DOC Faces of the Feminine in Ancient; Medieval; and Modern India by From Mandakranta Bose in History

Description

Here is a magnificent account of a past rich in beauty and creativity; but also in tragedy and trauma. Eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter blends a vivid narrative based on the latest research with a wonderful array of artwork by African American artists; works which add a new depth to our understanding of black history. Painter offers a history written for a new generation of African Americans; stretching from life in Africa before slavery to today's hip-hop culture. The book describes the staggering number of Africans--over ten million--forcibly transported to the New World; most doomed to brutal servitude in Brazil and the Caribbean. Painter looks at the free black population; numbering close to half a million by 1860 (compared to almost four million slaves); and provides a gripping account of the horrible conditions of slavery itself. The book examines the Civil War; revealing that it only slowly became a war to end slavery; and shows how Reconstruction; after a promising start; was shut down by terrorism by white supremacists. Painter traces how through the long Jim Crow decades; blacks succeeded against enormous odds; creating schools and businesses and laying the foundations of our popular culture. We read about the glorious outburst of artistic creativity of the Harlem Renaissance; the courageous struggles for Civil Rights in the 1960s; the rise and fall of Black Power; the modern hip-hop movement; and two black Secretaries of State. Painter concludes that African Americans today are wealthier and better educated; but the disadvantaged are as vulnerable as ever. Painter deeply enriches her narrative with a series of striking works of art--more than 150 in total; most in full color--works that profoundly engage with black history and that add a vital dimension to the story; a new form of witness that testifies to the passion and creativity of the African-American experience. * Among the dozens of artists featured are Romare Bearden; Elizabeth Catlett; Beauford Delaney; Jacob Lawrence; and Kara Walker * Filled with sharp portraits of important African Americans; from Olaudah Equiano (one of the first African slaves to leave a record of his captivity) and Toussaint L'Ouverture (who led the Haitian revolution); to Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth; to Martin Luther King; Jr. and Malcolm X