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A leading historian offers a sweeping new account of the African American experience over four centuries
Four great migrations defined the history of black people in America: the violent removal of Africans to the east coast of North America known as the Middle Passage; the relocation of one million slaves to the interior of the antebellum South; the movement of more than six million blacks to the industrial cities of the north and west a century later; and since the late 1960s, the arrival of black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and Europe. These epic migrations have made and remade African American life.
Ira Berlin's magisterial new account of these passages evokes both the terrible price and the moving triumphs of a people forcibly and then willingly migrating to America. In effect, Berlin rewrites the master narrative of African America, challenging the traditional presentation of a linear path of progress. He finds instead a dynamic of change in which eras of deep rootedness alternate with eras of massive movement, tradition giving way to innovation. The culture of black America is constantly evolving, affected by (and affecting) places as far away from one another as Biloxi, Chicago, Kingston, and Lagos. Certain to garner widespread media attention, The Making of African America is a bold new account of a long and crucial chapter of American history.
Four great migrations defined the history of black people in America: the violent removal of Africans to the east coast of North America known as the Middle Passage; the relocation of one million slaves to the interior of the antebellum South; the movement of more than six million blacks to the industrial cities of the north and west a century later; and since the late 1960s, the arrival of black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and Europe. These epic migrations have made and remade African American life.
Ira Berlin's magisterial new account of these passages evokes both the terrible price and the moving triumphs of a people forcibly and then willingly migrating to America. In effect, Berlin rewrites the master narrative of African America, challenging the traditional presentation of a linear path of progress. He finds instead a dynamic of change in which eras of deep rootedness alternate with eras of massive movement, tradition giving way to innovation. The culture of black America is constantly evolving, affected by (and affecting) places as far away from one another as Biloxi, Chicago, Kingston, and Lagos. Certain to garner widespread media attention, The Making of African America is a bold new account of a long and crucial chapter of American history.
9 Reviews
4.0
Kiersten Powers
Created about 1 year agoShare
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Amanda Kenney
Created about 3 years agoShare
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“4.5 rounded up
I first got this to see if it would be a good fit for my dual credit high schoolers to read both in tandem with the textbook and for a required book review. It would be perfect for that! It is largely a synthesis, but not one I can find all together like this elsewhere. It also does a great job of raising questions of place and identity and how communities are formed and reformed.
Unlike some reviewers, I thought the segway into President Obama made perfect sense. Unfortunately, it also very much dates the book. Also, that last chapter could have been extended, except we're in the middle of living it. I would have also appreciated some breaking up of the chapters. There's no need for 50 page chunks as single chapters. Little things that would make it more approachable.”
Limbachなみ
Created over 5 years agoShare
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heyitsaugusta
Created over 6 years agoShare
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“This is a remarkable book that pushes us to reframe our conceptions of Blackness and Black History in the US. Although I believe the epilogue and concluding focus on Barack Obama to be very forced (though not unique for the book's time of publication), I think this work serves as an important intervention in American racial history.”
Demetrius
Created over 7 years agoShare
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About Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin is a distinguished professor of history at the University of Maryland, College Park. His many books include The Making of African America and Many Thousands Gone, winner of the Bancroft Prize and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Other books by Ira Berlin
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