Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall's African Journey (Hardcover)

by Mary L. Dudziak (Author)
Key Phrases: constitutional negotiations, United States, African Americans, Lancaster House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
In 1960, at the height of his fame following the Brown decision, Thurgood Marshall visited Kenya, then just embarking on independence from Britain. With his iconic status, Marshall advised Kenyans during constitutional negotiations with Great Britain, in which the political rights of black Africans were weighed against protection for the white minority. Marshall witnessed firsthand the African aspirations for independence, and the complications of race, as Africans found inspiration in the U.S. history of freedom from colonial power and the ongoing American struggle with racial strife. Legal and history professor Dudziak explores Marshall’s friendships with Tom Mboya, the labor organizer who invited him to Kenya, and Jomo Kenyatta, who went on to become Kenya’s first elected president. She also explores the turbulence that continued to brew in the U.S. as the civil rights movement grew to full force at the same time that African nations were fighting for independence. Marshall was privileged to have a front seat in the struggles in the U.S. and Africa, putting to the test his personal faith in the American ideals of freedom and democracy. --Vanessa Bush

Review

"Readers who enjoy a thoughtful, accessible book that covers a seminal period in the histories of the two countries will appreciate the rich material this book provides."--Andrew Grant-Thomas, History: Reviews of New Books
"Effectively sketches those events in the civil rights movement... Dudziak's clarity and careful documentation make her book accessible to the general reader and a valuable tool for African and African-American studies."--Publishers Weekly
"Dudziak brings out with impressive clarity how Thurgood Marshall's greatness stemmed from his Whitman-esque ability to contain multitudes: committed to the rule of law, he could chide Kenya's new leadership for departing even slightly from it, work for justice in segregated America, and sustain a relationship with young civil rights activists taking direct and 'illegal' action in the early 1960s."--Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School and author of Making Civil Rights Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1956-1961
"This book on a less-studied part of Marshall's career is recommended for libraries collecting in law, legal processes, and African and African American history."--Library Journal
"Dudziak's narrative proceeds by deftly interweaving the historical events of the 1960s in the United States and Kenya, with Marshall as the focal point and link.... The true genius [of the book] is in using Marshall as both a concrete and conceptual link between the civil rights protest movements of the early and late 1960s and the tactical and principled choices of US civil rights leaders or the leaders of the Kenyan independence movement.... Thought provoking and painstakingly researched."--Law & Politics Book Review
"In this gem of a book, Mary Dudziak brings vividly to life the important but little known history of Thurgood Marshall's intense involvement with Kenya during its journey toward independence in the 1960s. This great champion of the American civil rights struggle never relinquished his hope that democracy and equality would one day flourish in Kenya, even as he became painfully aware of the obstacles that stood in the path of this dream. A powerful and poignant story, beautifully told."--Gary Gerstle, Vanderbilt University and author of American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century
"By dint of creative and exhaustive research, Mary Dudziak has written an excellent book about a facet of Thurgood Marshall's career that has never before received substantial attention. Who knew that 'Mr. Civil Rights' contributed significantly to African as well as American legal systems. All students of this great man's life owe a major debt to Professor Dudziak's labors."--Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School and author of Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal
"Dudziak brings out with impressive clarity how Thurgood Marshall's greatness stemmed from his Whitman-esque ability to contain multitudes: committed to the rule of law, he could chide Kenya's new leadership for departing even slightly from it, work for justice in segregated America, and sustain a relationship with young civil rights activists taking direct and 'illegal' action in the early 1960s."--Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School and author of Making Civil Rights Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1956-1961
"In this gem of a book, Mary Dudziak brings vividly to life the important but little known history of Thurgood Marshall's intense involvement with Kenya during its journey toward independence in the 1960s. This great champion of the American civil rights struggle never relinquished his hope that democracy and equality would one day flourish in Kenya, even as he became painfully aware of the obstacles that stood in the path of this dream. A powerful and poignant story, beautifully told."--Gary Gerstle, Vanderbilt University and author of American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century
"By dint of creative and exhaustive research, Mary Dudziak has written an excellent book about a facet of Thurgood Marshall's career that has never before received substantial attention. Who knew that 'Mr. Civil Rights' contributed significantly to African as well as American legal systems. All students of this great man's life owe a major debt to Professor Dudziak's labors."--Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School and author of Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal
Mary L. Dudziak's Exporting American Dreams successfully explores the relations between Thurgood Marshall and Africa through the prism of African American connections with Africa during the twentieth century... The book suggests the fleeting nature of democratic ideals in the mid-twentieth century, the exportation of which was easily spoiled when they became a fleeting illusion, rather than a feasible dream, in the lives of African Americans in the United States... a promising scholarship."--H-Net Reviews


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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195329015
• ISBN-13: 978-0195329018
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #342,083 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #5 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( M ) > Marshall, Thurgood
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  #41 in	Books > History > Africa > Kenya

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Already a classic book in my eyes, June 24, 2008

By	A Careful Reader - See all my reviews

Long before Senator Barack Obama was heralded as a man whose balance between African and American worlds would lead to substantive international change, Justice Thurgood Marshall was crafting a legacy of statesmanship, exacting jurisprudence, and diplomacy that matches the great works of any statesman and the human rights legacy of Martin Luther King. As this deeply researched, clearly phrased, and elegantly written book makes known, Justice Marshall's intervention into Kenyan nation-building was always based on a hope that the law and governmental support could provide a system durable enough for both liberty, equality, and efficient organization of people with sometimes divergent views. What I admire most about Justice Marshall is that his work speaks for itself and, despite his human rights advocacy, he never politicized his arguments. They were based on the best kind of legal reasoning possible. This book made me aware of how much the work of the founders of Kenyan and the architects who transformed South Africa from the worse kind of white supremacist state into a flawed state that still reversed bigoted ills through the Truth Commission--this book made me aware that this kind of judicial conflict resolution and nation-building is not often continued in international relations.