Telling Histories - Gender and American Culture by Deborah Gray White Paperback

About the Book

Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower

Book Synopsis

The field of black women's history gained recognition as a legitimate field of study only late in the twentieth century. Collecting stories that are both deeply personal and powerfully political, Telling Histories compiles seventeen personal narratives by leading black women historians at various stages in their careers. Their essays illuminate how -- first as graduate students and then as professional historians -- they entered and navigated the realm of higher education, a world concerned with and dominated by whites and men. In distinct voices and from different vantage points, the personal histories revealed here also tell the story of the struggle to establish a new scholarly field.

Black women, alleged by affirmative-action supporters and opponents to be "twofers," recount how they have confronted racism, sexism, and homophobia on college campuses. They explore how the personal and the political intersect in historical research and writing and in the academy. Organized by the years the contributors earned their Ph.D.'s, these essays follow the black women who entered the field of history during and after the civil rights and black power movements, endured the turbulent 1970s, and opened up the field of black women's history in the 1980s. By comparing the experiences of older and younger generations, this collection makes visible the benefits and drawbacks of the institutionalization of African American and African American women's history. Telling Histories captures the voices of these pioneers, intimately and publicly.

Contributors:
Elsa Barkley Brown, University of Maryland
Mia Bay, Rutgers University
Leslie Brown, Washington University in St. Louis
Crystal N. Feimster, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Sharon Harley, University of Maryland
Wanda A. Hendricks, University of South Carolina
Darlene Clark Hine, Northwestern University
Chana Kai Lee, University of Georgia
Jennifer L. Morgan, New York University
Nell Irvin Painter, Newark, New Jersey
Merline Pitre, Texas Southern University
Barbara Ransby, University of Illinois at Chicago
Julie Saville, University of Chicago
Brenda Elaine Stevenson, University of California, Los Angeles
Ula Taylor, University of California, Berkeley
Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Morgan State University
Deborah Gray White, Rutgers University

Review Quotes

"Telling Histories details the dialectic between the obstacles [African American women] faced and their accomplishments, showing how demanding the academy has been of black women academics and how equally demanding they have been of themselves." -- Women's Review of Books

"I couldn't put Telling Histories down, although I did sometimes have to put it aside, so powerful are the emotions it evokes. Deborah Gray White has done something quite wonderful here, first by analyzing so brilliantly the forces that kept black women from practicing history for so long, then by telling her own eloquent story, and finally by creating this priceless collection of first-person testimonies. These 'telling histories' will indeed serve as valuable primary sources and teaching tools. They will also stand as a significant contribution to a most necessary project: the toppling of the barriers, both internal and external, that constrict the professoriate, silence voices, and prevent diverse scholars from writing and teaching freely and well." -- Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"In Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower, 17 professors prove by their collective experiences that they have built their own community of support." -- A Nota Bene selection of The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Many of the contributors offer very poignant and personal accounts of their struggles. . . . These essays do a masterful job of conveying the complexities of these struggles, while at the same time they offer the reader a clear view of the ways many of these women have been able to cope with these difficulties even as they continue to function as scholars and teachers. . . . A very timely book." -- The Journal of Southern History

"The essayists offer readers much to think about as each tells her story of becoming a historian and of survival and success in the academy. . . . Recommended." -- CHOICE

"The silence is shattered. Telling Histories reveals the story of the birth, institutionalization, and professionalization of the field of African American women's history. In retrospect, who could have been against it? But the history told here makes clear that far too many were. African American women historians, bearing 'unpleasant and unpopular news' and doing 'unmentionable history, ' found 'begrudging tolerance, ' 'benevolent disinterest, ' and indeed, outright racism and sexism. Allowed to enter the history profession but asked to do so in silence and awe, they said no. And we are all the richer for it. Telling Histories should be required reading for all historians and administrators and for all graduate students -- who will one day become chairs, deans, referees, professional organization officers, grant officers, and colleagues." -- Thavolia Glymph, Duke University

"These narratives offer personal perspectives on the world of black women in the ebony and ivory towers. . . . One can appreciate the honest and forthrightness of many of the narratives." -- Journal of African American History

"Engagingly written . . . should appeal to multiple audiences. . . . The book is not only valuable for graduate students but is also a significant contribution to the field and should facilitate bringing down barriers, both within and outside the academy, that constrain the professorial ranks, stifle voices, and preclude diverse academicians and scholars from writing and teaching without restraint." -- H-Net Reviews