In reviewing "Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950" by Glenda Gilmore in the Sunday, Feb. 10, edition of The New York Times, Maurice Isserman, James L. Ferguson Professor of History, summarized the book as "an exercise in radical antiquarianism, a series of disparate essays built around interesting personalities, the whole rather less than the sum of its parts."
In the review titled "Pathfinders," Isserman summarizes Gilmore's argument that "in the early to mid-20th century ... it was primarily individuals and groups judged 'un-American' by their contemporaries who took on the daunting task of bringing the South in line with the American 'dream of perfection' — at least insofar as perfection could be measured by adherence to the promise of equal protection before the law. In a wide-ranging narrative that moves from Chicago to Moscow to Chapel Hill, N.C. (where Gilmore tends to linger affectionately), she introduces scores of dedicated, colorful and sometimes eccentric dreamers and agitators. They include Communists and Socialists, preachers of the social gospel, disciples of Gandhi, prominent academics and impoverished millworkers who, although mostly forgotten today, prepared the way, she argues, for the better known civil rights advocates of the 1950s and 1960s. "
Isserman describes her review of this territory as "mostly worthwhile thanks to her gift for vivid description and a number of interesting observations she offers along the way." In his concluding paragraph, Isserman writes, "Unfortunately her belief that radical activists of the 1930s and 1940s 'hastened' the end of Jim Crow in the postwar era is more asserted than demonstrated."
In the review titled "Pathfinders," Isserman summarizes Gilmore's argument that "in the early to mid-20th century ... it was primarily individuals and groups judged 'un-American' by their contemporaries who took on the daunting task of bringing the South in line with the American 'dream of perfection' — at least insofar as perfection could be measured by adherence to the promise of equal protection before the law. In a wide-ranging narrative that moves from Chicago to Moscow to Chapel Hill, N.C. (where Gilmore tends to linger affectionately), she introduces scores of dedicated, colorful and sometimes eccentric dreamers and agitators. They include Communists and Socialists, preachers of the social gospel, disciples of Gandhi, prominent academics and impoverished millworkers who, although mostly forgotten today, prepared the way, she argues, for the better known civil rights advocates of the 1950s and 1960s. "
Isserman describes her review of this territory as "mostly worthwhile thanks to her gift for vivid description and a number of interesting observations she offers along the way." In his concluding paragraph, Isserman writes, "Unfortunately her belief that radical activists of the 1930s and 1940s 'hastened' the end of Jim Crow in the postwar era is more asserted than demonstrated."
