Seldom have I finished a book and thought "Now, that wasn't worth reading." Most books I finish I can recommend to others with a brief report. Few are the books that upon finishing I wish all Americans would read it. One that would come close is White Trash: The 400 Year Untold Story of Class In America by Nancy Isenberg. Our country would benefit from an understanding the role that class plays in American Life.
Would that all Americans read Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, David L. blight...a biography. Frederick Douglas, 1818-1895, began his life in slavery and died one of the most eminent citizens of America. Orator, publisher, author, editor who inveighed against slavery, injustice and racism, his words speak powerfully to our time.
This biography not only admirably recounts Douglass' life it also details the history of race relations in America. It was Douglass' destiny to live in slavery, see the end of slavery via the War to End Slavery, and the loss of the gains in racial equality after the end of reconstruction. The North, the Union, won the war and then seceded the peace to the forces of white supremacy. Within Douglass lifetime he saw the rise of: "The Lost Cause narratives typically portray the Confederacy's cause as noble and its leadership as exemplars of old-fashioned chivalry, who were defeated by the Union armies through numerical and industrial force that overwhelmed the South's superior military skill and courage." (Wikipedia ) This fiction holds that the war was not about slavery but about states rights. How noble is a cause in the defense of slavery? How noble is treason?
With white supremacy on the ascendancy today, receiving encouragement, from the occupant, Douglass' words and struggles are contemporary. When neo-Nazis are called "good people" Douglass would have had powerful Biblical rejoinder.
Yes, good people, read the book!
Takk for alt,
Al
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