Synopses & Reviews
From his founding of
The Journal of Social History to his groundbreaking work on the history of emotions, weight, and parenting, Peter N. Stearns has pushed the boundaries of social history to new levels, presenting new insights into how people have lived and thought through the ages. Having established the history of emotions as a major subfield of social history, Stearns and his collaborators are poised to do the same thing with the study of human behavior. This is their manifesto.
American Behavioral History deals with specific uses of historical data and analysis to illuminate American behavior patterns, ranging from car buying rituals to sexuality, and from funeral practices to contemporary grandparenting. The anthology illustrates the advantages and parameters of analyzing the ways in which people behave, and adds significantly to our social understanding while developing innovative methods for historical teaching and research.
At its core, the collection demonstrates how the study of the past can be directly used to understand current behaviors in the United States. Throughout, contributors discuss not only specific behavioral patterns but, importantly, how to consider and interpret them as vital historical sources.
Contributors include Gary Cross, Paula Fass, Linda Rosenzweig, Susan Matt, Steven M. Gelber, Peter N. Stearns, Suzanne Smith, Mark M. Smith, Kevin White.
Review
“A growing number of scholars have helped us understand the law’s impact on both the major events and the minutia of our daily lives. It's safe to say, however, that few do so with the provocative verve and vigor of Derrick Bell. This volume is a must read for long-time followers of Derrick Bell’s work as well as casual readers looking for material that is both intellectually stimulating and entertaining.”
“Finally, the essence of Derrick Bell as a scholar, teacher, and activist is captured in the Derrick Bell Reader. Bell’s remarkable career, as a civil rights attorney, scholar on race and justice, and activist promoting the rights of all citizens, is fully addressed. It is a great read.”
“Derrick Bell’s impressive body of scholarship continues to inspire generations of readers by inviting them into an extended conversation between him and a community of people who gave life to his vision and generously shared their own wisdom in search of justice.”
“Biting, intense, full of dramatic surprises and brilliant insights, Bell’s work is the antidote to all the feel-good narratives of racial change.”
“For those who agree, or disagree, with Bell's radical departure from accepted racial notions, The Derrick Bell Reader offers plenty to dissect. The book could not have arrived at a better time.”
Review
"Biting, intense, full of dramatic surprises and brilliant insights, Bell's work is the antidote to all the feel-good narratives of racial change." - Duncan Kennedy, author of Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy
Review
"For those who agree, or disagree, with Bell's radical departure from accepted racial notions, The Derrick Bell Reader offers plenty to dissect. The book could not have arrived at a better time." - Brian Gilmore, Howard University School of Law
Review
"Finally, the essence of Derrick Bell as a scholar, teacher, and activist is captured in the Derrick Bell Reader. Bell's remarkable career, as a civil rights attorney, scholar on race and justice, and activist promoting the rights of all citizens, is fully addressed. It is a great read." - Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., author of All Deliberate Speed
Review
"Derrick Bell's impressive body of scholarship continues to inspire generations of readers by inviting them into an extended conversation between him and a community of people who gave life to his vision and generously shared their own wisdom in search of justice." - Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres, co-authors of The Miner's Canary
Review
“A masterful introduction to a new kind of history, one that looks to the past to illuminate the most basic aspects of contemporary behavior, from parenting practices and consumer behavior to the rise of the hospice and the growing acceptance of oral sex. This is one of those seminal books that radically transforms the way we look at the present and the past.”
-Steven Mintz,author of Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood
Review
“Contextually rich, in-depth and well argued.”
-Journal of Social History,
Review
“As always, Peter Stearns stimulates our thinking about history and human experience in important ways. American Behavioral History is unconventional, provocative, and compelling. This collection gives new vigor to the study of social history.”
-Joan Jacobs Brumberg,author of The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls
Review
“Peter Stearns and his intrepid co-conspirators do not, like other seekers of truth in history, try to understand the past in its own terms. Instead, they try to learn from the past to touch the present and affect the future. One after another, their extraordinary essays suggest that their audacious ambition may be attainable.”
-Michael Zuckerman,author of Almost Chosen People: Oblique Biographies in the American Grain
Review
“Stearns and his colleagues leave us with a compelling sense that we need history to understand ourselves. Without an engaged historical perspective on today's behaviors, prescriptions for social change will not only fail, but leave us vulnerable to quick fixes and moral zealotry, sparking social behaviors—;incidentally, with a rich American past—;whose history might assist us in our efforts to understand today's cultural and political climate, and, perhaps, begin to change it.”
-Journal of American History,
Synopsis
Lawyer, activist, teacher, writer: for over 40 years, Derrick Bell has provoked his critics and challenged his readers with uncompromising candor and progressive views on race and class in America. A founder of Critical Race Theory and pioneer of the use of allegorical stories as tools of analysis, Bell's groundbreaking work shatters conventional legal orthodoxies and turns comfortable majoritarian myths inside out.
Edited and with an extensive introduction by leading critical race theorists Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, The Derrick Bell Reader reflects the tremendous breadth of issues that Bell has grappled with over his phenomenal career, including affirmative action, black nationalism, legal education and ethics. Together, the selections offer the most complete collection of Derrick Bell's writing available today.
Synopsis
Leading critical race theorist Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic compile and introduce the writings of progressive lawyer and race activist Derrick Bell
Lawyer, activist, teacher, writer: for over 40 years, Derrick Bell has provoked his critics and challenged his readers with uncompromising candor and progressive views on race and class in America. A founder of Critical Race Theory and pioneer of the use of allegorical stories as tools of analysis, Bell's groundbreaking work shatters conventional legal orthodoxies and turns comfortable majoritarian myths inside out.
Edited and with an extensive introduction by leading critical race theorists Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, The Derrick Bell Reader reflects the tremendous breadth of issues that Bell has grappled with over his phenomenal career, including affirmative action, black nationalism, legal education and ethics. Together, the selections offer the most complete collection of Derrick Bell's writing available today.
Synopsis
An essential collection of the writings of progressive lawyer and race activist Derrick Bell
Lawyer, activist, teacher, writer: for over 40 years, Derrick Bell provoked his critics and challenged his readers with uncompromising candor and progressive views on race and class in America. A founder of Critical Race Theory and pioneer of the use of allegorical stories as tools of analysis, Bell's groundbreaking work shattered conventional legal orthodoxies and turned comfortable majoritarian myths inside out.
Edited and with an extensive introduction by leading critical race theorists Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, The Derrick Bell Reader reflects the tremendous breadth of issues that Bell grappled with over his phenomenal career, including affirmative action, Black nationalism, legal education and ethics. Together, these selections offer the most complete collection of Derrick Bell's writing available today.
Synopsis
An authoritative collection of writings from a prominent public intellectual.
About the Author
Richard Delgado and
Jean Stefancic are Professors of Law at Seattle University and have collaborated on four previous books, including
The Latino Condition, 2d edition (NYU Press, 2010),
The Derrick Bell Reader (NYU Press, 2005
), How Lawyers Lose Their Way: A Profession Fails Its Creative Minds, and
Understanding Words That Wound.
Jean Stefancic, research professor of law at Seattle University, is the author of many articles and books on civil rights, law reform, social change, including No Mercy: How Conservative Think Tanks and Foundations Changed Americas Social Agenda.