Thursday, May 14, 2009

Black Power and American History

Now on YouTube-- hear Vanderbilt University history professor Devin Fergus discuss his new book:

Part 1Part 2

In this clip, Fergus is interviewed by colleague Gary Gerstle about LIBERALISM, BLACK POWER AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 1965-1980.

In the interview, Gerstle presses Fergus to explain how his book relates the recent resurgence of scholarship on the Black Power movement in the U.S. Fergus makes a case for the need to reinsert Black Power into a broader narrative of American history. In particular, Fergus argues that it is important to find an account of the Civil Rights Movement and the decades that followed that "asserts the agency of black Americans," placing Black Power more centrally in that history.

The book will launch at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on Tuesday, May 26 at 7 pm.

Coverage of a recent visit to Oklahoma can be found here.

In further news, Fergus has been awarded a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for the 2009-2010 academic year.



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Friday, May 08, 2009

Short Takes


The Paperback Row column in this Sunday’s New York Times will feature Anne Panning’s SUPER AMERICA.

Philip Levine recommends BOY by Patrick Phillips in this month's Ploughshares.

Hear poets from THE RINGING EAR with Cave Canem founders Toi Derricote and Cornelius Eady on New Letters on the Air.

The May/June issue of Orion Magazine includes a review of AN EVERGLADES PROVIDENCE; the book is also featured in a piece in the St. Petersburg Times by reporter Jeff Klinkenberg, who wrote frequently about Marjory Stoneman Douglas during her lifetime: “When she encountered Reubin Askew in 1971, she felt the need to remind the popular new governor that ‘your predecessors gave Florida land away like drunken sailors.’ Askew may have enjoyed a pro-environment reputation with voters, but by God, she wanted him to know he was on probation with her.”

The Spring 2009 issue of Fourth Genre reviews Michael Martone’s RACING IN PLACE: “Intellectual playfulness is, in fact, one of Martone’s strengths, and as I read his book, I found myself making comparisons to Montaigne, the granddaddy of the form, who wondered once in an essay whether he was playing with the cat or the cat with him.”

In a lengthy review, the Newnan Times-Herald calls WHAT VIRTUE THERE IS IN FIRE a “ground-breaking” account of the Sam Hose lynching.

The San Antonio Express News interviews Jeanne Campbell Reesman, author of JACK LONDON’S RACIAL LIVES. Reesman will be signing books at The Twig in San Antonio this Saturday.

MARGARET FULLER: WANDERING PILGRIM appears in a round-up review in the New York Review of Books.

Library Journal named TURTLES OF THE SOUTHEAST one of the best science reference books of the year.