A Faithful Account of the Race: African American Historical Writing in Nineteenth-Century America (John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) [Paperback]

Hall Stephen G. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807859672 | ISBN-13: 978-0807859674 | Publication Date: October 8, 2009

The civil rights and black power movements expanded popular awareness of the history and culture of African Americans. But, as Stephen Hall notes, African American authors, intellectuals, ministers, and abolitionists had been writing the history of the black experience since the 1800s. With this book, Hall recaptures and reconstructs a rich but largely overlooked tradition of historical writing by African Americans.

Hall charts the origins, meanings, methods, evolution, and maturation of African American historical writing from the period of the Early Republic to the twentieth-century professionalization of the larger field of historical study. He demonstrates how these works borrowed from and engaged with ideological and intellectual constructs from mainstream intellectual movements including the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism. Hall also explores the creation of discursive spaces that simultaneously reinforced and offered counternarratives to more mainstream historical discourse. He sheds fresh light on the influence of the African diaspora on the development of historical study. In so doing, he provides a holistic portrait of African American history informed by developments within and outside the African American community.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hall takes his subjects seriously as thinkers and historians and places them in the context of their time, rather than judging them according to modern standards of historical scholarship or analyzing them through the lens of modern racial concerns. . . . Fascinating and illuminating. . . . By demonstrating the richness and complexity of nineteenth-century African-American historical writing, Hall contributes to our understanding of American historiography and intellectual history."
-Journal of American History

"A fine first book. . . . It is persuasively argued and succeeds in enhancing our understanding of the development of early black history. . . . Clearly organized. . . . Well written. . . . Its subject of nineteenth-century black history texts is thoroughly researched."
-H-Net Reviews

"Extensively researched and well written, this monograph does more than establish the credibility of nineteenth-century black historical writings. Hall successfully locates the professionalization of black history within a continuum that stretches back to the early republic."
-American Historical Review

"Stephen G. Hall provides a solid introduction to early African American historical writing, reflecting a reverence for, and a mastery of, his subject."
-The Journal of Southern History

"A valuable account. . . . Thoroughly grounded in primary evidence and recent scholarship, Hall's book is an important contribution to our understanding of the forces shaping American intellectual life and historical study."
-Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"Compelling and rich. . . . Hall's unique literary historical method uncovers a tremendously important history that impressively broadens the way we think about both obscure and well-known figures. . . . Will, doubtless, become required reading in African American and Africana Studies curriculums."
-American Quarterly

"The distinctive contributions of A Faithful Account of the Race is not that it considers black understandings of the black experience, but that it selects one set of these black historical writings and weaves them into a 120-year story of the ways in which African Americans thought about black people in history, both as actors and as the subjects of action. . . . [An] excellent book."
-North Carolina Historical Review

"The book's immense strength lies in its breadth and expansiveness. In conducting a chronological examination . . . Hall is able to present a wide range of understudied texts. . . . Critically important to the development and evolution of African American historiography."
-Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

"Highly recommended."
-Choice

From the Inside Flap

The civil rights and black power movements expanded popular awareness of the history and culture of African Americans. But, as Stephen Hall observes, African American authors, intellectuals, ministers, and abolitionists had been writing the history of the black experience since the 1800s. Hall charts the origins, meanings, methods, evolution, and maturation of African American historical writing from the period of the Early Republic to the 20th century and provides a holistic portrait of African American history informed by developments within and outside the African American community.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (October 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807859672
• ISBN-13: 978-0807859674
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #869,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen G. Hall is an historian specializing in 19th and 20th century African American historiography, intellectual, social and cultural history as well as American history. For the past ten years, he has taught a wide variety of courses in his areas of expertise. His scholarly work has appeared in the William and Mary Quarterly, the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography and the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. He has received numerous awards and grants for his scholarly work. Most recently, he received the Carter G. Woodson Fellowship from Emory University's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Books Library (MARBL). He is currently working on a book manuscript exploring the scholarly production of black historians on the African Diaspora from 1885-1960. Hall received his Ph.D. in History from the Ohio State University.