Synopses & Reviews
Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson lived a colorful and amazing life. Her career and commitments took her many places: colonial Africa in 1936, the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, the founding meeting of the United Nations, Nazi-occupied Berlin, Stalin's Russia, and China two months after Mao's revolution. She was a woman of unusual accomplishmentand#8212;an anthropologist, a prolific journalist, a tireless advocate of women's rights, an outspoken anti-colonial and antiracist activist, and an internationally sought-after speaker. Yet historians for the most part have confined Essie to the role of Mrs. Paul Robeson, a wife hidden in the large shadow cast by her famous husband. In this masterful book, biographer Barbara Ransby refocuses attention on Essie, one of the most important and fascinating black women of the twentieth century.
Chronicling Essie's eventful life, the book explores her influence on her husband's early career and how she later achieved her own unique political voice. Essie's friendships with a host of literary icons and world leaders, her renown as a fierce defender of justice, her defiant testimony before Senator Joseph McCarthy's infamous anti-communist committee, and her unconventional open marriage that endured for over 40 yearsand#8212;all are brought to light in the pages of this inspiring biography. Essie's indomitable personality shines through, as do her contributions to United States and twentieth-century world history.
Review
"In this incredibly powerful, vital work, Ransby has rescued Eslanda Robeson from the shadows of her famous husband and establishes her as one of the most important activists, scholars, critics and theorists to connect anticolonialism with the black freedom movement in the U.S."and#8212;Robin Kelley, author ofand#160;Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
Review
and#8220;This is an enormously rich book by a masterful biographer, full of novel insights and surprises.and#8221;and#8212;Penny Von Eschen, University of Michigan
Review
andquot;Barbara Ransby has produced an insightful, fascinating, and significant biography.and#160;Eslanda Robeson has too long stood in the shadow of her remarkable husband, but as Ransby shows she was an important writer and political activist in her own right, whose life illuminates the international dimensions of the 20th-century black freedom movement.andquot;andmdash;Eric Foner, Columbia University
Review
and#160;andquot;From a master biographer and historian of African American women, this mesmerizing story of an extraordinary woman's life and struggles offers a global view of black radical history.and#160;After this book no one will be able to think of Eslanda merely as Mrs. Paul Robeson.andquot;andmdash;Linda Gordon, author of Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits
Review
andquot;Scholar and activist Ransby deftly details the accomplishments, struggles and impact ofand#160;Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson... A well-researched, informative, readableand#160;biography.andquot;andmdash;Kirkus Reviewsand#160;
Review
"This long overdue biography of a bold scholar-activist emerging from the shadow of her famous husband is a gift, and such are Ransby's narrative skills that I wept when, in her final pages, the vibrant Essie died, two days shy of 70. Ransby has a history of rescuing historically overlooked black female leaders; a prior biography was of the venerable civil rights activist Ella Baker. This new work is a major contribution to her glorious reclamation project."and#8212;Joan Steinau Lester, Ms. Magazine
Review
"What Barbara Ransby achieved in her biography of Ella Baker is repeated with verve and astonishing insight in Eslanda: The Labor and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson.and#8221; and#8212;Herb Boyd, New York Amsterdam News
Review
"Fascinating. . . A poignant portrait of a peripatetic, human rights activist willing to challenge oppression of any form wherever she could find it."and#8212;Kam Williams, Insight
Review
"Compelling."and#8212;Eleanor J. Bader, In These Times
Review
"Eslanda Goode Robeson deserves this fine biography that frees her from her role as Mrs. Paul Robeson and uncovers a life that defies summary, so varied, wide-ranging, and intense it was . . . Ransby skillfully organizes the details into a fascinating, well-researched account . . . A breathtaking biography. Highly recommended, all libraries."and#8212;Choice
Review
Won Honorable Mention for the 2013 Southern California Book Festival, in the Biography/Autobiography category, sponored by JM Northern Media LLC.
Review
Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 in the North America Category. New England Book Festival - JM Northern Media
Review
Won a Honorable Mention for the 2014 Los Angeles Book Festival in the Biography/Autobiography Category. Outstanding Academic Title - Choice
Review
"Through the vast intellect and devoted political commitments of Barbara Ransby, Essie's ferocious clarity about global solidarity in thought and action, her defiance of the forces of racism and reaction, and her remarkable resilience and intellectual curiosity which led her to teach and write, to engage and then to wholeheartedly embrace the struggles of her time—tell us much about ourselves and the challenges to buck up."—Bernadine Dohrn, Monthly Review Los Angeles Book Festival - JM Northern Media LLC
Review
Won an Honorable Mention for the 2013 New England Book Festival given by the JM Northern Media Family of Festivals, in the Biography/Autobiography Category.
Review
and#8220;This biography is a page-turner, with writing that is lively and vivid, and Coraand#8217;s own correspondence, journal entries, and poetry give the book a very and#8216;first-personand#8217; feel. Thereand#8217;s a lot to learn here.and#8221;and#8212;Louise Lamphere, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, and past president of the American Anthropological Association
Review
andldquo;Susan Seymour has produced a captivating, extremely well-written narrative that has much to offer multiple audiences that include anthropologists and students of the history of ideas and social science, but also more general readers interested in the biography of a brilliant, independent gay woman who forged an important career in an era when social obstacles made such accomplishments very rare.andrdquo;andmdash;David H. Price, professor of anthropology and sociology at Saint Martinandrsquo;s University and the author of
Weaponizing Anthropology: Social Science in Service of the Militarized Stateand#160;
Review
andquot;In the heavens of women in early anthropology, Cora Du Bois is generally eclipsed by the more famous Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, but both her work and her life deserve our attention and admiration, and Susan Seymour gives her the biography that she merits.andquot;andmdash;Jack David Eller, Anthropology Review Database
Synopsis
The first biography of the bold, principled, and fiercely independent woman who defied convention to make her own mark on the world
Synopsis
This compelling biography tells Essie Robeson's own story for the first timeand#8212;from her unconventional marriage, to her influence on her husband's early career, to her tireless efforts against racism and injustice around the globe.
Synopsis
Although Cora Du Bois began her life in the early twentieth century as a lonely and awkward girl, her intellect and curiosity propelled her into a remarkable life as an anthropologist and diplomat in the vanguard of social and academic change.
Du Bois studied with Franz Boas, a founder of American anthropology, and with some of his most eminent students: Ruth Benedict, Alfred Kroeber, and Robert Lowie. During World War II, she served as a high-ranking officer for the Office of Strategic Services as the only woman to head one of the OSS branches of intelligence, Research and Analysis in Southeast Asia. After the war she joined the State Department as chief of the Southeast Asia Branch of the Division of Research for the Far East. She was also the first female full professor, with tenure, appointed at Harvard University and became president of the American Anthropological Association.
Du Bois worked to keep her public and private lives separate, especially while facing the FBIand#8217;s harassment as an opponent of U.S. engagements in Vietnam and as a and#8220;liberaland#8221; lesbian during the McCarthy era. Susan C. Seymourand#8217;s biographyand#160;weaves together Du Boisand#8217;s personal and professional lives to illustrate this exceptional and#8220;first womanand#8221; and the complexities of the twentieth century that she both experienced and influenced.
About the Author
Susan C. Seymour is the Jean M. Pitzer Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. She is the author of several books, including Women, Family, and Child Care in India: A World in Transition.