LEADER 03851nam 2200661 a 450 001 9910816619003321 005 20240515215753.0 010 $a1-282-55291-0 010 $a9786612552915 010 $a0-8203-3702-1 035 $a(CKB)2550000000010709 035 $a(OCoLC)608691561 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10429946 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000414250 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11261854 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000414250 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10395284 035 $a(PQKB)10818426 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse14520 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3038912 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10429946 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL255291 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3038912 035 $a(EXLCZ)992550000000010709 100 $a20070921d2008 ub 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$a"Closer to the truth than any fact" $ememoir, memory, and Jim Crow /$fJennifer Jensen Wallach 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aAthens $cUniversity of Georgia Press$dc2008 215 $a1 online resource (189 pages) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-8203-3069-8 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 163-169) and index. 327 $aAutobiography and the transformation of historical understanding -- Subjectivity and the felt experience of history -- Literary techniques and historical understanding -- African American memoirists remember Jim Crow -- White memoirists remember Jim Crow -- Talking of another world. 330 2 $aWallach (Georgia College and State Univ.) provides a fascinating look at literary memoirs that deal with US racism against African Americans. She rightly notes that historians have been loathe to accept memoirs as historical documents, since the genre is by nature subjective. However, she persuasively demonstrates that memoirs (as representative of "emotive inquiry") are indeed valuable primary documents, when analyzed properly. Wallach examines both black memoirists (Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Henry Louis Gates Jr.) and white memoirists (Willie Morris, Lillian Smith, and William Alexander Percy), investigating each independently and comparatively. The insights from her explications are remarkable, derived particularly through her use of theoretical and historiographical material. By maintaining that literary (as opposed to nonliterary) memoirs provide the deepest historical understanding expressly because literary critics can apply their disciplinary tools to mine the material, Wallach will undoubtedly provoke a lively debate over the comparable utility of other kinds of memoirs, such as popular, vernacular, or ethnographic. Likewise contentious may be her focus on southern rather than broadly US racism. J.B. Wolford University of Missouri--St. Louis distributed by Syndetics. 606 $aAfrican Americans$xSocial conditions$xHistoriography 606 $aAfrican Americans$xSegregation$xHistoriography 606 $aRace discrimination$zUnited States$xHistoriography 606 $aAutobiography$xAfrican American authors 606 $aAfrican Americans$xBiography$xHistory and criticism 615 0$aAfrican Americans$xSocial conditions$xHistoriography. 615 0$aAfrican Americans$xSegregation$xHistoriography. 615 0$aRace discrimination$xHistoriography. 615 0$aAutobiography$xAfrican American authors. 615 0$aAfrican Americans$xBiography$xHistory and criticism. 676 $a305.896/073 700 $aWallach$b Jennifer Jensen$f1974-$01083998 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910816619003321 996 $a"Closer to the truth than any fact"$94095934 997 $aUNINA