Synopses & Reviews
The civil rights and black power movements expanded popular awareness of the history and culture of African Americans. But, as Stephen Hall observes, African American authors, intellectuals, ministers, and abolitionists had been writing the history of the black experience since the 1800s. Hall charts the origins, meanings, methods, evolution, and maturation of African American historical writing from the period of the Early Republic to the 20th century and provides a holistic portrait of African American history informed by developments within and outside the African American community.
Review
"Compelling and rich. . . . Hall's unique literary historical method uncovers a tremendously important history that impressively broadens the way we think about both obscure and well-known figures. . . . Will, doubtless, become required reading in African American and Africana Studies curriculums."
-American Quarterly
Review
"A fine first book. . . . It is persuasively argued and succeeds in enhancing our understanding of the development of early black history. . . . Clearly organized. . . . Well written. . . . Its subject of nineteenth-century black history texts is thoroughly researched."
-H-Net Reviews
Review
"A valuable account. . . . Thoroughly grounded in primary evidence and recent scholarship, Hall's book is an important contribution to our understanding of the forces shaping American intellectual life and historical study."
-Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
Review
"The distinctive contributions of
A Faithful Account of the Race is not that it considers black understandings of the black experience, but that it selects one set of these black historical writings and weaves them into a 120-year story of the ways in which African Americans thought about black people in history, both as actors and as the subjects of action. . . . [An] excellent book."
-North Carolina Historical Review
Review
"Hall takes his subjects seriously as thinkers and historians and places them in the context of their time, rather than judging them according to modern standards of historical scholarship or analyzing them through the lens of modern racial concerns. . . . Fascinating and illuminating. . . . By demonstrating the richness and complexity of nineteenth-century African-American historical writing, Hall contributes to our understanding of American historiography and intellectual history."
-Journal of American History
Review
"The book's immense strength lies in its breadth and expansiveness. In conducting a chronological examination . . . Hall is able to present a wide range of understudied texts. . . . Critically important to the development and evolution of African American historiography."
-Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Review
"Highly recommended."
-Choice
Review
"Extensively researched and well written, this monograph does more than establish the credibility of nineteenth-century black historical writings. Hall successfully locates the professionalization of black history within a continuum that stretches back to the early republic."
-American Historical Review
Review
"Stephen G. Hall provides a solid introduction to early African American historical writing, reflecting a reverence for, and a mastery of, his subject."
-The Journal of Southern History
Review
"Provocative, groundbreaking, interdisciplinary historical methodology."
-African American Review
Review
"With his insightful book as a starting point, Stephen Hall is pointing us in the right direction."
-American Nineteenth Century History
About the Author
Stephen G. Hall is assistant professor of history at the Ohio State University in Columbus.