Cultural Trauma: Slavery and the Formation of African American Identity

by Ron Eyerman

Overview

This book explores the formation of the African-American identity through the theory of cultural trauma. The trauma in question is slavery, not as an institution or as personal experience, but as collective memory—a pervasive remembrance that grounded a people's sense of itself. Ron Eyerman offers insights into the intellectual and generational conflicts of identity-formation which have a truly universal significance, and provides a new and compelling account of the birth of African-American identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521808286
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/13/2001
Series:	Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Ronald Eyerman is the holder of the Segerstedt Chair of Sociology, and a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University (1900–2000). His recent publications include Music and Social Movements (Cambridge, 1998).

Table of Contents

1. Cultural trauma and collective memory; 2. Remembering and forgetting; 3. Out of Africa; 4. The black public sphere and the heritage of slavery; 5. Memory and representation; 6. Civil rights and black nationalism; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Slavery has had a significant, long-lasting effect on US history and society. Along with Elizabeth Bethel in The Roots of African-American Identity(1997), Eyerman clearly traces this long, sometimes agonizing, process for anyone engaged n serious work on US race relations." Choice

From the Publisher