matinees that professors threatened to cancel classes. Catherine Clinton's insightful biography chronicles these early portraits of Fanny's life and shows how her role in society changed drastically after her bitter and short-lived marriage to the heir of a Georgia plantation owner; whom she derisively called her "lord and master." We witness the publication of Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation; in which Kemble hauntingly records the "simple horror" and misery she saw among the slaves. The raw power of her words made for an influential anti-slavery tract; which swayed European sentiment toward the Union cause. The book was embraced by Northern critics as "a permanent and most valuable chapter in our history" (Atlantic Monthly). In Fanny Kemble's Civil Wars; Catherine Clinton reveals how one woman's life reflected in microcosm the public battles--over slavery; the role of women; and sectionalism--that fueled our nation's greatest conflict and have permanently marked our history.
#2407624 in Books Oxford University Press; USA 2003-12-04Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 6.30 x 1.20 x 9.10l; 1.37 #File Name: 0195138686336 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Sana Hasan intelligently observes and describes how on-the-ground beliefsBy Kirollos BarsoumArguably the most well written and insightful book on the topic of Copts in modern Egypt. Sana Hasan intelligently observes and describes how on-the-ground beliefs; ideas; and faith have transformed the Coptic community in Egypt into its current "modern" form. She argues that Coptic modernizers were able to use the Coptic church's traditional authority to carry out their visions to mobilize and empower Copts. Her academic yet colloquial discussion of the differences between the visions of the modernizers highlights strands of thought that will strike anyone who has grown up with Copts as familiar. This book is full of "aha" moments that explain where our priorities; practices; and church culture comes from. I highly recommend this book to any Copt looking to understand the Church and why it behaves in the way it does. Also; as a plus; while at times Hasan does criticize some of the darker aspects of the church; overall; she praises the massive transformation that the church was able to carry out among its parishioners as a herculean effort.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Naim EdwardsIt was great~11 of 12 people found the following review helpful. The Sunday School Movement and Its LegacyBy Tron HontoThe unfortunately acrimonious title of Hasan's work should not detract from the genuinely sound and insightful analysis of the national and church politics of Coptic identity in 20th century Egypt. This is a genuinely unique work that should be read by every serious student of the Mid East.The essential thesis of this rests on the assertion that in Coptic experience; traditional and church hierarchy proved to be dynamic resources for modernizing the community. Such an assertion is highly counter-intuitive; but Hasan demonstrates with seemingly effortless skill just how well this paradigm fits the Coptic experience. For her; Coptic modernity appears as both a competitor with the modernization project of the Egyptian state and an Egyptian manifestation of the turn-of-the-century politicization of ethnic identities.This book almost entirely focuses on the founding generation of the Sunday School Movement; which took the reigns of public church leadership vis-Ã -vis the state from the rich; westernized elites whose influence the Free Officer coup destroyed; and how the subsequent generation had to and continues to learn how to negotiate its legacies; rivalries and politics. Here; the perspicacity concerning Church and lay politics becomes demonstrably profound-exhibiting a level of familiarity only made possible by years of experience. Her insights in this regard are perhaps the most valuable.Moreover; controversial topics are addressed with unflinching transparency. Thus; neither does she neglect to address pressing issues of religious discrimination; disenfranchisement and marginalization facing the Copts in an increasingly Islamicized Egypt; nor intra-ecclesiastical problems such as the sometimes intractable authoritarianism of the church clerisy; nor the often immiserated position of women; etc.
