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158 reviews for:
Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells
Michelle Duster
3.71 AVERAGE
158 reviews for:
Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells
Michelle Duster
3.71 AVERAGE
The flow of this book is very chaotic. Is it a biography? A memoir of being the great granddaughter of Ida? A history treatise? Or did the editor just give up?
I wish it had been a bit more coherent and logical in how it was written, because it has a lot of important point so convey. Unfortunately, said important points get buried in the chaos.
I wish it had been a bit more coherent and logical in how it was written, because it has a lot of important point so convey. Unfortunately, said important points get buried in the chaos.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
challenging
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
informative
slow-paced
After reading many memoirs and essays from Black writers, I was determined to learn more about a historical figure that they frequently referenced: Ida B. Wells. I had heard of her (of course), but I wanted to know more. So, when I came across this book which is written by Wells' great-granddaughter, I was excited. My rating does not reflect the life or legacy of Ida B Wells, but rather the structure and information in this title. While it is marketed as a biography of her, the book actually contains a wide span of history. In other words, the text wasn't what I thought it was when I picked it up. My search for a more comprehensive biography continues.
This is supposedly a biography of Ida B. Wells, but actually turned out to be a work that ties Wells' efforts into the present. Written by Wells' great-granddaughter, Michelle Duster focused not only on what Wells did in her time, but also on her legacy and where those efforts stand now. The overall message: her work isn't finished. I am very much a Type A person so it was a little frustrating to me that the book isn't written chronologically and there wasn't a clear reason why. There's an incredible timeline about halfway through the book ranging for hundreds of years that helps frame all of the book's content, but it was jarring to me that this wasn't located at the beginning of the book as a guide or the end of the book as a summary. The book was significantly shorter than it appeared. Only about 65% of the book was actually for reading and the rest was sources, index, and credits. It was definitely fun to learn about a woman whose name I've heard but I've never known what she did, and I was excited to be learning it from one of her descendants, but I think the book could have been more effective had it been organized a little differently.
Going into this book I had no idea that the author was Ida B. Wells's great-granddaughter! It was incredible to see Wells's legacy outlined with such clarity, and made me want to do more reading around her work. While frustrating that some of the justice that Ida B. Wells was fighting for in her time we are still fighting for now, I have hope that with historians like Michelle Duster we can learn and apply our education to working on getting to a better world.