Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)

Book Description

In 1958, an African-American handyman named Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to die in Alabama for stealing two dollars. Shocking as this sentence was, it was overturned only after intense international attention and the interference of an embarrassed John Foster Dulles. Soon after the United States' segregated military defeated a racist regime in World War II, American racism was a major concern of U.S. allies, a chief Soviet propaganda theme, and an obstacle to American Cold War goals throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Each lynching harmed foreign relations, and "the Negro problem" became a central issue in every administration from Truman to Johnson.

In what may be the best analysis of how international relations affected any domestic issue, Mary Dudziak interprets postwar civil rights as a Cold War feature. She argues that the Cold War helped facilitate key social reforms, including desegregation. Civil rights activists gained tremendous advantage as the government sought to polish its international image. But improving the nation's reputation did not always require real change. This focus on image rather than substance--combined with constraints on McCarthy-era political activism and the triumph of law-and-order rhetoric--limited the nature and extent of progress.

Archival information, much of it newly available, supports Dudziak's argument that civil rights was Cold War policy. But the story is also one of people: an African-American veteran of World War II lynched in Georgia; an attorney general flooded by civil rights petitions from abroad; the teenagers who desegregated Little Rock's Central High; African diplomats denied restaurant service; black artists living in Europe and supporting the civil rights movement from overseas; conservative politicians viewing desegregation as a communist plot; and civil rights leaders who saw their struggle eclipsed by Vietnam.

Never before has any scholar so directly connected civil rights and the Cold War. Contributing mightily to our understanding of both, Dudziak advances--in clear and lively prose--a new wave of scholarship that corrects isolationist tendencies in American history by applying an international perspective to domestic affairs.

Customer Reviews:

An enlightening book on public diplomacy .......2007-01-11

If you think Las Vegas tourist ads and "listening tours" are components of public diplomacy and international relations, you need to read this book. If you think media coverage is intense now, you need to read this book. Dudziak gets into the reality and impact of media coverage forty years ago and its impact on the global information war of the time that is remarkably similar to today: "Following World War II, anything that undermined the image of American democracy was seen as threatening world peace and aiding Soviet aspiration to dominate the world... Nations were divided between a way of life 'distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression' and a way of life that "relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms."

Dudziak looks at the impact of race and the civil rights movement in the United States on American public diplomacy and foreign policy. The impact of America's "color bar" on foreign relations is astonishing and Dudziak helps contextualize the movement and government responses within contemporary pressures.

Indiscriminate actions against foreign and American dignitaries reinforced the accessibility of race-based norms to all and played into Soviet propaganda and provided a painful counternarrative that impacted US foreign relations. The US Ambassador, Chester Bowles, to India, speaking in 1952 at Yale University said, "A year, a month, or even a week in Asia is enough to convince any perceptive American that the colored peoples of Asia and Africa, who total two-thirds of the world's population, seldom think about the United States without considering the limitations under which our 13 million Negroes are living."

As we attempted to project democracy and its emphasis on equality and freedom, in opposition to Soviet tyranny, discrimination in the US was well known beyond our borders. Dudziak presents "With Us or Against Us" examples with Louis Armstrong and Josephine Baker as examples, among others. In the case of Baker, State Department officers justified censorship and hardship imposed on Baker by discounting her personal beliefs. Her "derogatory" remarks "concerning racial discrimination in the United States" were deemed to be "presenting a distorted and malicious picture of actual conditions." If we do not practice democracy, how well will our promotion of it be received? This was a real question of the time that other history books ignore and was the very question Ambassador Bowles asked.

As Dudziak wrote, "Domestic difficulties were managed by US presidents with an eye toward how their actions would play overseas." Disingenuous or factually misleading statements to justify domestic policies and opinions are not the mainstay of any single generation. While not intending to be destructive to the nation, these policies have a severely detrimental affect on domestic cohesion and leadership within the foreign relations. Dudziak implies the race issue in the international press was the seed of negative views of the US. The golden temple of American democracy was seen as something falling short, even hypocritical. Locksley Edmunson, writing in 1973, could be speaking of today with our Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and alleged secret CIA prisons when he wrote, "Those states best technically equipped to maintain world order are not necessarily the ones whose credentials recommend them as the most appropriate guardians of a global conscience."

You can read different things out of Mary Dudziak's book. As a student of public diplomacy, my take-away centered on the impact on foreign policy, which the author does a good job investigating. The take-away? Practice what you preach, or at least be effective in making them think you're trying to.

Causes and Effects.......2001-06-05

Upon first consideration one would think that the reciprocal influences of the Cold War and American civil rights activity would be self-evident. Perhaps, but Dudziak's book is full of surprises and details how galling the "American Dilemma" was to U.S. foreign policy-makers and various presidents and how each responded to the concerns of African, Asian, American, and European countries regarding the United States civil rights struggle over several decades. Why was civil rights legislation important to American foreign policy? How was Eisenhower's response to school desegregation in Little Rock influenced by foreign perceptions? How did the international attention to civil rights activity affect John Kennedy's domestic policies? Why was the State Department so concerned about Asian and African criticisms of the United States' record on civil rights? How was the Civil Rights Act of 1965 viewed by the international community? How did the views of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X affect United States foreign policy efforts? Was the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to an American activist also an international signal that worried a president and the State Department? These questions and many more are answered by Dudziak.

Dudziak deserves recognition and commendations for clearly demonstrating that the United States civil rights movement had a global as well as a national impact on America's foreign policy efforts and placed the United States squarely between the demands of a persecuted domestic minority and the scrutiny of the nations to which it declared itself the leader of human rights, liberty, and freedom in contrast to the totalitarian regimes of communist countries.

This book is well worth reading and an important addition to the growing number of books on the history of race relations that was not, and is not,taught in school. Kudos to Dudziak for an important job well done.

Eye Opening and Important -- A Great Read!.......2001-01-11

Mary Dudziak revisits a familiar chapter in American history--the civil rights movement--but provides readers with a completely new perspective on it.

We know about the work that was being done in the streets. But now Dudziak helps us see the movement through the eyes of America's cold war policymakers. For them, civil rights was a foreign policy problem, and Dudziak helps us see how this explains many of the movements successes and (maybe more important) many of its defeats.

Essential reading for everyone interested in American history, civil rights, constitutional law (yes, even Brown v. Board of Education must be seen in light of this analysis), and foreign policy.

Excellent!.......2001-01-08

This book is fabulous. Clear and articulate, it reads like a story and explores an aspect of the civil rights movement most authors and historians have neglected. It is meticulously researched and filled with information from sources ranging from presidential telephone conversations to news wires to official publications. The civil rights movement cannot be fully understood without reflecting upon the information contained in this book.

The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society

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A Disappointment
The Marble Man
The marble man
Beyond the Facade
A Hard Look at Lee and The Lost Vause Syndrome

The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society
Thomas Lawrence Connelly
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807104744

Customer Reviews:

A Disappointment.......2006-03-06

I found the book "The Marble Man" to be disappointing in several ways. The author, Thomas L Connelly, attempts to illustrate that the modern notion of Robert E. Lee as a selfless leader, great general, noble gentleman, and devoted family man is the result of a vast Virginian conspiracy.
Connelly's composition leaves something to be desired. The prologue, chapters, and epilogue seem to be thrown together in a way that shouldn't be described as "seamless". He is repetitive with quotes, often using the same quote from the same person several times (sometimes to convey different meanings). Throughout the book, one is waiting for the big "hook", or the "zinger" where Connelly will finally show his indisputable truth that Lee is not what he seems to be. This never arrives.
Connelly is certainly a well known historian, but not much of a Theologian. The "God thing" is throughout the book and really bothers/baffles Connelly. At various times he identifies Robert E Lee as a Calvinist, an Episcopalian, and a Puritan. Lee was a very devout Christian and attended the Episcopalian denominational churches most of his life. Connelly describes many of Lee's beliefs as "other-worldliness" and a "fixation on death". No time here to go into this in depth, but Connelly scratched the surface of something his just doesn't get.
One huge goal of many post modern historians is to bring the great down (no evidence necessary) and to elevate the base. "Lincoln was a homosexual"..."Clinton a great leader for his time" The beat goes on.

The Marble Man.......2005-10-12

I must say that the Marble Man is a good read. I can say this from two perspectives. First, I read the book and thouroughly enjoyed it. Second, Dr. Connelly was my professor and advisor at the University of South Carolina from 1986 until 1988. I cannot express enough what an experience it was to sit in one of his classes and listen to his lectures. It was like being transported back in time to the battle or period we were covering that day. The students would wait with anticipation before he arrived and didn't want to leave when the class was over because the transportation back in time would end when we'd leave the classroom. I remember Dr. Connelly's assessment of Lee quite well. While Lee was a good general, he did tend to be wasteful with resources and has become overrated with time. I strongly encourage the reader of this review to read anything written by Dr. Connelly. He was an amazing man.

The marble man.......2005-03-14

Connelly argues that Robert E. Lee's heroic image was largely created post-war by a small group of Virginians, and goes on to give what he regards as a more accurate assessment.

While agreeing that the post-war canonization of Lee imposed some distortions upon historians which modern scholars do well to avoid, several things about this study didn't convince me. Firstly, Connelly spends little time analyzing Lee's popularity during the war, which rose after the Peninsula campaign and remained high through the end; Lee and his army were a significant image and source of morale to all Southerners, not just Virginians, at that time.

Secondly, Connelly makes various statements about personalities and psychological quirks -- Mary Custis Lee was "unpleasant", Lee was morbid and death-obsessed -- in the presence of limited supporting evidence and of no discussion of the mentalities, religious faith, and social norms of the time. (His idiosyncratic assessment of individuals includes a characterization of Fitz Lee as the worst of Lee's cavalry commanders -- even considering the shadbake incident, that seems like too strong a statement when one considers that Fitz' competition for the worst would include candidates such as Grumble Jones and the luckless Lunsford Lomax.)

This study does reveal the ugly post-war squabble for the portrayal of history in all its inglory.

Beyond the Facade.......2003-06-13

This book might be approached as an examination of how a well-known personality is transformed for a human being into a cultural icon. Sequentially and chronologically Connelly takes his readers through that process using Robert E. Lee as the item of investigation. Along the way, Connelly makes commentary on the differences between the cultures of the north and south and how Lee's legion spread because of those cultural differences. That context has been well-established by numerous writers. Connelly simply uses it for a closer examination of Lee. For example, on page 102 he quotes another historian, Bradley T. Johnson in writing "Environmental factors had forced North and South to develop contrasting socieites. The North, 'invigorated' by constant struggle with nature, became materialistic, grasping for wealth and power. The South's 'more generous climate' had wrought a life-style based upon non-materialism and adherence to a finer code of 'veracity and honor in man, chastity and fidelity in women'"
This book helps a person to understand how history evolves in the process of retelling over a period of several generations.

A Hard Look at Lee and The Lost Vause Syndrome.......2001-12-10

This book is not just a revisionist look at Robet E. Lee but also an objective evaluation of the Southern Lost Cause Syndrome that utilzed Lee as their flagship for a just cause. Thomas Connelly is a great writer of the western theater notably the history of the Army of the Tennessee and of the western Confederate cabal that had conflicts with Jefferson Davis. Connelly offers what southerners and partiucularly Virginians may find as a harsh evaluation of Lee during the war. This book also includes some psycho-analysis that offers some reasoning for Lee's very formal demeanor which is in far contrast's to Joe Johnston whose troops would pat him on the head on occasion but not dare approach Lee in such an informal manner. In my opinion the book demonstrates that Lee was simply not infallible like amy man who has overall responsibility, he must accept some of the blame for failure. There is also the question of whether Lee was too aggressive with limited manpower (Gary Gallagher has referred to this as crucial, that the Confederacy was in serious need of military victories for morale). The Lost Cause contingent made up of Jubal Early and company always gave Lee total credit for victory but not in defeat, Early & company always made someone other than Lee a scapegoat in their version of history. Gettysburg serves as the grand indictment of this philosophy where Longstreet becomes the total goat at Gettysburg in the 1870's while one of his accusers, Early, covers his own lackluster performance by publicly hanging Longstreet. Early raps himself with the cloak of Robert E. Lee to deflect criticism of his own actions and post war exile. To my mind, Connaly expolores better than anyone else the self serving relationship of Jubal Early to the Lost Cause syndrome in Early's attempt to rewite history. Connelly brings out that Jackson was the south's great hero until Lee's death and the emergence of Lee's rise among southern writers. He also argues that Lee lacked a national picture of how to best serve the Confederacy by his opposing transferring troops west to bolster those failing armies with limited resources. He argues that Virginia was Lee's first and main focus. Highly reccommend this book, whether you agree or not, Connelly makes you look at the facts presented and while not meaning to destroy Lee's image of a competent and charismatic general, it tends to show him as human and mortal who like everyone made some mistakes. We all have to look at historians presentations carefully, even Douglas Freeman in Lee's Lieutanents slightly diminishes Jackson's role and he makes Longstreet shorter, fatter and a plotter of self grandization. This is an intellectually challenging book best appreciated by those that have an open mind. This book most likely helped foster Alan Nolan's "Lee Considered."

In the Wake of Battle: The Civil War Images of Mathew Brady

Average customer rating:

A Nice Pictorial History of the War.
A 'Must Have' book for every Civil War library

In the Wake of Battle: The Civil War Images of Mathew Brady
George Sullivan , and Mathew B. Brady
Manufacturer: Prestel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3791329294

Book Description

More than 350 photographs by Mathew Brady and his corps of cameramen, many of them never seen before, make this the most comprehensive collection of Civil War images ever published.

Mathew Brady is arguably the most widely hailed documentarian of America's bloodiest conflict: the Civil War. He and his cameramen created an indelible record of bravery, suffering, and sacrifice. Exhibitions of Brady's photographs helped to introduce Americans to the brutal realities of war, and he was a pioneer in the field of photojournalism by providing his battlefield scenes and portrait photographs to Harper's and other weekly publications of the time for use as woodcuts.

Arranged by battle site and event, each of which is introduced by a brief explanatory essay, the volume offers carefully researched archival information about each image and its photographer. Photographs by Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, and James Gibson are among those included in this thoroughly documented collection.

Caption material includes Library of Congress digital order numbers; order numbers are also given for images from the National Archives. This information helps to make the volume a valuable resource for anyone interested in Civil War history or nineteenth-century photography.

Customer Reviews:

A Nice Pictorial History of the War........2005-04-02

Mathew Brady was called Lincoln's Camera Man, but this photo album is filled with photos from a battery of photographers. It is a nice history in pictures of that time, whoever took them.

These pictures show the devastation of the War. For some reason, though, more of them show dead Confederates. It depicts the war clearly showing some of the multitude killed at Antietam, Gettysburg, the ruins at Harper's Ferry (all places I took my sons to explore a while back). Lincoln is shown at Antietam after the 'bloodiest battle of the Civil War' in October, 1862. Gettysburg, where too many from the South died, occurred in July, 1863.

The pontoon bridges were unusual and clever. The horse and carriages and wagon trains showed how drastically things have changed. Seeing a real ironclad was interesting.

This is a short course in the Civil War for those who want to know what happened; they can see the aspects from a Northerner point of view, as they ravished the South and left parts of it looking like bombed out London or Germany.

A 'Must Have' book for every Civil War library.......2004-05-14

What an valuable tome, Surley one of the most impressive collections of Civil War images ever collected. The introductions to the twenty-one sections are very helpful for appreciating the 400+ haunting Brady photos. I especially enjoyed the Federal Navy section, with photos I had never seen before, although I've read and edited several publications about the Civil War. Included also is a very practical guide to acquiring copies of the photos. In has been ten years since the prolific George Sullivan presented his biography of Mathew Brady. It was worth the wait as we have here an award-winning work that should be in teh history section of every private and public library. Not one of the 450 pages is disappointing.

Fort McAllister (Images of America: Georgia)

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Fort McAllister (Images of America: Georgia)
Roger S. Durham
Manufacturer: Arcadia Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Many earthen fortifications defended the city of Savannah and its numerous water approaches after the Civil War broke out. One of these defenses, Fort McAllister, protected the entrance to the Ogeechee River and the strategic railroad and highway bridges upstream. From November 1862 to March 1863 the U.S. Navy bombarded the fort seven different times without success. The fort finally fell to General Sherman in December 1864; ironically, the final threat the fort faced was not from an enemy trying to get up the river, but from one trying to get down the river to the sea. In the 1920s auto magnate Henry Ford renovated the fort and focused new attention on its history.

Average customer rating:

An outstanding example of military art
Civil War Artwork like you've never seen!!
A Fresh Viewpoint

Images from the Storm
Robert Knox Sneden , Charles F., Jr Bryan , James C. Kelly , and Nelson D. Lankford
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: B00006JO2Y

Amazon.com

If Vietnam was the first television war, the Civil War was the first to use mass-produced battlefield sketches and drawings as adjuncts to news reports, filling the pages of publications such as Harper's and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly. One illustrator, a Union private named Robert Sneden, had plenty of opportunities to practice his art at close range, turning out nearly a thousand sketches, maps, and plans of the great battles in which he participated.

Images from the Storm, the follow-on from last year's bestselling Eye of the Storm, gathers more than 300 of those images that Sneden made of clashes at Second Manassas, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Yorktown and others. Some of the images are panoramic, capturing miles-long lines of infantry and cities under siege; others depict smaller scenes of war, such as dancing "contraband," or freed slaves, and the graves of the fallen. Of particular interest to historians are Sneden's drawings of the Confederate prison camps at Richmond and, notoriously, Andersonville, where he spent much of the year 1864 after he was captured by John Singleton Mosby's cavalry at Brandy Station, Virginia. One of those images became nationally known after the war, note the book's editors, accompanying an account of the war crimes trial and subsequent execution of the Andersonville camp commander.

These works, one scholar has noted, constitute "the single most important collection of Civil War art to be discovered in this century." Students of that conflict will find this critical edition to be of much interest and use as a companion to other accounts. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

The Civil War legacy of Robert Knox Sneden is an unparalleled treasure trove of words and pictures. The publication of the bestselling Eye of the Storm in the fall of 2000 first brought his memoir to light, accompanied by a sample of his artwork. In all, however, he crafted some 900 watercolors and sketches. Now, with the 300 watercolors, sketches, maps, and diagrams in Images from the Storm, his artistic legacy can be appreciated on its own terms -- an achievement equal in magnitude to his writings, and unsurpassed by any other Civil War soldier-artist. Images from the Storm presents the best of Sneden's art throughout his odyssey of combat, capture, imprisonment, and deliverance, a pictorial record of the war that puts the viewer in the shoes of a Union soldier as nothing else can.

Sneden aimed for vivid detail and documentary accuracy in his maps, landscapes, battles, and scenes of camp life. He sketched the camps and surroundings of the Union army, the siege of Yorktown, the battle of Williamsburg, the approach of the army to within sight of the church spires of Richmond, and the tumultuous fighting retreat of the Seven Days' battles as the Union army shrank before a relentless Confederate offensive. He drew dozens of maps and sketched daily life around Washington, D.C., before his capture in autumn 1863.

For the next thirteen months, Sneden was a prisoner of the Confederacy. In a drafty tobacco warehouse in Richmond, he sketched prison life and Confederate scenes before being packed with others aboard cattle cars for a jolting train ride south. In a remote corner of rural Georgia, he survived the outdoor prison at Andersonville and drew some of his most astonishing images of camp life and its suffering. When Andersonville was evacuated, he continued to make secret pencil sketches of Confederate prisons in Savannah and Millen, Georgia, and in Florence and Charleston, South Carolina.

Finally freed in a massive prisoner exchange in Charleston harbor, he returned home to New York at Christmas 1864. He made little use of his architectural training thereafter, but devoted himself to compiling his memoir of the war and converting his pencil sketches into watercolors. A solitary man who never married, Sneden died at an old soldiers' home in Bath, New York, in 1918. His watercolors and his story were forgotten for nearly a century. Images from the Storm reproduces the best of Sneden's art in sharp colors, so we can appreciate fully the mastery of a miniaturist who saw it all, and sketched whenever and wherever he could.

Customer Reviews:

An outstanding example of military art.......2002-01-14

Images From The Storm will appeal to two audiences: those who appreciate treatises on early military art and those with an interest in the Civil War. The Virginia Historical Society unearthed a treasure trove of photos by Union photographer Robert Knox Sneden: this shares his handwritten memoir and a sampling of his storehouse of nearly 1,000 watercolors, sketches and engravings about the war. An outstanding example of military art.

Civil War Artwork like you've never seen!!.......2001-12-11

If you love to see pictures from a fascinating time in American history, this is your book. The details and the description really put you there to experience what was happening. No flowery, romatic view of war from this guy!! This book provides
extra pictures that were not included in "Eye of the Storm".
Don't miss this piece of history.

A Fresh Viewpoint.......2001-11-09

Private Sneden, a survivor of the Civil War was long forgotten when this was published recently. What is so vital about this book is that it is untouched by politicians, generals,and other propogandists of that era. Furthermore it is done through the viewpoint of the artists eyes, and done by his hand - without the editorial expections of the time.

It is so refreshing to see this long studied subject being given a fresh viewpoint from someone who was actually there.

Book Description

Found on monuments throughout the South, the sentiment Â“Lest we forget!Â” represents the theme of Remembering GeorgiaÂ's Confederates. Dedicated to the men and women who served Georgia when her heart belonged to the Confederate States of America, this volume remembers the stateÂ's Confederate pastÂ—a time of passion, devotion, honor, courage, faith, perseverance, sacrifice, and loss. Georgia, rich in its heritage, boasts numerous locales to visit, learn about, and remember its role in the Confederacy: the battlefields and their interpretive centers, the coastal forts, the prison camp, the worldÂ's largest painting, the worldÂ's largest Confederate memorial, a pair of locomotive

engines, a number of Confederate cemeteries, and various homes, museums, and history centers.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Photographs!.......2006-04-24

Dr. Wiggins has assembled an outstanding collection of photographs, as well as commentaries on dozens and dozens of Confederate soldiers from totally unknown men of the ranks to well known subjects. Not only can the historian or reenactor gain much from the details of the uniforms and weapons but we all have the opportunity to look into the eyes of men long gone who marched off to a horrifically brutal war. Images of the men at reunions decades after the war show us old men who lived with the wounds, amputations and memories of what they had done in their youth. A remarkable book preserving these men for all time.

Hugh T. Harrington
author of: "Civil War Milledgeville, Tales From the Confederate Capital of Georgia," "Remembering Milledgeville, Historic Tales From Georgia's Antebellum Capital" and "More Milledgeville Memories."

Remembering Georgia's Confederates.......2005-09-27

Best collection of Georgians in their Confederate uniforms I have ever seen! The book features over 120 images of this type and another 100 or so of Georgians returning from the war. Very impressive!

Good work for the younger reader who wants to know more about Georgia's Confederate heritage but also for the serious researcher.

Hidden Witness: African American Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War

Average customer rating:

Precious history.
Let the eyes tell us what the picture means
Precious Images
A Picture is Worth...
Great Pictures - Commentary Stinks

Hidden Witness: African American Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War
Jackie Napolean Wilson
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Amazon.com

The image is striking: A woman gazes serenely at the camera, baby cradled in her arms in classic Madonna-and-child pose. More striking is the fact that the sitters are black, and the photograph dates from 1860. Few photographs from the mid-19th century feature African Americans, enslaved or free. Those that do are often staged and reflect the biases of the photographer or the printmaker who published them. Others, however, provide glimpses of daily life before the abolition of slavery.

Renowned collector of early photographs Jackie Napolean Wilson has compiled 70 such images in Hidden Witness. Each photograph--whether an outdoor scene, where slaves are afterthoughts in the frame, so-called Mammy portraits of slaves holding white children, studio portraits of proud freemen and women--is accompanied by a brief explanation, contextualizing the image and speculating on the nature of the pictured relationships. Some of the subjects are famous, such as Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass; others, though unknowns, carry a force of their own: the exuberant grin of the prizewinning boxer, the proud stance of a Union soldier, the quiet dignity of a slave nurse. A handsome addition to the history of African Americans and photography. --Sunny Delaney

Book Description

Whether as slaves or as freedmen, African-Americans were virtually invisible in American history during the l9th century. Although photography was introduced to this country in l840, precious few images of African-Americans survive today. Even after the Civil War there were not many African-American photographers, and very few black people had the time, money or freedom for a portrait sitting. Consequently, little photographic evidence remains to bear witness to the lives of four and a half million Americans of African descent.

Jackie Napolean Wilson, whose own grandfather was born a slave in South Carolina between l853 and l855, has assembled the most comprehensive and significant collection of such images ever brought together in one place. The concrete reality reflected in daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes presents these men and women in situations and attire that bring the truth of their daily lives much closer to us. Such scenes of maternal affection, matrimony, friendship, war and the grim reality of the master/slave relationship help focus our perception of the African- American experience in America in ways not otherwise available to the modern reader. Among these images is the only picture of Abraham Lincoln in the company of an African-American and the earliest known daguerreotype of Frederick Douglass (circa 1843).

Often anonymous, these photographers have left us a mirror, focussing distant light on the past of African-Americans in this country and putting an often invisible people on the historical record once and for all time.

Customer Reviews:

Precious history........2004-06-25

This book has photographs to treasure. To see black people at this period of history recorded in photographs is a precious thing. However, I must agree with the consensus that the text is worthless, which is why I didn't give the book five stars. I was not interested in the author's guesses about these people and many times he was actually obnoxious in his anxiety to make sure the reader saw the photographs with his spin on them.

Particularly moving, besides the portrait on the front of the woman and child were the memorial photograph of the dead baby, and the couple of photos of slaves lined up in front a plantation. It was interesting to see, although it was not the common experience that there were already so many black middle-class pre-slavery, or at least, so many blacks managed to dress up for even a one-time portrait. I have some older photos in my family and I know from that that people put their best foot forward and rented clothes that were better than their usual ones and so forth for portraits. Also, even in the 19th century it was possible to retouch photos and remove things that they did not want to be seen.

Let the eyes tell us what the picture means.......2002-05-20

The photographs are great!! I just wish that the author had let them speak for themselves, or if he felt that he must say something, tell us what he felt when looking at the photos. I don't think that there is a person over the age of 8 that doesn't know about the difficult times that African American faced and still face, but to add them as facts to the photographs is just a bit much. God I want just one book that has photographs of us that talk about our pride and strength seen in our eyes by the len.

Precious Images.......2002-01-26

These photographs are gorgeous. Many of the readers have probably never seen early photos of free and even prosperous proud ante-bellum black people. I would give this book five stars were it not for the commentary. Jackie Napoleon Wilson tries so hard to interpret the photos that he makes ridiculous assumptions. There is no way to know what was going on in these people's heads. As other reviewers have pointed out, becuase of the daugeretype's long exposure time the man in the photo on page 3 didn't just get caught in the scene he must have been posed. When Wilson says the woman and daughter on page 13 didn't have a close attachment he's speaking nonsense. How on earth can you tell that? Despite the commentary this book is a worthy addition to the bookshelf of anyone who is interested in history.

A Picture is Worth..........2001-12-29

Normally a picture is worth a thousand words, not so in Wilson's case. This book would have been better left without text. Still, as a picture book, as a real hidden witness to a past that does not show much in the way of photo documentation, the book has worth. The daguerreotypes and rare photos give a glimpse to the lives of African-Americans before abolition. If the reader will become a looker only and search the photos for the truth, then this book will be a valuable source of enlightenment and understanding.

Great Pictures - Commentary Stinks.......2001-10-04

I picked this book up at the library. As I am also a collector of old photographs, I was intrigued. The book does contain a wonderful collection; it's worth looking at.

But as everyone has observed, I too found the commentary a source of concern and irritation. Much of it is total fabrication. That is definately a pair of rosary bead around the woman's neck on page 46. To claim otherwise is a deliberate intention to misdirect. The woman was far from thinking of her roots. She just wanted to leave a picture for her family to enjoy and remember her by.

Book Description

Arkansas seceded from the Union in 1861, opening a chapter in the stateÂ's history that would change its destiny for decades. An estimated 6,862 Arkansas Confederate soldiers died from battle and disease, while some 1,700 Arkansas men died wearing Union blue. Total casualties, killed and wounded, represented 12 percent of the white men in the state between the ages of 15 and 62. Bloody, hard-fought battles included Pea Ridge, Helena, Little Rock, and the rare Confederate victory in southwest Arkansas at JenkinsÂ' Ferry. Following the war, the event that included the largest parade ever in Arkansas, the 1911 United Confederate Veterans Reunion, is presented in picture and word. The event has largely been neglected by history books. From the monuments and veterans to the loyal reenactors still gathering today, the story of the Civil War in Arkansas is remembered and preserved for coming generations.

The Union Image: Popular Prints of the Civil War North (Civil War America)

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The Union Image: Popular Prints of the Civil War North (Civil War America)
Mark E., Jr. Neely , and Harold Holzer
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0807825107
Release Date: 2000-01-05

Book Description

During the American Civil War, popular prints were frequently used to depict, define, and celebrate both the Union and Confederate causes. The Union Image explores the graphic arts that portrayed the Northern side—both in patriotic pictures and newsworthy illustrations published while the war raged and in retrospective images issued years later as major weapons in the postwar battle to shape the national memory.

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