Between 1880 and 1930; Southern mobs hanged; burned; and otherwise tortured to death at least 3;300 African Americans. And yet the rest of the nation largely ignored the horror of lynching or took it for granted; until a young schoolteacher from Tennessee raised her voice. Her name was Ida B. Wells. In "They Say;" historian James West Davidson recounts the first thirty years of this passionate woman's life--as well as the story of the great struggle over the meaning of race in post-emancipation America. Davidson captures the breathtaking; often chaotic changes that swept the South as Wells grew up in Holly Springs; Mississippi: the spread of education among the free blacks; the rise of political activism; the bitter struggles for equality in the face of entrenched social custom. As Wells came of age she moved to bustling Memphis; eager to worship at the city's many churches (black and white); to take elocution lessons and perform Shakespeare at evening soirées; to court and spark with the young men taken by her beauty. But Wells' quest for fulfillment was thwarted as whites increasingly used race as a barrier separating African Americans from mainstream America. Davidson traces the crosscurrents of these cultural conflicts through Ida Wells' forceful personality. When a conductor threw her off a train for not retreating to the segregated car; she sued the railroad--and won. When she protested conditions in the segregated Memphis schools; she was fired--and took up full-time journalism. And in 1892; when an explosive lynching rocked Memphis; she embarked full-blown on the career for which she is now remembered; as an outspoken writer and lecturer against lynching. Richly researched and deftly written; "They Say" offers a gripping portrait of the young Ida B. Wells; shedding light not only on how one black American defined her own aspirations and her people's freedom; but also on the changing meaning of race in America.
#634139 in Books Oxford University Press 2002-05-16Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 5.20 x .60 x 7.90l; .82 #File Name: 0195152050288 pagesGreat product!
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. How Fundamentalist Christians and Israeli-Jewish Extremists are collaborating to bring about the Third Temple and the ApocalypseBy Jack WassonFrom the title "End of Days;" it would appear this is just another apocalyptic prediction of the Rapture followed by "the great wrap up." Nothing could be further from the truth. I read this book because I knew the author to be American-born Israeli historian; journalist and blogger; specializing in Middle Eastern politics who has written great books such as "The Accidental Empire" (which deals with the post 1967 settler movement of Judea and Samaria.)In fact; this book focuses on the center of three different religions Messianic aspirations--the Temple Mount. No doubt he borrows his title from Christian Pre- Millenniumists who focus on the Third Temple and the role of the Jews and Israel in the End Time. A significant portion of the book is devoted to these various Christian groups and their predictions of Israel's place and specifically; the Temple Mount. But; being both a thorough journalist and containing the natural curiosity of the same; Gorenberg looks at (what he calls) "fringe" Israeli groups such as the Temple Mount Faithful and how they are encouraging the Messianic expectations of the evangelicals. Gorenberg's own opinion seems to be that the "Christian extremists" (his idea) coupled with their encouragement for the "Israeli-Jewish extremists" could actually bring about the Temple-T3 and the subsequent apocalypse just by their focusing on it. He seems to be convinced another Temple is NOT needed; that the Jews are doing just fine without it and the "bloody sacrifices" and giving up this vision is in the long term interest of "peace and security."The book is solid investigative journalism and makes a solid contribution to examining the "players" in the Temple-T3 story; ALL the players; both Christian Fundamentalists and Israeli Jewish. Gorenberg is stingy with his own opinions; but the careful reader can see where Gorenberg is personally on this issue and it is NOT a vote for T-3; which he sees as a threat to the tenuous peace between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews. I STRONGLY recommend this book for ANYONE interested in the subject of another Temple--T3.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. If you want to understand the importance of the Temple ...By High HatIf you want to understand the importance of the Temple Mount to Christians; Jews and Muslims then this book is for you. It's a little slow reading at times but well worth it!11 of 13 people found the following review helpful. An urgent plea for relativism and humilityBy Michael Wells GlueckDeciphering the signs pointing to all-out war in the Middle East is the passionate purpose of this book; which analyzes the motivations of fundamentalist and evangelical Christians who support Israel in its struggles against the Palestinians in general and in its often violent disputes over the Temple Mount in particular because their literal interpretations of Scriptural passages lead them to believe that these current events represent enactments of the "Endtime" in which the Messiah will reappear and perform the Final Judgment. A decidedly unbenign corollary of such beliefs; of course; is the expectation that the majority of Jews will be killed during the ensuing Armageddon; and that only the few who convert in time will join the ranks of true believers who enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In tracing these volatile beliefs; summarized under the rubric of "dispensational premillennialism;" along with the parallel convictions of Jewish messianists and the unswerving commitments of Muslims to the defense of the sacred precincts on the Mount; Gershom Gorenberg contrasts the literalism with which a "political arrangement over thirty-five acres;" the area of the Temple Mount; "is described as a cosmological defeat of light by darkness" - i.e.; an accommodation preventing the destroyed Temple's rebuilding; an essential precondition to fulfillment of the Doomsday scripts of both Christian and Jewish fundamentalists - with the moderate evangelicals' rejection of the Crusades as a betrayal of Jesus; who "saw the image of God in every person he met." The author alternates passages of philosophical reflection with folksy descriptions of meetings with rabbis; ministers; scientists; politicians; and philosophers; and even with an analogy of the current crisis in the Middle East to the 1993 conflagration in Waco; Texas; which he interprets as a salient and pertinent example not only of the importance of understanding symbols in any dialogue or confrontation between adherents of different religions or cultures but also of the inevitable consequences of failing to heed or to speak one's interlocutor's symbolic language.
