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PlutosHeart

(1,445 posts)
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 11:57 AM Oct 2023

Can I get book recommendations?

I am in a book group focused upon Jane Austin and all things historically surrounding the time. Today someone recommended a book by a conservative that am sure has a totally warped viewpoint on slavery, race and this country.
Is there a good book I can suggest for the group to read that speaks about slavery and also even Indigenous that is accurately historically focused and an enagaging read? Not looking for a novel but more of an educational based read.THX.

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Can I get book recommendations? (Original Post) PlutosHeart Oct 2023 OP
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, ancianita Oct 2023 #1
Excellant! THX! PlutosHeart Oct 2023 #8
Lots of Indigenous history books Bayard Oct 2023 #2
My husband PlutosHeart Oct 2023 #4
I loved Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous People's History of the United States. ancianita Oct 2023 #12
I will look that one up Bayard Oct 2023 #16
Books by author Tiya Miles people Oct 2023 #3
THX! PlutosHeart Oct 2023 #6
Recommended--Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas--memoir, written in 1845. Timeflyer Oct 2023 #5
I forgot about that one. PlutosHeart Oct 2023 #7
One of Austen's novels takes a strong anti-slavery stance wryter2000 Oct 2023 #9
Oh, and wryter2000 Oct 2023 #11
Yes. it is on Hulu I believe. PlutosHeart Oct 2023 #14
Yes. Her family had some PlutosHeart Oct 2023 #13
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass iemanja Oct 2023 #10
Sold. I need that one. PlutosHeart Oct 2023 #15

ancianita

(38,771 posts)
1. Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019,
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 12:12 PM
Oct 2023

edited by historians Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. (2021)

I taught African American Literature (foregrounded in the context of its history) for 30+ years, and this book blew me away in combining what/who we don't know with what we know. I had no idea how much more I would learn by reading it.

I also recommend 1619, but I think 400 Souls is more of a page turner.




Bayard

(24,145 posts)
2. Lots of Indigenous history books
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 12:14 PM
Oct 2023

A good place to start is, "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee." A few other suggestions "Stolen Continents", "Black Hills, White Justice", "Custer Died For Your Sins", and, "Killers of the Flower Moon," (Just saw the movie--the book is better.)

PlutosHeart

(1,445 posts)
4. My husband
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 12:21 PM
Oct 2023

before he retired, was the Head of Indian Studies at a University. Taught history. So am familiar with some of what you recommended. Will check out Stolen Continents though. Mostly seeking trans- continental slavery based and related.
Good to know your thoughts about Killers of the Flower Moon movie vs book. On the good side if anything, it is showing at a newly renovated old theatre in this most conservative town right now. Might be good for educational purposes though, eh?

ancianita

(38,771 posts)
12. I loved Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous People's History of the United States.
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 02:24 PM
Oct 2023

Your husband probably knows all about it. Beautifully organized by city and region, and their cultural influence on those places today.



people

(704 posts)
3. Books by author Tiya Miles
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 12:16 PM
Oct 2023
This is a wonderful author who teaches at Harvard. Ms. Miles has written about Cherokees and slavery. Look at these books by her: Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom (2005/2015), The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story (2010) and The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts (2015) a work of historical fiction.

I read Things That She Carried recently, which was great. That book is about a cloth bag made by a mother, who was a slave, for her daughter who was being sold. The bag is housed now in the Smithsonian Arican American Museum.

Timeflyer

(2,688 posts)
5. Recommended--Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas--memoir, written in 1845.
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 12:21 PM
Oct 2023

Very enlightening. Read it when I was pretty young and undereducated. Shocked to learn that slaves were not allowed to be taught to read---can't imagine life without reading. Echoes of the Afghanistan Taliban attempts to keep women uneducated.

wryter2000

(47,551 posts)
11. Oh, and
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 12:46 PM
Oct 2023

There's a movie in that time period about a black daughter of a wealthy Englishman being raised by his family after his death. Very Austen but about a young woman of color who has money trying to cope in that society. It's called "Belle,"

PlutosHeart

(1,445 posts)
14. Yes. it is on Hulu I believe.
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 02:35 PM
Oct 2023

We are reading Paula Bryne's book Belle. The Slave daughter and The Lord Chief Justice.
The movie is good and yet encased in a palatable form of viewing for some which is not always so bad.
Paula was also one of the consultants on PBS's Sanditon. She is a nice person.

PlutosHeart

(1,445 posts)
13. Yes. Her family had some
Sun Oct 22, 2023, 02:31 PM
Oct 2023

abolitionists. She was aware of slavery most certainly as was also indicated by her unfinished 11 Chaptered Sanditon. Which btw, I will recommend the tv series.
And yes, Mansfield Park.

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