Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval by Saidiya Hartman

6 reviews

gunnerct's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual violence, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault

Minor: Slavery

slinkmalink's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

While this was an excellent history book, describing it only as a history book doesn't do it justice, I thought it was absolutely beautiful
It felt almost anonymous in the way that it sweeps through such different lives and ones that we don't hear about much and treats each of their dreams and lives as just one in thousands of both different and shared dreams, examples of individuals in a chorus, and yet also deeply personal in its treatment of all the women it looked at. 
I just thought it really brought to life in such a poetic way the people behind the limited (perspective wise and quantity wise) sources we have about black women after emancipation and I'm very glad I picked it up

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Racism, Police brutality, Slavery, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, and Forced institutionalization

meganpbell's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

This intense, experimental history weaves together biography, archival record, period photographs, and a kind of radical act of imagination to tell the stories of Black and queer women in Philadelphia and NYC at the turn of the century—their experiments in love, living, sex, family, gender, autonomy, and more—all while under severe legal, societal, and police oppression. This is a challenging read—it’s easy to get lost, but it’s a worthwhile part of being “wayward.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Homophobia, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Grief, Transphobia, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

gsher002's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Murder, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Rape, Police brutality, and Physical abuse

mmcloe's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Absolutely astonishing understanding of the archives and history and aesthetics and radical optimism. Hartman is the most exciting scholar writing right now and the combination of her prose talents and the depth of her research (evidenced by the hundreds of footnotes) is unmatched in any genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Rape

adesinabrown's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I wish I could go above 5 stars for this book. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Homophobia, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, and Sexism

Most (if not all) triggering content is only mentioned briefly in this book--in possibilities, in truths, in the complexities. It is mostly a reconstruction of the lost stories of Black women and queer people of the early 20th century, and an examination of why those stories are "lost" in the first place. Expect any content that may be wrapped up in that.