ECU Libraries Catalog

Booker T. Washington in American memory / Kenneth M. Hamilton.

Author/creator Hamilton, Kenneth Marvin, 1947- author.
Format Book and Print
Publication Info Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2017]
Copyright Notice ©2017
Descriptionix, 250 pages ; 23 cm.
Subject(s)
Series The new Black studies series
New Black studies series. UNAUTHORIZED
Contents "A great man fallen": the immediate death notices -- A symbol of America : obituaries and other published memorials -- "Taps" : the funeral in Tuskegee -- "A debt of gratitude" : tributes across the nation -- "Sermon tonight on Booker T. Washington" : months of commemorations and eulogies -- Gone but not forgotten : eulogies and the sanctification of Washington -- Epilogue.
Abstract "This project examines the response to Booker T. Washington's death, analyzing the many ways in which both black and white Americans involved in the Yankee Protestant Ethic Movement honored or memorialized the great visionary. The northern-based Movement originally saw southerners as a people who embraced a profane ethic, one that undermined the glory of the nation. In order to shift southerners away from their lazy, inefficient, and uneducated ways, the Movement engaged them in a culture war that employed multiple educational and evangelical agencies. When white southerners resisted such interference, the Movement began concentrating more exclusively on black southerners. Washington became an advocate for the Movement, and in turn the Movement became a cornerstone of Washington's ideology. After Washington's death, leading supporters of the Movement wanted to perpetuate his vision. They used obituaries, burial rites, memorials, and eulogies as weapons of choice in their efforts to continue a culture war between a supposedly democratic North and a seemingly aristocratic South. Hamilton reexamines Washington's influences, thereby producing a new understanding of his life. Integrating an analysis of letters of solace, obituaries, and other archival documents, Hamilton examines the ways that the memory of Washington and his works were cultivated and utilized by his contemporaries to promote racial consciousness. By closely working with the documents that reflect the memory and admiration of Washington at the time of his death, Hamilton is also able to show how recollections of Washington have shifted or become obscured by more recent historical assumptions or interpretations."--Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in other formOnline version: Hamilton, Kenneth Marvin, 1947- author. Booker T. Washington in American memory. Second edition. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2017] 9780252099229
LCCN 2016042453
ISBN9780252040771 hardcover alkaline paper
ISBN0252040775 hardcover alkaline paper
ISBN9780252082283 paperback alkaline paper
ISBN0252082281 paperback alkaline paper
ISBNelectronic book alkaline paper

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks E185.97 .W4 H355 2017 ✔ Available Place Hold