The admired American painter Winslow Homer rose to national attention during the Civil War. But one of his most important early images remained unknown for a century. The renowned artist is best known for depicting ships and sailors; hunters and fishermen; rural vignettes and coastal scenes. Yet he also created some of the first serious black figures in American art. Near Andersonville (1865–66) is the earliest and least known of these impressive images.Peter Wood; a leading expert on Homer’s images of blacks; reveals the long-hidden story of this remarkable Civil War painting. His brisk narrative locates the picture in southwest Georgia in August 1864 and provides its military and political context. Wood underscores the agony of the Andersonville prison camp and highlights a huge but little-known cavalry foray ordered by General Sherman as he laid siege to Atlanta. Homer’s image takes viewers “behind enemy lines†to consider the utter failure of “Stoneman’s Raid†from the perspective of an enslaved black Southerner.By examining the interplay of symbolic elements; Wood reveals a picture pregnant with meaning. He links it to Abraham Lincoln’s presidential campaign of 1864 and underscores the enduring importance of Homer’s thoughtful black woman. The painter adopted a bottom-up perspective on slavery and emancipation that most scholars needed another century to discover. By integrating art and history; Wood’s provocative study gives us a fresh vantage point on Homer’s early career; the struggle to end slavery; and the dramatic closing years of the Civil War.
#1294129 in Books Belknap Press 2009-11-15 2009-12-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.48 x .81 x 6.00l; .84 #File Name: 0674036239224 pages
Review
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. Broken GlassBy woganThis is a small book that contains much information that does not seem to be readily available about this incident in history. There are 32 pages of notes; the book itself seems to be well researched and documented. The post war trials and even Goebbels' diary were sources.It starts with a fascinating introduction that explains the German aversion to the word Kristallnacht. The main focus of the book unlike many others is not on the victims but on the perpetuators. There is much help to understand the German society's inclination to accept the events and actions against the Jewish population. Most Germans were not involved in any of these actions but there is a chapter that is worth the price of the book alone; dealing with the response and opinions of the German population. There are attempts to explain the violence and why so many fell into it along with the SA; including the policemen and firemen that stood by watching the brutality and humiliations heaped upon the Jewish citizens.The book concludes with a chapter dealing with the legal trials after the war and the problems in prosecuting those that committed these crimes.The writing is detailed; even to the extent of descriptions of the weather for Kristallnacht. The book is written in an easy to understand style but the subject matter makes for very hard reading in this case in point of man's inhumanity to man.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. An Important BookBy BeatlesfanThis exhaustive account of the night of broken glass is a must-read for anyone who wants to know what really happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany before the horror of the Holocaust. Kristallnacht was the opening battle in Hitler's sick racist crusade against the Jews; and this is unpleasant; but necessary; reading. The author has uncovered so many strange details in addition to the ones that are already well-known. For instance; the thugs did not only burn down and trash shops; homes; and synagogues--some even took the time to defecate into the shoes in Jewish shops. What kind of human being does that? A Jewish student tries to attend his usual class and is greeted by objects being thrown at him by his fellow students. Bewildered; he's told outside the door by his teacher; "leave Germany. Good luck." There are so many simply heartbreaking stories here. A great piece of scholarship.9 of 12 people found the following review helpful. Excellent scholarly study of the KristallnachtBy John SollamiThis book examines how; on the night of November 9; 1938; Adolph Hitler and the Nazi bureaucracy ignited all of Germany; from Berlin to the tiniest of hamlets; and set loose two days of lawless ramage; rape; murder; and mayham against a hapless German Jewish population. These events were instigated by a shooting on November 7 in Paris of a low-level German diplomat by a Jewish teenaged boy who was distraught because of the treatment his family was receiving in Germany. Convinced that this incident was just another part of World Jewry's plot to destroy the Reich; Goebbels pushed Hitler to put his stamp of approval on teaching the Jews a lesson. That lesson was administered by the SA (Storm Troopers) and SS; who were given the green light "at the highest level" to break the law; burn every synagogue in Germany; destroy Jewish shops and property; and harass the Jews themselves. Local police were explicitly told to stand down. What the author points out in details taken from subsequent testimony after the event and from post-war trials; is that many ordinary Germans participated in the torture; beatings; rapes; and murders of their Jewish neighbors; including German school children; women; and the Hitler Youth party. Those Germans who disapproved were cowed into silence. Many of those who did disapprove did so only for the economic damage the riots caused; not because they felt Jews were innocent. In addition; 30;000 Jews were sent to concentration camps; many for as long as a month; and hundreds perished there; a harbinger of things to come.What's interesting is how Goebbels fought back against British; French; and American condemnation of this orchestrated barbaric event. He accused them of hypocrisy. All of them had their own histories of genocide; and all of them refused to take the Jews in as immigrants. One feels frustrated at the truth of this and wishes those immigration policies were different; but in America anti-Semitism certainly was no stranger in the halls of Congress.This book is well documented; clearly written; and deserves to be read by anyone seeking to understand how the worst event in the history of the human race; the Holocaust; came to be. Its origins were clearly evident in the Kristallnacht of 1938.
