Periods and Movements Books

The Black Hearts of Men is a well-written and thoughtful study of four closely-associated anti-slavery figures. John Stauffer is an excellent writer, and he should be credited for taking a fair approach to Brown, free of the usual bias and thinly-veiled racial-political scorn that motivates so many white male writers on the subject.

Stauffer must also be credited for overcoming the difficulties of reading Gerrit Smith's (one of the four figures in the study) handwriting. He has also brought four men--two black and two white--together in an engaging study, something apropos of this age of diversity awareness, and something long overdue from the academy. The author introduces and reintroduces Frederick Douglass, James McCune Smith, Gerrit Smith, and John Brown in the context of partnered (or at least overlapping) struggle. He seeks to flesh out various aspects of their worldviews and interests, including their self-presentation (via daugerreotypes, a new photographic technology in the mid-19th century), their sympathy for women's and native rights, and other aspects.

Yet Stauffer's study is deeply flawed insofar as he attempts to yoke the four men in a similar style of religious belief---particularly insofar as John Brown is concerned. In fact, Stauffer's analysis of Brown as a religious figure is thin, generalized, and largely self-serving in its speculation.

In essence, Stauffer contends that John Brown, like his three friends, moved away from conventional religion. The author would have us believe that Brown repudiated his Puritan theology for some Perfectionist form of millennnialism. The problem with this thesis is that its author has ignored millennialism in its orthodox forms in Puritanism, and the fact that Brown was immersed in millennial belief from his childhood. The issue is not millennialism, as Stauffer would suggest, but the type of millennial viewpoint that Brown had. In fact, Brown's millennialism was Puritan and orthodox. Clever terms like "sacred self-sovereignty" notwithstanding, the author's soup is very watery and highly problematic. Unlike Gerrit Smith, John Brown in fact remained firmly based in his Puritan Calvinist theology, as his associates (like T. W. Higginson) recognized, even until the last.

There are other dangerous speculations that Stauffer employs to extend the religious portrait of Brown---sort of like painting with a broad brush, too broad to do justice to Brown's religious life. Certainly, Stauffer needs to look more closely at his sources, which he sometimes fudges on to make a point. He clearly does this in his strong suggestion that Brown was involved in a series of seances in Kansas in late 1857. If he had done his work more carefully, Stauffer would have seen that Brown was not at those occult practices. And if he understood Brown's religious life, he would not even have tried to put him there in the first place.

The Black Hearts of Men is welcomed as a study, much as thirsty man may receive a glass of water with gratitude. We need more works like this, and less like the typically biased narratives that have come from academia about John Brown. Yet this glass is only half full--or is that half-empty?

This collective biography of abolitionists Frederick Douglass, James McCune Smith, Gerrit Smith, and John Brown presents an elegant portrait of the varieties of antislavery sentiment in the United States prior to the Civil War. The four men, two black and two white, formed a de facto alliance--although they would not have recognized it as such--to end slavery and were willing to use violence to do so. In a scintillating narrative that provides both enjoyable reading and penetrating analysis, John Stauffer links the four together as opponents of slavery seeking to overcome the "black hearts of men" but also partaking of the "black hearts of murder."

Organized into topics, rather than chronologically, Stauffer pursues the "literary turn" to analyze the four abolitionists, their writings, and their changes over time. His chapters relate to how these individuals perceived images of race, religion, economics, politics, identity, and women. At some level the most interesting figure presented in this book, perhaps because I knew the least about him, was Gerrit Smith. Although virtually every history of abolitionism mentions him, Stauffer goes deeper to explain Smith's patrician background, his adoption of antislavery, and his vigorous campaign to end it that sometimes resulted in violence. He notes how Smith attempted to found a multiracial community in New York state, an endeavor clearly tied to the utopian experiments of the era. He participated in an 1851 effort to rescue slaves and supported John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Shocked by the outcome of that raid, however, Smith then adopted white supremacism.

One of the central tenets of this book, and it is boldly stated, is that radical abolititionism led to the transformation of race as a concept in American history. This is an intriguing idea, but Stauffer does not pursue it with the diligence that might have been expected from an idea raised in the book's subtitle. What he does, again, is use Gerrit Smith's career as the bellwether for transformation. This includes a fascinating analysis of Smith's 1851 short story, "The Ruinous Visit to Monkeyville," in which Stauffer finds that Smith was somewhat ambivalent about the status of African Americans. This perspective fits well with another conception--this one of considerable durability--that such abolititionists as William Lloyd Garrison were not committed to equal rights for freed slaves. The abolitionists' racial paternalism was palpable, according to Stauffer. Some historians have sought to overturn this conception as not representative of the abolitionist cause, but clearly Stauffer still accepts the older idea.

Most interesting--and certainly worth serious but skeptical consideration--is Stauffer's assertion that the failure of abolitionists "to emphasize with blacks after Harper's Ferry foreshadowed the North's abandonment of freedman and women after Reconstruction" (p. 281). He bases this conclusion on his reading of Gerrit Smith, but there is a tenuous relationship at best and the author fails to make a convincing argument for this position. I find it a captivating idea, for it would explain much about the retreat from Reconstruction; I only wish the evidence supporting it were more thoroughly presented.

"The Black Hearts of Men" is a compelling book, elegantly written and boldly argued. It is appropriate to question some of the author's conceptions, but it is a very worthwhile book that requires serious consideration.

John Stuaffer has one of the finest minds and finest prose styles of any contemporary historian. This book is both brilliant and a wonderful read. It won the prestigious Frederick Douglass Prize "for the year's best non-fiction book on slavery, resistance and/or abolition, the most generous history prize in the field, and the most respected and coveted of the major awards for the study of the black experience" ... That fact alone should answer any comments of the book being deeply flawed by any less respected historian with his own religious ax to grind about John Brown. No one who buys and reads this book will be disappointed.

I received these cds well on time, and upon discovering they were the wrong cd set the return also took place quickly.

If you're a music student at almost any major school (I just finished my undergraduate at Indiana University, for example) you'll most likely need to take a course that uses these CD's as part of its history survey. For that purpose, this set is an excellent collection. These, with their companion Norton Anthology of Western Music, and in conjunction with Grout/Palisca's History of Western Music, make for a thorough survey of the roots and history of Western music. Both the History and the Anthology use these CD's, and make constant references to them. (At least, up until 1750, after which you'll need the second volume)

Having said that, however, i'm afraid that these CD's are limited to their intended purpose. Obviously, there would be absolutely no way to have a comprehensive collection of music and text be affordable to an average college student. As it is, the Grout, Norton, and CD's total about $200 total. However, for that cost they provide an extremely good survey of Western music. A student can follow historical developments through the music, and learn an enormous amount from these CD's. They provide a fairly good cross-section of different styles of major composers, and even a few examples of lesser known composers. One is far less likely to criticize the music of the twentieth century, for example, if one finds that Gesualdo (of the late 16th century) was writing music that was MUCH stranger than anything before the turn of the twentieth century.

For someone outside of the music school (who will most likely be required to buy these anyway), these are also an excellent (and comparatively affordable) way to survey the mainstream and less-mainstream trends in Western music. The recordings are all relatively high-quality, often using historical instruments and interpretations (something important to a student of musical history) and providing a good introduction to classical music.

For that reason, then, i recommend these to the casual listener as a good introduction to Western music. If you seek a "greatest hits" album, these are not that; go buy those Time-Life things they advertise on television. This is rather a serious collection of music from as many different styles as allowable while still maintaining some depth. The only thing that keeps the fifth star empty is the lack (by necessity, though i must admit) of a more wide-ranging selection of music. Despite that, they are still an excellent buy. The casual listener of classical music should find these to be a valuable introduction to the well known, and also the more obscure realms of early music.

The CDs in this set are not packaged in standard jewelboxes nor even in cheap sleeves, but are mounted directly atop a printed surface. As a result, when I purchased the set from my school bookstore, I found that several of the CDs had dried flecks of ink on the data side that made it impossible to play or rip certain tracks. Beware.

Excellent product..one of the standard anthologies available for studying Music History.

One caveat, if you're using Hanning's Concise Grout as a companion text, be sure to match the correct edition of the anthology + recordings to the correct edition of the text.

These CDs are great, i can appreciate them more however, through my music class.

The CDs in this set are not packaged in standard jewelboxes nor even in cheap sleeves, but are mounted directly atop a printed surface. As a result, when I purchased the set from my school bookstore, I found that several of the CDs had dried flecks of ink on the data side that made it impossible to play or rip certain tracks. Beware.

A lot of people consider this book a classic on social movements, but it provides no new research, offers no concepts original to McAdam, and sets up strawman opponents. Why is it still in print?

We first used this book in Dr. Skocpol's class in Chicago, & it has become an invaluable resource on how to study social movements. I often refer to it in class--along with other now-classic analyses--and a colleague is using it as required reading this coming Spring.

If one is interested in the dynamics of the civil rights movement, then this book is a must read. Also a must read for anyone doing research in the field of social movements and especially if interested in the processes of content coding using annual indices.

This book does a wonderful job of presenting facts in a style that is easy for its target audience (middle schoolers) to understand. The length of the book is appropriate for the target audience, and the within its few score pages it is able to give a concise but complete history of the struggle for human rights in America.

In addition to providing adequately to its target audience, however, the book provides a good overview to adults who are looking for the main facts and little more.

Some might be detracted from the book by what they perceive as its political slant. I found the slant (if you could call it that) appropriate, however. The book highlights the fact that the cause for black people in America did not end in the 1960's.

There is still an income disparity, and the statistical probability of a black man being incarcerated for committing a crime is (should be?) shameful for America. The link between poverty and crime is well established, it's about time that the link between skin colour and poverty was acknowledged. This book aims to make children aware of the fact that the battle for black people in America is not over and that complacency is folly.

Have we not indoctrinated the children of America enough on this irrelevent subject? More division is not what our nation needs, yet Meltzer drags out this collection of sorry cliches to keep alive the racial divide that separates our society. If there is racism in America today, it is directed at white Christian males--the only group still permitted to suffer discrimination. This book is representitive of the bilge that wins Newberry Awards--demonstrating that children's book are as brain dead as the "important" tomes reviewed in the New York Times Book Review Magazine.

This book is a great, short history of the battle for civil rights for African Americans. Beginning with the arrival of the first African slaves at Jamestown in 1619, and continuing through to today. The history ends with a chapter spelling out the author's plan for future civil rights action, and then follows a wonderful timeline of important dates and events in the fight for civil rights.

This book is intended for children, but makes a great read for anyone interested in the history of civil rights in the United States. The book is not written with dispassion, there is for example a reference to "Gestapo-like" policemen. But, considering the events that are being recounted, it is hard to imagine how dispassion could possibly be maintained. Overall, this is a very good book, one that I highly recommend.

I read this beautiful and glorious book front to back. I was quickly taken back to the turn of the century by the authors' rich and flowing text. The historic photograghs and textiles, both museum and privately owned examples, just added more layers of interest to an already thought provoking saga....I learned why I was seduced by their intricate designs and magic performed by two fingers and silk floss. Love poured into the flax, stitch by stitch.
The academic research has been carefully and exhaustingly accomplished. A mindful spirit of the authors who take you page to page revealing the movement of these dedicated women and the heritage they created for us and the preservation of their past.
I learned so much from this lovingly and tirelessly crafted book.
It is a book that will be frequently opened, just to treat my eyes and gaze upon the linens that I love so much.
I highly recommend you treat yourself if you any interest in the Arts and Crafts design or the art textiles.. It is the benchmark for any future work.
Thank you Dianne and Tim for your passion and love.

If you are looking for a "picture" book of American Arts & Crafts Textiles and designs, this will be a big disappointment. Although there are a few excellent photographs, most are so small that it is almost impossible to clearly see details.

The Great Depression of the 1930s certainly ranks as an epochal moment in American history. The stock market crash of 1929 sent the country into an unprecedented period of economic woe. Millions lost their jobs, banks failed in the thousands, and starvation and death stalked every nook and cranny of the country. When President Herbert Hoover failed to alleviate the worst aspects of the Depression, the populace elevated a New Yorker named Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the presidency in the 1932 elections. The New Deal the president-elect offered the nation in an effort to solve the economic problems has since become well known to millions of Americans. What isn't as well known about the FDR era is the opposition the president faced from elements of society unenamored with his economic panaceas or his interest in foreign affairs. Millions of Americans, represented by figures like Father Charles Coughlin, Francis Townsend, Gerald L.K. Smith, and Huey Long, opposed at every turn the president's foreign and domestic initiatives. Unfortunately, many members of these groups-and many of the leaders-subscribed to vicious anti-Semitic and racist views. Historian Glen Jeansonne knows a little bit about some of these figures; he wrote a biography on Smith along with this book about the mothers' movements of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

"Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II" takes a close look at the mothers' movements at the peak of their power, from roughly the late 1930s to the early 1940s. Many women of the time, horrified at the prospect of losing sons and husbands to yet another war in Europe, came together to oppose Roosevelt's increasing moves towards involving America in problems overseas. Boasting names like the National Legion of Mothers of America, We the Mothers Mobilize for America, and Women United, these groups hoped to bring about change in Washington through petitioning, marching on the nation's capital, and putting pressure on members of Congress. Many of the groups received financial support from big business, from wealthy individuals, and from a sympathetic public. The first and only truly national mothers' organization was led by novelist Kathleen Norris and supported good old fashioned isolationism. The group, sponsored by William Randolph Hearst, moved in the same circles as the isolationist America First Committee. According to Jeansonne, Norris's organization fractured after anti-Semites and racists infiltrated local chapters. The author focuses on the crackpots and loonies who took over the leadership positions of these local groups.

After presenting his thesis and a sketch of the far right during the 1930s, the book provides biographical portraits and a highlight of activities of most of the higher profile mothers. Elizabeth Dilling, for example, receives most of the attention in Jeansonne's treatment. Eventually tried for sedition by the federal government in 1944, Dilling spent most of the 1930s building up a strong resume of anti-Communist and anti-Semitic credentials. A religious woman who brooked little dissension from those around her, Dilling became the most prominent female far right figure of her time even though she never led a large organization. Just when you think things cannot get any wackier than Dilling, Jeansonne introduces chapters on women who did run mothers' groups. There's Cathrine Curtis, a former actress and financial wizard who dabbled in anti-Semitism during her days as head of the Women's National Committee to Keep the U.S. out of the War; Lyrl Clark Van Hyning, the outspoken leader of We the Mothers Mobilize for America based in Chicago; and the incredible Agnes Waters, a loose cannon even on the far right who railed against Jews, blacks, Communists, and anyone else who did not fit her conceptions of a perfect America.

Jeansonne's argument involves the mothers' movements' relationship to feminism, a sticky problem indeed when scholars and proponents of feminism define their belief system in terms of left-wing ideologies and the evils of patriarchy. According to the author, the mothers' movements embraced the traditional roles of women as mothers, as homemakers, and as subservient to men. Many of the mothers did not dispute the idea of men running the country; they simply wanted a different group of men in charge, men who took into consideration female viewpoints. The idea of a liberated woman like Eleanor Roosevelt, who embraced blacks, moral relativism, and female ambition, shocked many members of these reactionary groups (modern women, for the most part, have little difficulty seeing Eleanor as an admirable figure). In short, feminism as we understand it today has little to do with the mothers' movements of the 1930s. Jeansonne's arguments here are solid, and appropriately call for a reassessment of the parameters of feminist discourse.

The author stands on shakier ground when he delves into psychohistorical analysis. Historians placing historical figures on a metaphorical couch run grave risks. The primary problem is one of training: historians do not have the tools to conduct probing insights into the human mind. When Jeansonne attributes Agnes Waters's career as a competition with her successful mother, or analyzes Elizabeth Dilling's unique worldview in psychological terms, the reader vainly seeks for concrete proof of these assertions. Aside from the unfortunate digressions into psychohistory, and some choppiness with the text, "Women of the Far Right" is an amazing catalogue of memorable characters who, for a short time, possessed the potential to significantly alter the course of American history. The era of the Great Depression posed numerous dangers to the United States, and now historians have a better understanding of one more peril thanks to Glen Jeansonne.

Here is an effort by an historian to tell the practically forgotten story of the strong opposition to World War II that came from various American women's organizations. Although the central protagonists, the women in leadership positions, left relatively small amounts of material behind in the way of personal papers and memorabilia that are the usual primary sources for real historians, Jeansonne appears to have made good use of what is available, and has managed to put up a respectable effort.

The amazing thing revealed in the book to me, was that that the opposition was so strong and the organizations were so large, putting to shame the present paltry efforts against the Gulf wars. The currently held notion that WWII was universally believed to be a "good war" and that our alliance with Stalin was approved of by all, is shown to be wrong--it was opposed by an awful lot of Americans.

Jeansonne's treatment goes a bit overboard in ascribing the most nefarious motives to their opposition--spanning the spectrum from anti-semitism to traitorous Nazism all the way to muddle-headed feminist sentimentality. Mostly he emphasized the first of these motives. It seems that anybody that pointed out that the Jews were in favor of an American alliance with John Bull and Uncle Joe against Germany, which was the truth after all, has to be tarred, as Lindbergh was, as a "rabid" or "ferocious" anti-semite, or, all too often, as a "bigot". These terms would be marked as trite and overused had the book been written as a term paper in freshman English class.

Jeansonne, self-described in the text as a Jew, married to a theologian, is attracted to a bogus, essentially data-free Freudian analysis of pathological personalities which intrudes too frequently in his account and weakens the book considerably.

The lesson that he draws from this episode of our history, interpreted in the light of present mythologies, has to do with that never-ending question of the origins of anti-semitism, and is amazingly attributed by the author to "anxiety" and "nervousness" among the afflicted. A simple conflict of interest between the Americans and Jews, it seems to me, is a much more reasonable, less pseudo-psychological, explanation. His remarks on present efforts to abolish anti-semitism, showing the utter disutility of providing more information on Judaism to Gentiles, and the current fad for "diversity" courses in our schools, though, seems quite on the mark.

A must read for anyone wishing to get a fairly synthetic view of the McCarthy era. Other good books on the period exist, but this one is a very good place to start.

In one of the more elegantly written academic histories Ellen Schrecker kicks over all the stones in her thorough and balanced examination of one of the worst periods of political repression in US History. Certainly sympathetic to the left, Schrecker nevertheless does not allow the American CP off the hook. To the contrary, she is open and detailed about discussing their shortcomings. On the other hand, the tremendous repression directed solely at the far left ended up decimating it in the United States. It no longer existed after McCarthyism, which, by the way, Schrecker reminds us actually started under Harry Truman. The net result of annihilating the far left in America was and has been that the "middle" moved to the right. And so here we are...

Highly recommended.

Don't waste your time on this one, unless you're one of those who like history being written with the same clichés over and over... Harvard is really a liberal nest, just like Richard Pipes wrote in his memoir...

I come from France, where we have an excellent book about this era:
Jean-Paul Török. Pour en finir avec le "maccarthysme" (to finish with "mcacarthysm").

I wish there was such a book in the US.

Ellen Schrecker repeats the tired myths that have made "McCarthyism" a bogeyman term.

But she relies on a version of history that has been dramatically disproven by the release of KGB files and decrypted Soviet cables (the Venona transcripts). The recent evidence released shows that American Communists actively assisted Soviet intelligence efforts on a larger scale than imagined, with over 300 Soviet agents active in the US Government during WWII and thereafter. Much spy recruiting at the time was done through Communist Party (CPUSA) networks. Evidence proves Alger Hiss was indeed a Communist and a Soviet spy, the most senior traitor in the US Government since Benedict Arnold; yet the Left defended him and defamed his accusers for 50 years. The same with the Rosenbergs - their guilt has now been confirmed by both Venona and KGB files.

Senator Joe McCarthy confronted government officials concealing communist involvement and excessively lax security with regards to Communists in sensitive U.S. Government posts. In many cases he was on target, with over 81 of the names he gave the Tydings committee resulting in resignations or movement of security risks. Given that over 200 of the spies uncovered in the Venona decrypts were never identified, we can only speculate as to the national security impact of removing Communists from key DoD and State Dept posts.

Arthur Herman, author of "Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator," says that the accuracy of McCarthy's charges "was no longer a matter of debate," that they are "now accepted as fact." And The New York Post's Eric Fettmann has noted: "growing historical evidence underscores that, whatever his rhetorical and investigative excesses - and they were substantial - McCarthy was a lot closer to the truth about Communism than were his foes."

I would recomment Arthur Herman's book for a MUCH more balanced and realistic portrait of what McCarthy the man was and what "McCarthyism" really was: An attempt to grapple with the serious and real threat of Communist and Soviet infiltration into Government at a time when American soldiers were fighting and dying against Communist powers in Korea (54,000 dead). The effort had flaws but it was by no means illegitimate or evil.

Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America by Ellen Schrecker is truly a seminal work; in American history carefully researched she proves the use of power by the few and the carefully orchestrated fear over the heart of the many maintains power in the hands of the elite minority. National culture of irrational trepidation meant living in a closed society in which liberties were sacrifice for the sack of a phony concern for National Security. The end result was McCarthyism, which predates Joe McCarthy and continued after he was gone. Ellen Schrecker carefully documents the key players Truman, Tom Clark, Eisenhower, and J. Edgar Hoover in this national shame that still haunts us today

I had to force myself through this book although I am usually an avid reader of 20th century US history. It's just a boring book, although it may be a good survey through the Red Scare.

I felt that the book was not as objective as i would have liked it to be. I felt that opinions should have been kept out.

If you like your history to read like a high school term paper, this might be for you. Incoherent and grammatically bizarre sentences within an unfocused and rambling framework made this impossible for me to get through.

A well-written book about an American tragedy. Anyone with an ounce of compassion will suffer along with these Americans who were needlessly subjected to incomprehensible heartaches.

Joseph Raymond McCarthy is still alive and well. Never has there been one more like this Republican Senator from Wisconsin than this Republican President from Connecticut, George W. Bush. There was no limit to the amount of lies McCarthy was willing to tell or the heart-wrenching pain and shame he was willing to subject others to so he could lord over them and feel superior. Then two men with guts came along-a journalist named Edward R. Murrow, who was very different than the over-paid invertebrates whose voices and faces come into our homes today. The other was Joseph N. Welch, chief attorney for the Army who simply said to McCarthy, "You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?" Those words stripped McCarthy naked; and low and behold, there stood a frightened, pithy alcoholic who would die at the age of 49.

It is easy to understand power hungry egomaniacs like McCarthy and Bush, but how they can attract such a large base among the rank and file is not easy to comprehend. I think Dr. King explains it best: "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

I'm surprised that Cambridge University Press would have published this very weak study of lesbian and gay organizing in Britian and the US. It reads like senior thesis. Instead of this book, I would recommend the serious scholarship of people like Craig Rimmerman, Steven Seidman or Mark Blasius.

THIS GUY SURE KNOWS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT AND EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.. THREE CHEERS TO THE AUTHOR. THANK YOU STEPHEN FOR AN HONEST LOOK AT THIS TIME PERIOD