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At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America
by Dray, Philip
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine/Near Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0375503242
- ISBN 13
- 9780375503245
- Seller
-
Hamden, Connecticut, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Random House, 2002. 1st ed. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. index, xii, 528p. Original boards. dj. 24 cm. Jacket has minor edge-wear.
Synopsis
It is easy to shrink from our country's brutal history of lynching. Lynching is called the last great skeleton in our nation's closet: It terrorized all of black America, claimed thousands upon thousands of victims in the decades between the 1880s and the Second World War, and leaves invisible but deep scars to this day. The cost of pushing lynching into the shadows, however--misremembering it as isolated acts perpetrated by bigots on society's fringes--is insupportably high: Until we understand how pervasive and socially accepted the practice was--and, more important, why this was so--it will haunt all efforts at racial reconciliation."I could not suppress the thought," James Baldwin once recalled of seeing the red clay hills of Georgia on his first trip to the South, "that this earth had acquired its color from the blood that had dripped down from these trees." Throughout America, not just in the South, blacks accused of a crime--or merely of violating social or racial customs--were hunted by mobs, abducted from jails, and given summary "justice" in blatant defiance of all guarantees of due process under law. Men and women were shot, hanged, tortured, and burned, often in sadistic, picnic-like "spectacle lynchings" involving thousands of witnesses. "At the hands of persons unknown" was the official verdict rendered on most of these atrocities.The celebrated historian Philip Dray shines a clear, bright light on this dark history--its causes, perpetrators, apologists, and victims. He also tells the story of the men and women who led the long and difficult fight to expose and eradicate lynching, including Ida B. Wells, James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and W.E.B. Du Bois. If lynching is emblematic of what is worst about America, their fight may stand for what is best: the love of justice and fairness and the conviction that one individual's sense of right can suffice to defy the gravest of wrongs. This landmark book follows the trajectory of both forces over American history--and makes the history of lynching belong to us all.From the Hardcover edition.
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Details
- Bookseller
- McBlain Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 94308
- Title
- At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America
- Author
- Dray, Philip
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st ed
- ISBN 10
- 0375503242
- ISBN 13
- 9780375503245
- Publisher
- Random House
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2002
Terms of Sale
McBlain Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
McBlain Books
Biblio member since 2009
Hamden, Connecticut
About McBlain Books
Our second floor shop contains about 15,000 volumes and is open by appointment. Established 1970. We have been a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America for over 45 years. While there is a heavy emphasis in our stock on African Americana, Africa, Asia and the Middle East we also buy and sell antiquarian books on other subjects.
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