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A review by audreylee
A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis
3.0
I received a copy of this book as an Early Reviewer from LibraryThing and the publisher.
This is an important book but not an easy or perfect one. Theoharis points out the hypocrisies in our current teachings of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.as THE Civil Rights movement, of ignoring the decades of organized struggle by many people. Teaching the history of Parks and King as one act of defiance and one great speech is detrimental to our understanding of the movement and to the politics and movements of today in the author's view. Ignoring the fact that at the time of these actions, these two heroes were reviled much more than respected and that their actions brought upon them a sense of isolation and economic hardships which lasted for years is to gloss over the hardships of activism. She points out the hypocrisies in Northern reports on Southern racism while segregation and "busing" issues were alive and strong in New York and Boston, two cities long believed to be the home of liberalism. Theoharis does a wonderful job of spotlighting the long years of struggle and organizing which took place, sometimes unsuccessfully, in the name of freedom and some of the unknown activists who spent their lives, and sometimes lost their lives in this ongoing struggle. This book is also one of the few books on the Civil Rights Movement that highlighted the many women who supported and sometimes led the movement.
Some of the less than perfect aspects of this book included the formatting. Instead of meeting these issues chronologically, the reader finds the book sectioned by education, media, etc. The problem is that several sentences are picked up word by word from one section and repeated in another providing a "repetitive" reading experience. This book also reads like an academic text which could definitely cause some consternation in the casual reader. While Theodakis did a wonderful job of highlighting the women involved in the movement, while she mentions Black Lives Matters, she does not acknowledge the leadership provided by provided by its founding women. It would also have been interesting to hear more about what exactly students are being taught from a student's viewpoint. The Author maintains that we are teaching Civil Rights as if the movement ended at the Voting Rights Act and Brown vs Board of Education; however, doesn't seem to have a plan for education of students on why Malcolm X, The Black Panthers, and continued systemic racism as evidenced by the continued police shootings and "unpatriotic" rhetoric against Black Lives Matter activists is important.
Overall, this is an important and worthwhile read.
This is an important book but not an easy or perfect one. Theoharis points out the hypocrisies in our current teachings of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.as THE Civil Rights movement, of ignoring the decades of organized struggle by many people. Teaching the history of Parks and King as one act of defiance and one great speech is detrimental to our understanding of the movement and to the politics and movements of today in the author's view. Ignoring the fact that at the time of these actions, these two heroes were reviled much more than respected and that their actions brought upon them a sense of isolation and economic hardships which lasted for years is to gloss over the hardships of activism. She points out the hypocrisies in Northern reports on Southern racism while segregation and "busing" issues were alive and strong in New York and Boston, two cities long believed to be the home of liberalism. Theoharis does a wonderful job of spotlighting the long years of struggle and organizing which took place, sometimes unsuccessfully, in the name of freedom and some of the unknown activists who spent their lives, and sometimes lost their lives in this ongoing struggle. This book is also one of the few books on the Civil Rights Movement that highlighted the many women who supported and sometimes led the movement.
Some of the less than perfect aspects of this book included the formatting. Instead of meeting these issues chronologically, the reader finds the book sectioned by education, media, etc. The problem is that several sentences are picked up word by word from one section and repeated in another providing a "repetitive" reading experience. This book also reads like an academic text which could definitely cause some consternation in the casual reader. While Theodakis did a wonderful job of highlighting the women involved in the movement, while she mentions Black Lives Matters, she does not acknowledge the leadership provided by provided by its founding women. It would also have been interesting to hear more about what exactly students are being taught from a student's viewpoint. The Author maintains that we are teaching Civil Rights as if the movement ended at the Voting Rights Act and Brown vs Board of Education; however, doesn't seem to have a plan for education of students on why Malcolm X, The Black Panthers, and continued systemic racism as evidenced by the continued police shootings and "unpatriotic" rhetoric against Black Lives Matter activists is important.
Overall, this is an important and worthwhile read.