THE PIG FARMER'S DAUGHTER AND OTHER TALES OF AMERICAN JUSTICE

Name: THE PIG FARMER'S DAUGHTER AND OTHER TALES OF AMERICAN JUSTICE
Author: Mary Frances Berry
ISBN: 0-679-43611-1

EPISODES OF RACISM AND SEXISM IN THE COURTS FROM 1865 TO THE PRESENT

by Mary Frances Berry ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 1999

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What a curious and eclectic collection of class, gender, and race courtroom cases! Berry (The Politics of Parenthood: Child Care, Women’s Rights, and the Myth of the Good Mother, 1993, etc.), a history and law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has delved into history since the Civil War and emerged with a treasure trove of vignettes and stories that say much about attitudes and America’s evolving judicial system. All the cases involve sex to one degree or another. Some are sad; some, sublime. A Tennessee man’s 1886 case, won after another man was found guilty of seducing his daughter, is reversed on appeal after the court notes that the girl had testified her lover had used a “condrum” that she had inspected and approved. Said the court, “She willingly trusted to its efficacy and wantonly yielded to its efficacy and the craving of passion.” Then there was the Michigan case in which a man’s seduction conviction was overturned after medical evidence was presented showing that having sex in a buggy was “simply improbable if not impossible.” Along the way Berry takes a look at the Lee Marvin so-called palimony case, the O.J. Simpson case, the Mike Tyson rape case, the William Kennedy Smith case, and others. But she is such a gentle writer that the material has a way of not calling undue attention to itself. Certainly, no one could accuse her of exploiting her subject matter. She is, in fact, so subdued, so understated, in approach that it is part of this volume’s strength. Although the collection could be used as propaganda against the American judicial system, Berry resists the temptation to gloat in hindsight at her findings. Her restraint will have won for her the anti-tabloid award of the year.

Pub Date: April 16, 1999

ISBN: 0-679-43611-1

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999

Categories:

CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | ETHNICITY & RACE | GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
HISTORY TEACHES US TO RESIST
by Mary Frances Berry

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE DOLLARS AND A PORK CHOP SANDWICH
by Mary Frances Berry

- BOOK REVIEW
POWER IN WORDS
by Mary Frances Berry & Josh Gottheimer

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A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

by Howard Zinn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1979

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For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979

ISBN: 0061965588

Page Count: 772

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979

Categories:

- BOOK REVIEW
A YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
by Howard Zinn ; adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with by Ed Morales

- BOOK REVIEW
TRUTH HAS A POWER OF ITS OWN
by Howard Zinn with Ray Suarez

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HISTORIC UNFULFILLED PROMISE
by Howard Zinn

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DYLAN GOES ELECTRIC!

NEWPORT, SEEGER, DYLAN, AND THE NIGHT THAT SPLIT THE SIXTIES

by Elijah Wald ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2015

An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...

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Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.

The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.

An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.