A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic TitleWidely remembered as a time of heated debate over the westward expansion of slavery; the 1850s in the United States was also a period of mass immigration. As the sectional conflict escalated; discontented Europeans came in record numbers; further dividing the young republic over issues of race; nationality; and citizenship. The arrival of German-speaking “Forty-Eighters;†refugees of the failed European revolutions of 1848–49; fueled apprehensions about the nation’s future. Reaching America did not end the foreign revolutionaries’ pursuit of freedom; it merely transplanted it.In We Are the Revolutionists; Mischa Honeck offers a fresh appraisal of these exiled democrats by probing their relationship to another group of beleaguered agitators: America’s abolitionists. Honeck details how individuals from both camps joined forces in the long; dangerous battle to overthrow slavery. In Texas and in cities like Milwaukee; Cincinnati; and Boston this cooperation helped them find new sources of belonging in an Atlantic world unsettled by massive migration and revolutionary unrest.Employing previously untapped sources to write the experience of radical German émigrés into the abolitionist struggle; Honeck elucidates how these interethnic encounters affected conversations over slavery and emancipation in the United States and abroad. Forty-Eighters and abolitionists; Honeck argues; made creative use not only of their partnerships but also of their disagreements to redefine notions of freedom; equality; and humanity in a transatlantic age of racial construction and nation making.
#744430 in Books University of Georgia Press 1998-09-01 1998-09-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .41 x 5.50l; .53 #File Name: 0820320471192 pages
Review
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Limited but interesting bookBy giThis is a recollection of a boy's life growing up in a world that was segregated racially; specifically the world of American rural South in the fifties and early sixties. The author had more contact with the lives and culture of local black people than most young white people of that period because he worked in his grandfather's small grocery store that primarily served black people. In that regard; his experiences are atypical for his region; more like that of young people in other areas of America; though the author seems not to recognize that.Yet the book affords a window on a time and place that changed dramatically in the closing years of the 20th century. For what it shows about the white perspective of that era; it is interesting.It is also interesting for its male perspective on the experience of puberty in such a world. We know a lot about the female sense of this experience; but as a woman; I found reading about the boy's experience enlightening. Having been told 'there is no way a woman can understand the way sex dominates boys' thoughts in adolescence;' I appreciated the author's chapter on the way his burgeoning manhood informed his experiences and views; particularly his views of black women. It struck me that in his case; adolescence itself was something of a leveler.Yet; the reader looking for sharp insight or the unified experience of a memoir will be disappointed. The book is marred by the absence of a unifying thesis or theme. Its relation is chronological; with little attention to coherence. It jolts from chapter to chapter with a decided lack of literary skill. I also found it marred by a certain sense of piousness on the part of the author at having "overcome" the world in which he was reared. Those of us who grew up in the South of the same period recognize the great complexity of racial or any other kind of integration of groups so sharply separated for so long a time. One does not "overcome" a limited perspective: he enlarges it. As developmental psychologists remind us; our seminal early experiences imprint our ways of viewing the world; limiting to some extent our visions in adulthood. Evidence of this is clear in the book; but the author seems innocent of its implications.I did not find this book a page-turner; and because of its lack of an organizing theme; I sometimes opened it merely so that I might complete it. Yet it has value for its recreation of one boy's viewpoint on growing up in a society with sometimes equally large populations of black and white people; but where equal opportunities and shared cultural experiences often do not exist. It is the serious account of a man who lives not far from where he grew up and who has experienced change from inside the mid-South.For those looking for a more nuanced book about the experience of growing up white in the segregated South; this might not prove useful. But if you can get a remaindered or good used copy; it's worth a read.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Required ReadingBy Rubynelle ThyneSeparate Pasts: Growing up White in the Segregated South is an excruciatingly honest and beautifully written account of a white boy's coming of age while living the lie of a legally segregated society. It should be required reading at the high school level (at least in excerpt) and in its entirety in every college core curriculum. Furthermore; it should be given every government official. Americans of every kind need to be aware of our ignoble as well as admirable history. We need to realize that "separate but equal" is never a possibility; that all were/are still adversely affected by the false teaching of one race's superiority or inferiority. Furthermore; we need to constantly face the reality of our human tendency to scapegoat persons who are "different" and strive to prevent its damage to individuals and to society.--Rubynelle Thyne1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. I had to read this for an examBy MannyJIf you're a student; and your teacher/professor is making you read this; go say thank you to them. I know I will. I typically don't like reading books that educators assign; simply because they have no basis in real-world applications. This however; does. Much of the issues addressed are semi-relevant to issues currently faced by youth growing up in a community of mixed races. It seems odd to say that since this selection is about segregation; but it's much more than that. Overall; I learn through listening to stories; fortunately I have a professor that does just that; and fortunately he picked a book that also is full of stories.
