Up from Slavery: With Related Documents (Bedford Series in History & Culture (Paperback)) - Softcover

Washington, Booker T

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312394489 ISBN 13: 9780312394486

Publisher: Bedford Books, 2002

Synopsis

Detailing how Booker T. Washington rose from slavery to become one of the nation's most prominent orators and educators at the turn of the 20th century, Up from Slavery chronciles the journey through Washington's own words alongside documents that put the book into context.

About this title

Review:

"This is an excellent book. It addresses a number of issues important to African American history and literature. The introduction is very successful in exposing the tension between the subject of autobiography--the crafted public self--and the far more complex, indeed enigmatic subject of real life. For those interested in the role of the individual in history, this book sheds light on the way Booker T. Washington used his skills of self-representation to amass power and influence in a racist society--his identity imposed forever upon the politics of racial self-help and the history of the New South."

From the Back Cover:

For half a century from its publication in 1902 Up from Slavery was the best-known book written by an African American. The life of ex-slave Booker T. Washington embodied the legendary rise of the American self-made man, and his autobiography gave prominence for the first time to the voice of a group which had to pull itself up from extreme adversity. Washington attributes his success to his belief in many of the virtues celebrated by Benjamin Franklin: selflessness, industry, pragmatism, and optimism. But from behind the mask of the humble, plainspoken schoolmaster come hints that reveal Washington the ambitious and tough-minded analyst of power, who had to balance the demands of blacks with the constraints imposed on him by whites. To read Up from Slavery is to explore the means by which Washington rose to become the most influential and powerful black American of his time. How far he compromised African American rights in order to achieve his aims remains a matter of controversy.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bedford Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0312394489
• ISBN 13: 9780312394486
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Brundage University W Fitzhugh