Daniel Kleven > Recent Status Updates

The story of Jacobs's grandmother in chapter 1!!! Incredible. "Irony" is too soft a word for the last line:

"The reader probably knows that no promise or writing given to a slave is legally binding, for, according to Southern laws, a slave, *being* property, can *hold* no property. When my grandmother lent her hard earnings to her mistress, she trusted solely to her honor. The honor of a slaveholder to a slave!"

The "W. E. B. vs. Booker T." debate was never merely ideological and theoretical -- it was about power, money, and control, and chapter 4 documents how "The Tuskegee Machine" effectively blocked funding and support from Du Bois's sociological enterprise at Atlanta University.

Morris's book continues to blaze a powerful trail through the history of sociology and race.

This is one of the best books of the year for me. Wow!