Category: Book/Video Reviews

  • Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking (review) Journal of World History Volume 23, Number 3, September 2012 pages 676-680 DOI: 10.1353/jwh.2012.0064 Magnus Fiskesjö, Associate Professor of Anthropology Cornell University Michael Keevak has given us a wonderful, even riveting, deep-historical account of how people in Asia (particularly East Asia) came to be seen as…

  • The New Colored People: The Mixed Race Movement in America (Book Review) Mixed American Life 2012-11-15 Charles T. Franklin The New Colored People: The Mixed Race Movement in America by Jon Michael Spencer (1997) makes the argument that the US multi-cultural movement, like other movements in the past, is something that we need to pay…

  • ‘The Black Count:’ the epic true story behind ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ The Seattle Times 2012-11-16 Tyrone Beason Tom Reiss’ swashbuckling new book, “The Black Count,” tells the true story of Alex Dumas, son of a French nobleman and an African slave, the father of author Alexandre Dumas and the inspiration for the younger…

  • Zakes Mda: The Madonna of Excelsior Muthal Naidoo: Published Books, Plays, Poems and Articles 2011-11-01 Muthal Naidoo (2002. Cape Town. Oxford University Press)   The Immorality Act of 1927, which prohibited sex between Blacks and Whites, was amended in 1950 to prohibit sex between Whites and all non-Whites. Zakes Mda bases his novel, The Madonna…

  • Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out (review) [McKibbin] University of Toronto Quarterly Volume 81, Number 3, Summer 2012 pages 704-705 DOI: 10.1353/utq.2012.0140 Molly Littlewood McKibbin Other Tongues: Mixed Race Women Speak Out by Adebe De Rango-Adem and Andrea Thompson, eds.(Inanna Publications, 2010) DeRango-Adem and Thompson’s new collection of the artistic, autobiographical, and scholarly work of…

  • Colonial Proximities: Crossracial Encounters and Juridical Truths in British Columbia, 1871–1921 (review) [Allan Cho] University of Toronto Quarterly Volume 81, Number 3, Summer 2012 pages 690-691 DOI: 10.1353/utq.2012.0090 Allan Cho, Program Services Librarian University of British Columbia As part of a new collective at the University of British Columbia re-envisaging the landscape and boundaries of…

  • Michele Elam: The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics and Aesthetics in the New Millennium [Johnson Review] New Books in African American Studies: Discussions with Scholars of African Americans about Their New Books 2012-10-31 Sherry Johnson, Assistant Professor of English Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan “What are you?” The question can often comes out…

  • “Tense and Tender Ties”: a review of Janny Scott’s A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother (2011) Transition Number 108 (2012) pages 129-140 Kimberly DaCosta, Associate Professor of Sociology; Associate Dean of Students New York University, Gallatin Psychologically conflicted, confused, traitorous, tragic, and deracinated: the public vocabulary used to describe multiracial people…

  • Race, Religion, and Law in Colonial India. Trials of an Interracial Family [Review] Reviews in History: Covering books and digital resources across all fields of history October 2012 Peter Robb, Research Professor of the History of India School of Oriental and African Studies University of London Race, Religion, and Law in Colonial India. Trials of…

  • ‘Master’ Jefferson: Defender Of Liberty, Then Slavery Fresh Air from WHYY National Public Radio 2012-10-18 Maureen Corrigan, Book Critic His public words have inspired millions, but for scholars, his private words and deeds generate confusion, discomfort, apologetic excuses. When the young Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are…