James Ellison's Books

Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South

By: Michael P. Johnson,James L. Roark

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Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South

By: Michael P. Johnson,James L. Roark

A remarkably fine work of creative scholarship." —C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of Books In 1860, when four million African Americans were enslaved, a quarter-million others, including William Ellison, were "free people of color." But Ellison was remarkable. Born a slave, his experience spans the history of the South from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. In a day when most Americans, black and white, worked the soil, barely scraping together a living, Ellison was a cotton-gin maker—a master craftsman. When nearly all free blacks were destitute, Ellison was wealthy and well-established. He owned a large plantation and more slaves than all but the richest white planters. While Ellison was exceptional in many respects, the story of his life sheds light on the collective experience of African Americans in the antebellum South to whom he remained bound by race. His family history emphasizes the fine line separating freedom from slavery.

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Page Count

440

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393245489

ISBN 13

9780393245486

Literary Criticism from Plato to Postmodernism

The Humanistic Alternative

By: James Seaton

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Literary Criticism from Plato to Postmodernism

The Humanistic Alternative

By: James Seaton

This book offers a history of literary criticism from Plato to the present, arguing that this history can best be seen as a dialogue among three traditions - the Platonic, Neoplatonic, and the humanistic, originated by Aristotle. There are many histories of literary criticism, but this is the first to clarify our understanding of the many seemingly incommensurable approaches employed over the centuries by reference to the three traditions. Making its case by careful analyses of individual critics, the book argues for the relevance of the humanistic tradition in the twenty-first century and beyond.

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Page Count

237

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1139916270

ISBN 13

9781139916271

Safe Space Rhetoric and Race in the Academy

A Reckoning

By: James Gerard Noel

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Safe Space Rhetoric and Race in the Academy

A Reckoning

By: James Gerard Noel

Safe Space Rhetoric and Race in the Academy: A Reckoning complicates discussions about safe space rhetoric and race in academia by providing provocative explorations of physical and intellectual safety and by examining the ways that the political landscape can reflect definitions of safety in America's school system.

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Page Count

183

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1793655529

ISBN 13

9781793655523

The Word Made Plain

The Power and Promise of Preaching

By: James H. Harris

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The Word Made Plain

The Power and Promise of Preaching

By: James H. Harris

Preaching mediates the word of God into a cultural matrix. And no American preaching has done so more effectively and powerfully than African American preaching, claims noted homiletician James Harris. Known for its rhetorical strength, social-justice orientation, and dead-on connection to the community's lived experience, black preaching is here analyzed and proposed as a model for all preaching. Harris grounds black preaching in the self-understanding of the historic black church and its most prominent preachers, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Samuel Proctor. Harris also explores the hermeneutical and aesthetic dimensions of preaching, especially at the intersection of sacred text and the broader culture. He then lays out the specific distinguishing characteristics of black preaching, including verbal cadence and rhythm, use of gestures, and, most thoroughly, the narrative model of the sermon. His last chapter, ''Preaching Plainly,'' provides specific instructions on how to put the sermon together employing this model.

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Page Count

182

Publisher

Fortress Press

ISBN 10

145141045X

ISBN 13

9781451410457

Away Down South

A History of Southern Identity

By: James Charles Cobb

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Away Down South

A History of Southern Identity

By: James Charles Cobb

In this unique synthesis of political, cultural, and intellectual history, James C. Cobb spans more than two centuries in tracing the origins and development of the South as not just an exception to the national rule, but as an internal 'other' against which American nationhood was defined.

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Page Count

417

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195315812

ISBN 13

9780195315813

Cagney by Cagney

By: James Cagney

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Cagney by Cagney

By: James Cagney

This book is for the true fan of James Cagney. Mr. Cagney tells his story as no one can.

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Page Count

242

Publisher

BoD – Books on Demand

Published Date

ISBN 10

0385520263

ISBN 13

9780385520263

Mercy, Mercy Me

African-American Culture and the American Sixties

By: James C. Hall

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Mercy, Mercy Me

African-American Culture and the American Sixties

By: James C. Hall

In its original account of black artistry and its recovery of overlooked works of the period, Mercy, Mercy Me marks a major contribution to our understanding of 1960s American culture."--BOOK JACKET.

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296

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195096096

ISBN 13

9780195096095

The Buck, the Black, and the Existential Hero

Refiguring the Black Male Literary Canon, 1850 to Present

By: James B. Haile

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The Buck, the Black, and the Existential Hero

Refiguring the Black Male Literary Canon, 1850 to Present

By: James B. Haile

Outstanding Academic Title, CHOICE The Buck, the Black, and the Existential Hero: Refiguring the Black Male Literary Canon, 1850 to Present combines philosophy, literary theory, and jazz studies with Africana studies to develop a theory of the black male literary imagination. In doing so, it seeks to answer fundamental aesthetic and existential questions: How does the experience of being black and male in the modern West affect the telling of a narrative, the shape or structure of a novel, the development of characters and plot lines, and the nature of criticism itself? James B. Haile argues that, since black male identity is largely fluid and open to interpretation, reinterpretation, and misinterpretation, the literature of black men has developed flexibility and improvisation, termed the “jazz of life.” Our reading of this literature requires the same kind of flexibility and improvisation to understand what is being said and why, as well as what is not being said and why. Finally, the book attempts to offer this new reading experience by placing texts by well-known authors, such as Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, and Colson Whitehead, in conversation with texts by those who are less well known and those who have, for the most part, been forgotten, in particular, Cecil Brown. Doing so challenges the reader to visit and revisit these novels with a new perspective about the social, political, historical, and psychic realities of black men.

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Page Count

350

Publisher

Northwestern University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0810141671

ISBN 13

9780810141674

Masculinity Under Construction

Literary Re-Presentations of Black Masculinity in the African Diaspora

By: LaToya Jefferson-James

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Masculinity Under Construction

Literary Re-Presentations of Black Masculinity in the African Diaspora

By: LaToya Jefferson-James

Masculinity Under Construction: Literary Re-Presentations of Black Masculinity in the African Diaspora analyzes Black male identity as constructed by Black male authors. In each chapter, Dr. Jefferson-James discusses a different "construction" or definition of masculine identity produced by men of African descent on the continent of Africa, in the Caribbean, and in North America. Combing through the works of James Baldwin, Chinua Achebe, Ralph Ellison, George Lamming, and other pan-African authors, Masculinity Under Construction argues for the importance of analyzing the historical context that contributed to the formation of Black male identity. Additionally, Dr. Jefferson-James draws a relationship between Black feminists and writers, such as Anna Julia Cooper and her contemporaries, and these works of literature viewed as primarily about Black masculinity.

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Page Count

233

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1793615306

ISBN 13

9781793615305

Quit Your Day Job!

How to Sleep Late, Do What You Enjoy, and Make a Ton of Money As a Writer

By: Jim Denney,James D. Denney

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Quit Your Day Job!

How to Sleep Late, Do What You Enjoy, and Make a Ton of Money As a Writer

By: Jim Denney,James D. Denney

Resolution and perseverance are required to build a writing career and if you're going to succeed, you don't need the hype or hyperbole so often dished out in other writer's guides. You need a candid, no-nonsense account of the daily grind of the writer s life, with the potholes and pitfalls clearly marked. This book is your road map, written by someone who's lived the writing life for years, with more than sixty published novels and nonfiction books to his credit. And what a life! Big names like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Tom Clancy, Sue Grafton, and thousands of others not nearly as famous live it why shouldn't you? All you need is talent, courage, perseverance and this book. In Quit Your Day Job, Jim Denney lays out a sound, strategic plan for building a career as a full-time writer. This is not a book of fluff and glittering platitudes. Denney maps out the positives and the negatives of the writing life with gritty candor. Why? Because he doesn't want your dream of full-time writing to become your worst nightmare. He wants you to succeed. After you read Quit Your Day Job, you'll be fired up and ready to take on the world. Devour this book then hold on tight, because your life is about to change.

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Page Count

252

Publisher

Quill Driver Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1884956041

ISBN 13

9781884956041

Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban

By: James W. Coleman

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Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban

By: James W. Coleman

With The Tempest's Caliban, Shakespeare created an archetype in the modern era depicting black men as slaves and savages who threaten civilization. As contemporary black male fiction writers have tried to free their subjects and themselves from this legacy to tell a story of liberation, they often unconsciously retell the story, making their heroes into modern-day Calibans. Coleman analyzes the modern and postmodern novels of John Edgar Wideman, Clarence Major, Charles Johnson, William Melvin Kelley, Trey Ellis, David Bradley, and Wesley Brown. He traces the Caliban legacy to early literary influences, primarily Ralph Ellison, and then deftly demonstrates its contemporary manifestations. This engaging study challenges those who argue for the liberating possibilities of the postmodern narrative, as Coleman reveals the pervasiveness and influence of Calibanic discourse. At the heart of James Coleman's study is the perceived history of the black male in Western culture and the traditional racist stereotypes indigenous to the language. Calibanic discourse, Coleman argues, so deeply and subconsciously influences the texts of black male writers that they are unable to cast off the oppression inherent in this discourse. Coleman wants to change the perception of black male writers' struggle with oppression by showing that it is their special struggle with language. Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban is the first book to analyze a substantial body of black male fiction from a central perspective.

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Page Count

255

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813193559

ISBN 13

9780813193557

The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism

By: Shelley Rabinovitch,James Lewis

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The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism

By: Shelley Rabinovitch,James Lewis

Whether you're looking for information on blessings, the Green Man, divination, ritual components, or spellwork, you can find it all in the Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism. Here is the ultimate source of information on all things Wiccan and Neo-Pagan, an indispensable tool for anyone wanting to learn about the history, traditions, and major figures of modern nontraditional religions. Organized alphabetically and designed to be both clear and comprehensive, this book provides definitions and detailed entries on a wide range of subjects -- including Witchcraft, Shamanism, Gaia theory, the Burning Times, Pagan festivals, Wiccan holidays, and much more. There are essays on Witchcraft and Paganism's influence on pop culture, including the crop of Wicca-inspired books, movies, and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, The Craft, and the Harry Potter series. From Altar to Otter Zell, and all points in between, the illustrated Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism is the first and last Wyrd on nontraditional religion -- the ultimate reference for anyone interested in past, present, and practice. Book jacket.

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Page Count

356

Publisher

Citadel Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0806524073

ISBN 13

9780806524078

Cultural Conservatism, Political Liberalism

From Criticism to Cultural Studies

By: James Seaton

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Cultural Conservatism, Political Liberalism

From Criticism to Cultural Studies

By: James Seaton

Examines whether cultural studies has been too dismissive of the tradition of literary-cultural criticism that preceded it

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296

Publisher

University of Michigan Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0472106457

ISBN 13

9780472106455

No Chariot Let Down

Charleston's Free People on the Eve of the Civil War

By: Michael P Johnson,James L. Roark

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No Chariot Let Down

Charleston's Free People on the Eve of the Civil War

By: Michael P Johnson,James L. Roark

These thirty-four letters, written by members of the William Ellison family, comprise the only sustained correspondence by a free Afro-American family in the late antebellum South. Born a slave, Ellison was freed in 1816, set up a cotton gin business, and by his death in 1861, he owned sixty-three slaves and was the wealthiest free black in South Carolina. Although the early letters are indistinguishable from those of white contemporaries, the later correspondence is preoccupied with proof of their free status.

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Page Count

196

Publisher

UNC Press Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1469621487

ISBN 13

9781469621487

Adorno and "A Writing of the Ruins"

Essays on Modern Aesthetics and Anglo-American Literature and Culture

By: James Martin Harding

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Adorno and "A Writing of the Ruins"

Essays on Modern Aesthetics and Anglo-American Literature and Culture

By: James Martin Harding

Arguing that postmodernism has so shifted current critical paradigms that Adorno's work can best be assessed in terms of its relevance in specific localized contexts, this book pursues a course that preserves Adorno's opposition to hegemonic programs but that is also wary of Adorno's own (negative) penchant for totalizing concepts. Unlike recent works which attempt to synthesize Adorno's writings into a comprehensive system that then becomes either the focus of an overriding critique or an object of appropriation, Harding orders his book as a collection of essays whose loose association questions the structural totality of Adorno's thought. Though together the essays cover all the major issues of Adorno's thought and offer a wide critical survey of his writings, the diversity of their focus avoids a systematic reduction of Adorno's work into a reproducible technique or method. The result of this strategy is a far more dynamic analysis of Adorno than a mere critical reconstruction of his ideas. By applying Adorno's theories to works by Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot, Ralph Ellison, and Amiri Baraka, the book pushes critical discussion of Adorno into cultural contexts that, while perhaps new for Adorno scholars, reach out to those whose knowledge of Adorno is limited. This book is a fine introduction to the subtleties of Adorno's writing and a genuine contribution to Adorno scholarship.

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216

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1438405774

ISBN 13

9781438405773

Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill

Alexander Hamilton’s Old Harlem Neighborhood Through the Centuries

By: Davida Siwisa James

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Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill

Alexander Hamilton’s Old Harlem Neighborhood Through the Centuries

By: Davida Siwisa James

Explores four centuries of colonization, land divisions, and urban development around this historic landmark neighborhood in West Harlem It was the neighborhood where Alexander Hamilton built his country home, George Gershwin wrote his first hit, a young Norman Rockwell discovered he liked to draw, and Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man. Through words and pictures, Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill traces the transition of this picturesque section of Harlem from lush farmland in the early 1600s to its modern-day growth as a unique Manhattan neighborhood highlighted by stunning architecture, Harlem Renaissance gatherings, and the famous residents who called it home. Stretching from approximately 135th Street and Edgecombe Avenue to around 165th, all the way to the Hudson River, this small section in the Heights of West Harlem is home to so many significant events, so many extraordinary people, and so much of New York’s most stunning architecture, it’s hard to believe one place could contain all that majesty. Author Davida Siwisa James brings to compelling literary life the unique residents and dwelling places of this Harlem neighborhood that stands at the heart of the country’s founding. Here she uncovers the long-lost history of the transitions to Hamilton Grange in the aftermath of Alexander Hamilton’s death and the building boom from about 1885 to 1930 that made it one of Manhattan’s most historic and architecturally desirable neighborhoods, now and a century ago. The book also shares the story of the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, one of the fi rst in the nation to focus on arts and music. The author chronicles the history of the James A. Bailey House, as well as the Morris-Jumel Mansion, Manhattan’s oldest surviving residence and famously known as George Washington’s headquarters at the start of the American Revolution. By telling the history of its vibrant people and the beautiful architecture of this lovely, well-maintained historic landmark neighborhood, James also dispels the misconception that Harlem was primarily a ghetto wasteland. The book also touches upon the Great Migration of Blacks leaving the South who landed in Harlem, helping it become the mecca for African Americans, including such Harlem Renaissance artists and luminaries as Thurgood Marshall, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, Paul Robeson, Regina Anderson Andrews, and W. E. B. Du Bois.

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Page Count

335

Publisher

Fordham Univ Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1531506151

ISBN 13

9781531506155

Faithful Vision

Treatments of the Sacred, Spiritual, and Supernatural in Twentieth-Century African American Fiction

By: James W. Coleman

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Faithful Vision

Treatments of the Sacred, Spiritual, and Supernatural in Twentieth-Century African American Fiction

By: James W. Coleman

This is a marvelous and sustained discussion of 'faithful vision' and its significant influence on African American literature." -- American Literature In Faithful Vision, James W. Coleman places under his critical lens a wide array of African American novels written during the last half of the twentieth century. In doing so, he demonstrates that religious vision not only informs black literature but also serves as a foundation for black culture generally. The Judeo-Christian tradition, according to Coleman, is the primary component of the African American spiritual perspective, though its syncretism with voodoo/hoodoo -- a religion transported from West Africa through the West Indies and New Orleans to the rest of black America -- also figures largely. Reviewing novels written mainly since 1950 by writers including James Baldwin, Randall Kenan, Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Erna Brodber, and Ishmael Reed, among others, Coleman explores how black authors have addressed the relevance of faith, especially as it relates to an oppressive Christian tradition. He shows that their novels -- no matter how critical of the sacred or supernatural, or how skeptical the characters' viewpoints -- ultimately never reject the vision of faith. With its focus on religious experience and tradition and its wider discussion of history, philosophy, gender, and postmodernism, Faithful Vision brings a bold critical dimension to African American literary studies. "An insightful interrogation of the complexities of religious discourse in the African American literary tradition. Because it superbly translates complex spiritual ethos into literary tradition, this remarkable book is a must for anyone interested in intersections of the sacred and the secular in black cultural productions." -- Southern Literary Journal "Faithful Vision both looks intently into faith and shows us how to look." -- Christianity and Literature

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Page Count

391

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807146196

ISBN 13

9780807146194

Atomic Adventures

By: James Mahaffey

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Atomic Adventures

By: James Mahaffey

Whether you are a scientist or a poet, pro-nuclear energy or staunch opponent, conspiracy theorist or pragmatist, James Mahaffey's books have served to open up the world of nuclear science like never before. With clear explanations of some of the most complex scientific endeavors in history, Mahaffey's new book looks back at the atom's wild, secretive past and then toward its potentially bright future. Mahaffey unearths lost reactors on far flung Pacific islands and trees that were exposed to active fission that changed gender or bloomed in the dead of winter. He explains why we have nuclear submarines but not nuclear aircraft and why cold fusion doesn't exist. And who knew that radiation counting was once a fashionable trend? Though parts of the nuclear history might seem like a fiction mash-up, where cowboys somehow got a hold of a reactor, Mahaffey's vivid prose holds the reader in thrall of the infections energy of scientific curiosity and ingenuity that may one day hold the key to solving our energy crisis or sending us to Mars.

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Page Count

573

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1681774801

ISBN 13

9781681774800

African American Writers & Classical Tradition

By: William W. Cook,James Tatum

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African American Writers & Classical Tradition

By: William W. Cook,James Tatum

Constraints on freedom, education, and individual dignity have always been fundamental in determining who is able to write, when, and where. Considering the singular experience of the African American writer, William W. Cook and James Tatum here argue that African American literature did not develop apart from canonical Western literary traditions but instead grew out of those literatures, even as it adapted and transformed the cultural traditions and religions of Africa and the African diaspora along the way.Tracing the interaction between African American writers and the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome, from the time of slavery and its aftermath to the civil rights era and on into the present, the authors offer a sustained and lively discussion of the life and work of Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, and Rita Dove, among other highly acclaimed poets, novelists, and scholars. Assembling this brilliant and diverse group of African American writers at a moment when our understanding of classical literature is ripe for change, the authors paint an unforgettable portrait of our own reception of “classic” writing, especially as it was inflected by American racial politics.

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Page Count

466

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226789985

ISBN 13

9780226789989

Book's by James Ellison

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