Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.
Bezig met laden... The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist's Journey, 1898-1939 (2001)door Paul Robeson
Geen Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. An interesting read of the first half of Paul's life and career. There is the intent to write the second volume, which I look forward to reading. It's hard to look back with a modern eye and realise just how institutionalised racism against black people was. Robeson lived through this period and it heavily influenced his politics. I was particularly interested to realise how much he regarded negro spirituals as his people's greatest cultural contribution - he loved their harmony and their intensity. I've one slight criticism, which is that the writer (Paul's son) has relied very heavily on family sources and not always looked for external material. (for instance, there are no quotes from any of the women that Robeson had affairs with) geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Prijzen
The long-awaited, untold, inside story of the rise of the legendary actor, singer, scholar, and activist. The first volume of this major biography breaks new ground. The greatest scholar-athlete-performing artist in U.S. history, Paul Robeson was one of the most compelling figures of the twentieth century. Now his son, Paul Robeson Jr., traces the dramatic arc of his rise to fame, painting a definitive picture of Paul Robeson's formative years. His father was an escaped slave; his mother, a descendent of freedmen; and his wife, the brilliant and ambitious Eslanda Cardozo Goode. With a law degree from Columbia University; a professional football career; title roles in Eugene O'Neill's plays and in Shakespeare's Othello; and a concert career in America and Europe, Robeson dominated his era. This unprecedented biography reveals the depth of Robeson's cultural scholarship, explores the contradictions he bridged in his personal and political life, and describes his emergence as a symbol of the anticolonial and antifascist struggles. Filled with previously unpublished photographs and source materials from the private diaries and letters of Paul and Eslanda Robeson, this is the epic story of a forerunner who now stands as one of America's greatest heroes. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
Actuele discussiesGeenPopulaire omslagen
Google Books — Bezig met laden... WaarderingGemiddelde:
Ben jij dit?Word een LibraryThing Auteur. |
Robeson’s early life and life at Rutgers are well-chronicled here, in a way only a family member can. The abject racism – even in New Jersey – is told through personal stories, presumably passed in family lore. Here, we can observe the elder Robeson’s courage and determination. With his father William’s encouragement, the elder Paul attempted to be the “model Negro.” His magnificent voice and acting skills took him to England for a decade. He was able to travel Europe and North Africa. Notably, he encountered a much less racist but more classist society in Britain along with fascism while traveling in 1930s Germany for the first time. To him, fascism was a cousin (if not closer) to racism and became a lifelong enemy.
The backstories of two life challenges are described here, too. First, the elder Robeson often sided with communism over fascism in his political stances, much to the chagrin of American conservatives. This tendency provided official trouble in America during the Red Scare after World War II. The younger Robeson explains this as fundamentally an anti-fascist attitude. Like MLK, he saw that communism contained a successful critique of the American racist structure. Alongside his father, his son maintains his family’s essential patriotism for America, including the criticisms. Second, the son describes early difficulties of his father’s marriage with Essie in detail. These accounts make an eminent figure like Paul Robeson to appear much more human, much more like us.
Paul Robeson is sadly a name often forgotten today. We acknowledge the Martin Luther Kings, the Rosa Parks, the Septima Clarks, and the John Lewises much, all with mettle made in the late 1950s and 1960s. The excellence of Paul Robeson taught these leaders, in prior years while younger, of the feasibility of American equality. If Paul could be a world-renowned figure, then American culture could learn to change. If Paul could maintain his faith and integrity while protesting against American racism, so could they. Future generations deserve to hear Paul Robeson’s story, told here with intimate access. ( )