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African American History For Dummies (For Dummies (History, Biography & Politics)) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Ronda Racha Penrice (Author)
Key Phrases: triangular trade, proslavery supporters, black folk tradition, African American, Civil War, United States (more...)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Understand the historical and cultural contributions of African Americans

Get to know the people, places, and events that shaped the African American experience

Want to better understand black history? This comprehensive, straight-forward guide traces the African American journey, from Africa and the slave trade through the Civil War, Jim Crow, and the new millennium. You'll be an eyewitness to the pivotal events that impacted America's past, present, and future - and meet the inspiring leaders who struggled to bring about change.

How Africans came to America
Black life before - and after - Civil Rights
How slaves fought to be free
The evolution of African American culture
Great accomplishments by black citizens
What it means to be black in America today

From the Back Cover
Understand the historical and cultural contributions of African Americans

Get to know the people, places, and events that shaped the African American experience

Want to better understand black history? This comprehensive, straight-forward guide traces the African American journey, from Africa and the slave trade through the Civil War, Jim Crow, and the new millennium. You'll be an eyewitness to the pivotal events that impacted America's past, present, and future — and meet the inspiring leaders who struggled to bring about change.

How Africans came to America
Black life before — and after — Civil Rights
How slaves fought to be free
The evolution of African American culture
Great accomplishments by black citizens
What it means to be black in America today

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: For Dummies; illustrated edition edition (April 30, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0764554697
ISBN-13: 978-0764554698
Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #527,391 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
triangular trade, proslavery supporters, black folk tradition, race movies

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
African American, Civil War, United States, Touch of Genius, New York, Pillars of Change, Jim Crow, Martin Luther King, Supreme Court, Harlem Renaissance, Long Road, South Carolina, New Orleans, Underground Railroad, The Civil Rights Movement, New World, Los Angeles, Cultural Foundations, Frederick Douglass, World War, American Revolution, Great Migration, Freedmen's Bureau, North Carolina, Sierra Leone

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	90% buy the item featured on this page: African American History For Dummies (For Dummies (History, Biography & Politics)) 4.0 out of 5 stars (2) $15.59
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3.0 out of 5 stars Review by Kam Williams, December 23, 2007

By	Ronda Racha Penrice - See all my reviews

Book Review by Kam Williams

"African-American history, to be clear, is so much more than a handful of extraordinary individuals or practices like slavery, Jim Crow, and civil rights. A lot of it is painful, but it's also inspiring and triumphant... It took the Civil War, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and a lot of struggle in between to secure African-Americans the basic right to citizenship that white Americans took for granted.

[This book] isn't a big sermon on the struggle; instead, it's a straightforward, interesting (I hope!), and honest overview of African-American history from Africa through the transatlantic slave trade, slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the 1960s civil rights movement until now. Along the way, that history birthed a culture that includes the black church and education as well as sports, music, literature, television, and film.
--Excerpted from the Introduction

I majored in black studies in college way back when the new field of study was still generally being dismissed as a joke or, at best, as undeserving of being the focus of extensive scholarly research. So, my interest was particularly piqued by the publication of this book for a few of reasons.

First, I wondered whether the subject-matter would be presented in a serious and dignified fashion, given the "for Dummies" subtitle. Secondly, I was curious about how comprehensive the text would be, and whether the author would even be able to address most of the significant events in African-American history in a work of just over 400 pages. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I wanted to get a sense of the opus' point of view, since there's a big difference between talking about memorable milestones from the perspective of the victims of racism and that of the perpetrators.

The good news is that African American History for Dummies passes the first two tests with flying colors. The tome is encyclopedic in scope, yet surprisingly engaging in tone, being written by someone with a gift for serving up a chronological collection of facts on a zillion different topics in a lyrical style that sounds downright conversational. Credit for achieving this feat goes to author Ronda Racha Penrice, a Columbia University graduate who has served as an editor at the Quarterly Black Review, and who has written for such publications as essence, AOL Black Voices, Vibe and Africana.com

Where I do take issue with her otherwise praiseworthy approach are on the rare occasions that she seemingly attempts to be on both sides of the fence when discussing hot button issues such as the N-word ("Slaves sometimes referred to themselves as [...]) and the Dred Scott Decision ("The Supreme Court decided that, because Scott was African American, he wasn't a citizen and therefore couldn't sue anybody.").

By trying hard not to offend anyone in the above quoted entries, Ms. Penrice risks, in the first instance, misleading impressionable young minds into believing that the N-word was a slur first used by blacks. As for Dred Scott, the actual ruling unequivocally deemed African-Americans, "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect," a far crueler declaration than the author's relatively benign interpretation.

Thus, African American History for Dummies is recommended reading for those who would prefer the truth at times tempered by euphemisms which appear intended to make the ordeal endured by blacks in this country over the ages sound a lot less monstrous than it undoubtedly was. The historical equivalent of smooth jazz.

Lloyd Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for 100+ publications around the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of the African-American Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Online, the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee, and Rotten Tomatoes. In addition to a BA in Black Studies from Cornell, he has an MA in English from Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a JD from Boston University. Kam lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Lori3189, April 3, 2009

By	Lori Ann Sledge - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a very informative and well put togeather book. Everything you need to know. great informative book. all the books in this series are great.

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