Synopses & Reviews
This book sits at the intersection of two historical categories—empire and citizenship—that scholars usually study separately. It does so with a focus on race and racialization in the lives of four outstanding women whose careers crossed national borders between 1880 and 1965. Author Patricia Schechter offers rich and fascinating portraits of Liberian missionary Amanda Berry Smith, author Gertrude Stein, feminist arts impresario and publisher Josefina Silva de Cintrón, and labor activist Maida Springer. These portraits put an individual, intellectual, and female face on transnational topics—from missions to migration, world's fairs to unionism—that are too often recounted as male or mass phenomena.
Review
'Exploring the Decolonial Imaginary is intellectually daring, deeply researched, and well executed. Schechter moves transnational history to a new level.' - Thomas Bender, professor of History, New York University
'Schechter has deftly rendered the historical spaces that these four women occupied and more importantly, demonstrated why they mattered. Due to this conscientious and artful construction of contexts, her work makes it indefensible for women such as these to be left out of future studies of diaspora, citizenship, and immigration across the Atlantic world.' - Claude Clegg, professor of History, Indiana University
Synopsis
This study explores two categories--empire and citizenship--that historians usually study separately. It does so with a unifying focus on racialization in the lives of outstanding women whose careers crossed national borders between 1880 and 1965. It puts an individual, intellectual, and female face on transnational phenomena.
About the Author
Patricia Schechter is a professor of History at Portland State University.
Table of Contents
What Comes Transnationally * A Kind of Privileged Character: Amanda Berry Smith and Race in Liberian Missions * Unmaking Race: Gertrude Stein, the New Woman, and Susan B. Anthony * ¡Adelante Hermanas de La Raza!: Josefina Silva de Cintrón and Puerto Rican Women's Feminismo * Becoming Mama Maida: Maida Springer in New York City and Africa * Failed Escapes and Impossible Homecomings