Customer Reviews

Race and Kinship in a Midwestern Town: the Black Experience in Monroe, Michigan, 1900-1915 (Blacks in the New World)

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In this fascinating book, author and professor of history, James DeVries looks at race and racism in the broader American context, and what a group of African-Americans experienced in the small Midwestern town of Monroe, Michigan at the beginning of the twentieth century. Overall, I found this to be a very interesting book. The author obviously did a great deal of research on the subject, and presents it in a clear and highly informative way.

Interestingly, though the author does not apparently mean to, the book shows an interesting phenomenon. While the author does demonstrate the prevalence of an often unthinking racism on a macro-level, he also demonstrates that on a micro-level of person-to-person, African-Americans could and often did lead a normal life in Monroe. Yes, this is a very interesting book, one that I am very glad that I read. I highly recommend it.

This book was very well researched and reflects the town of Monroe very well. High level reading.