Customer Reviews

The Face of Our Past: Images of Black Women from Colonial America to the Present

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THE FACE OF OUR PAST is a magnificent contribution to the history of black women in America. The photographic images go back three hundred years, across a vast spectrum of life experience, to create a rich and vivid tapestry. Thank you, Kathleen Thompson, Hilary Mac Austin, and Darlene Clark Hine for this beautiful book!

These pictures of black women in America will touch you in many ways, and in some cases will rip your heart out. Each photograph has a story on the surface and another deep inside it, and some force you to think about them for a long time. Every person who's opened my copy of the book has looked at a few pictures and then gone "Omigod" when the right one hits home -- and it's always a different picture. The accompanying text is also thought-provoking -- quotes from women in historic and ground-breaking situations, women who have earned positions of authority, authors, and poets. Open any page and you're right back there -- with photographs of women living in slavery, with women fighting during the struggle for civil rights, with women trying to make the best of life, with women just trying to survive, with women finding joy in the midst of everything. It amazes and delights me that these two white women decided to put together such a remarkable chronicle about black women, recognizing that the history of the black woman in America is every American's history.

This book belongs in the library of every woman who desires to make an everlasting positive impact in her life, the lives of her family and community . The photos and stories captivated my friends and I, and empowered us with the knowledge that others had already travelled down roads of, similiar and worst, challenges and had come up with surprising strength, individuality and success. Thompson and Mac Austin in this book have given vast recognition to the lives of african-descended females.Their's are stories of mere strangers who existed decades upon decades ago and who are now encouraging on a new generation of 21st century women, a callaloo(mixture) of women from every branch of ethniticity , social-structure and religion. There are so many magnificent photos in this book that every reader can identify herself as at least one of these women.Their eyes and smiles, their clothing and expressions all tell a single story of a determination to create and enjoy a better life, whether on an individual or bigger scale. The spirit of this book motives us in the power that we can persevere and succeed because we are ancestorally, protector, provider, sustainer woman.I am an editor and wife and found this book a true asset in my personal and professional life. You are welcome to email me for a free copy of my minizine. I would also recommend books by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Iyana Vanzant if you are looking to enrich your life's journey.These writers are not as "photogenic" as THE FACE OF OUR PAST.

I am a Black female. This book was given to me by a good friend who happens to be white. I can look at many of the pictures and see my childhood. I can see many aspect of the lives of my parents. My father is from Mississippi, where there are places that still look like pictures in this book. My mother was born and reared in Michigan. I can see the things that they both talked about in their lives thru this book. I feel that all black children need to see what rich and diverse lives we have. All others should read and see that blacks in America had similar lives we just came by a different route.

This book is absolutley amazing. Some may be shocked to find that it was written by two white women. I am not African American and I do not feel that this book is exclusively for African American women, it is for all races. This book shows the struggle of women and all women can learn from this book. It is a wonderful work of art for all women in every country.

What a wonderful book!The images of black women and the stories behind those images surprised and moved me. They were just so interesting. Like Oprah, I bought several copies for friends. I'm going to give one to my niece as a graduation present.

This is a marvelous and moving selection of visual moments, carefully chosen and elegantly captioned. It is refreshingly free of the stuffily convoluted prose one would expect of a book from an academic press. Although the pictures could be said to speak for themselves (and sometimes they can), the information supplied by the gracefully literate writer(s) is helpful and interesting.

Groups of photographs can be wonderful to look at. This collection rises far above what it might have been by means of the exquisite care that was taken in its selection and the highly accessible captioning that accompanies the images.

Wonderful book. It was a great gift. The person, it was sent to, enjoys the book greatly. Arrived in good condition and the price was perfect. Would recommended!

i was amazed at the photos. i could not help but to wonder if any of these women and men could be my ancestors. you see so many similarites in the faces on the pages to people you see everyday. i wish there were more in the captions to explain the photos. but when you consider the time that many of these photographs were taken, the captions are in the faces and the demeanor of the subjects. why? is probably the question that could never be answered. and if a reasonable explanation could somehow be given it wouldn't be enough. no matter how broken the mother, father, sister, brother in these photograghs looked. i wish they could all know that their unbearable weight, sorrow and pain helped to develop a strong, defiant, capable and proud race of people.

Painstakingly and obviously LOVINGLY researched, this book is a compendium of magnificent archival photographs and editorial commentary. Despite the fact that this is a non-fiction piece and a seemingly narrow area of focus, this book will appeal to every reader regardless of race or sex. The Face of Our Past reads like a juicy collection of information and glimpses into the life of someone famous, which makes the humanity and "ordinary-ness" of these women really stand out. I couldn't get enough! I'm also ordering the first book Ms. Thompson wrote called "A Shining Thread of Hope". I glanced at it recently in a local bookstore and (even though it's a non-fiction history piece) it reads like a NOVEL! I can't wait to see how the story is woven! Wow what a pair of books!