Synopses & Reviews
In the past quarter century, "bad" mothers have moved noticeably toward center stage in American culture. While Susan Smith will eventually fade from the tabloids, the monster mother that she represents has a storied and long history. Mothers have been blamed for a host of problems, from autism in children (due to chilly "refrigerator" mothers), to homosexuality (attributed to "smothering" moms), to welfare dependency and crime (caused by black "matriarchs" and single mothers).
Some mothers are not good mothers. No one can deny that. There are women who neglect their children, abuse them, and fail to provide them with proper psychological nurturance. While such mothers have always stimulated the American imagination, the definition of what constitutes a bad mother has expanded significantly in recent years. Indeed, with a distinct minority of American families living the two-parent, one-worker lifestyle once considered the norm, we all face the discomfiting question, Do most mothers now qualify as "bad" mothers in one way or another?
Drawing together the work of prominent scholars and journalists, "Bad" Mothers considers such diverse topics as the mother-blaming theories of psychological and medical "experts," bad mothers in the popular media, the scapegoating of mothers in politics, and the punitive approach to "bad" mothers by social service and legal authorities. The volume also includes the stories of individual "bad" mothers, from sterilization survivor Willie Mallory to rock star Courtney Love. Ably edited by two leading scholars, "Bad" Mothers marks an important contribution to the literature on motherhood.
Review
“This fascinating study uses the tools and sources of diplomatic history to examine a sweep of national and international history far beyond the confines of diplomacy. . . . For Horne, the slave trade, rather than slavery, was an explosive political issue much later in the 19th century that is normally understood. Highly recommended.”
-Choice,
Review
“Horne expertly interweaves the political views presented in official documents with personal commentary from letters and travel accounts. . . . It is valuable for scholars of U.S. foreign policy due to its coverage of diplomacy between the United States and other nations. This work contributes to the study of U.S. South since Horne details the plans of some southern leaders and planter elites who looked to Brazil as the answer when all was lost in the United States. ”
-The Journal of Southern History,
Review
“A well-researched, skillfully-written, and carefully-argued diplomatic history examining connections between the United States, Brazil, Africa, and Europe as they relate to the transatlantic slave trade. Horne sheds considerable light upon the ideas, ruminations, and practices of U.S. nationals in their interactions with and encounters of Brazil over the question of slavery, especially from the mid-nineteenth century on, and makes a valuable and important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of (American) hemispheric relations and trajectories, both eventual and potential.”
-Michael A. Gomez,editor of Diasporic Africa: A Reader
Review
“An important study that starts with the proposition that what happens abroad affects developments in the United States. For the first time we are made aware of the extensive contacts between pro-slavery forces in the United States in the years after the abolition of the slave trade and the promoters of slavery in and the slave trade to Brazil and elsewhere.”
-Richard J. M. Blackett,author of Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War
Review
"Horne, a proven historian and author specializing in African American history, provides a stimulating perspective on slavery in the U.S. and Brazil. In every aspect, Horne has assembled an extraordinary manuscript which is enormously riveting in its breadth and comprehensiveness. A valuable and indispensable investigation, this work constitutes a landmark in historical analysis of the interrelationships among the United States, Brazil, and the African slave trade. Literally radiating with extraordinary historical observations and a host of well thought-out and well presented ideas,
is not only of interest to historians, but also scholars of economics and politics. is required reading for all scholars working in the broad field of the African slave trade." “This fascinating study uses the tools and sources of diplomatic history to examine a sweep of national and international history far beyond the confines of diplomacy. . . . For Horne, the slave trade, rather than slavery, was an explosive political issue much later in the 19th century that is normally understood. Highly recommended.”
“Horne expertly interweaves the political views presented in official documents with personal commentary from letters and travel accounts. . . . It is valuable for scholars of U.S. foreign policy due to its coverage of diplomacy between the United States and other nations. This work contributes to the study of U.S. South since Horne details the plans of some southern leaders and planter elites who looked to Brazil as the answer when all was lost in the United States. ”
“A well-researched, skillfully-written, and carefully-argued diplomatic history examining connections between the United States, Brazil, Africa, and Europe as they relate to the transatlantic slave trade. Horne sheds considerable light upon the ideas, ruminations, and practices of U.S. nationals in their interactions with and encounters of Brazil over the question of slavery, especially from the mid-nineteenth century on, and makes a valuable and important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of (American) hemispheric relations and trajectories, both eventual and potential.”
“An important study that starts with the proposition that what happens abroad affects developments in the United States. For the first time we are made aware of the extensive contacts between pro-slavery forces in the United States in the years after the abolition of the slave trade and the promoters of slavery in and the slave trade to Brazil and elsewhere.”
Review
“A timely, imaginative and energetic enlargement of the discourse on identity rhetorics in the 21st century. Through critical examinations of some of the most visible contemporary communications moments, these authors impel us to revisit the temptation to embrace a ‘beyond ideology, race, and interest mentality.”-Aaron David Gresson III,The Pennsylvania State University
Review
-Alberto Gonzalez,Bowling Green State University
Review
" . . . a powerful volume of finely written essays."-Journal of Social History,
Synopsis
During its heyday in the nineteenth century, the African slave trade was fueled by the close relationship of the United States and Brazil.
The Deepest South tells the disturbing story of how U.S. nationals - before and after Emancipation -- continued to actively participate in this odious commerce by creating diplomatic, social, and political ties with Brazil, which today has the largest population of African origin outside of Africa itself.
Proslavery Americans began to accelerate their presence in Brazil in the 1830s, creating alliances there—sometimes friendly, often contentious—with Portuguese, Spanish, British, and other foreign slave traders to buy, sell, and transport African slaves, particularly from the eastern shores of that beleaguered continent. Spokesmen of the Slave South drew up ambitious plans to seize the Amazon and develop this region by deporting the enslaved African-Americans there to toil. When the South seceded from the Union, it received significant support from Brazil, which correctly assumed that a Confederate defeat would be a mortal blow to slavery south of the border. After the Civil War, many Confederates, with slaves in tow, sought refuge as well as the survival of their peculiar institution in Brazil.
Based on extensive research from archives on five continents, Gerald Horne breaks startling new ground in the history of slavery, uncovering its global dimensions and the degrees to which its defenders went to maintain it.
Synopsis
During its heyday in the nineteenth century, the African slave trade was fueled by the close relationship of the United States and Brazil.
The Deepest South tells the disturbing story of how U.S. nationals - before and after Emancipation -- continued to actively participate in this odious commerce by creating diplomatic, social, and political ties with Brazil, which today has the largest population of African origin outside of Africa itself.
Proslavery Americans began to accelerate their presence in Brazil in the 1830s, creating alliances there - sometimes friendly, often contentious - with Portuguese, Spanish, British, and other foreign slave traders to buy, sell, and transport African slaves, particularly from the eastern shores of that beleaguered continent. Spokesmen of the Slave South drew up ambitious plans to seize the Amazon and develop this region by deporting the enslaved African-Americans there to toil. When the South seceded from the Union, it received significant support from Brazil, which correctly assumed that a Confederate defeat would be a mortal blow to slavery south of the border. After the Civil War, many Confederates, with slaves in tow, sought refuge as well as the survival of their peculiar institution in Brazil.
Based on extensive research from archives on five continents, Gerald Horne breaks startling new ground in the history of slavery, uncovering its global dimensions and the degrees to which its defenders went to maintain it.
Synopsis
According to many pundits and cultural commentators, the U.S. is enjoying a post-racial age, thanks in part to Barack Obama's rise to the presidency. This high gloss of optimism fails, however, to recognize that racism remains ever present and alive, spread by channels of media and circulated even in colloquial speech in ways that can be difficult to analyze.
In this groundbreaking collection edited by Michael G. Lacy and Kent A. Ono, scholars seek to examine this complicated and contradictory terrain while moving the field of communication in a more intellectually productive direction. An outstanding group of contributors from a range of academic backgrounds challenges traditional definitions and applications of rhetoric. From the troubling media representations of black looters after Hurricane Katrina and rhetoric in news coverage about the Columbine and Virginia Tech massacres to cinematic representations of race in Crash, Blood Diamond, and Quentin Tarantino's films, these essays reveal complex intersections and constructions of racialized bodies and discourses, critiquing race in innovative and exciting ways. Critical Rhetorics of Race seeks not only to understand and navigate a world fraught with racism, but to change it, one word at a time.
About the Author
Michael G. Lacy is an Independent Scholar in Chicago, IL.
Kent A. Ono is Professor of Asian American Studies and Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is author of Contemporary Media Culture and the Remnants of a Colonial Past (2009) and co-author of Asian Americans and the Media with Vincent Pham (2009) and Shifting Borders: Rhetoric, Immigration, and California's Proposition 187 with John Martin Sloop (2002).