Activity

As is most often the case, I am yet again “knee deep” in titles that are in the midst of being read. I tend to do these in what I call “tranches,” By “tranches” I am implying a bundle of books on a reasonably narrowed topical basis. For me, this allows me to benefit from more than a single perspective, and to allow for the kinds of gains that come from mapping one information field to another, that is readily adjacent to the first. It also serves as a check on the proclivity to only read for one particular theory or model that the reader would like to be true. So without any further adieu then, here is this weeks “tranche”.
1). “The Slave Trade” By: Hugh Thomas
2). “From The War on Poverty to the War On Crime: By: Elizabeth Hinton
3). “The Half Has Never Been Told” By: Edward Baptist
4). “Sick From Freedom” By: Jim Downs
5). “Carte Blanche” By: Harriet A Washington
I should like to thank none other than our Giza Member and my friend, “Schwarzenstein” who has greatly contributed to sharpening my reading list on not merely Slavery, but the Experience of Black Americans over the last two Centuries. And I will close with this, This standard narrative of this facet of our history, may well be the most under-served aspect of any study of what it means to be an American. What we were taught about Abraham Lincoln, the 10 minutes spent on the Reconstruction, and that Hagiography of Social Beneficence that is meant to stand in for what was actually going on during the Civil Rights movement, is worse than a travesty, it’s a crime, and Slavery is not merely a stain on our Collective History, it is an ever lengthening shadow on this very century. Time to crack open the topic and stop feeling good about ourselves, the issue has never really been resolved, nor the injustice brought to a halt.