Pros: The best written history book on the Harlem Renaissance for teens ever written. Bar none.
Cons: Some mild simplifications and confusing passages. These are, however, rare.
The Bottom Line: Do you know your Harlem Renaissance history? If not, this is undoubtedly the best introductory book out there today. Buy it for yourself and your kids ASAP!
ramseelbird's Full Review: Laban Carrick Hill - Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural His...
You place a history text in front of a teenager and what will they do? Probably roll their eyes. Undoubtedly groan. And ten to one they'll be using that same history text to stabilize a shaky table leg in the next day or so. Truth be told, when I was a teenager this is exactly the kind of behavior I would have performed. I was distinctly wary of history books, and I certainly would never have willingly plucked one from a shelf to read on my own. Fast forward ten years and I've heard some great reviews for a book called, “Harlem Stomp”. It's a young adult encapsulation of the Harlem Renaissance, chronicling the rise and fall of what may well be America's most creative outpouring of pure out-and-out talent. In college I took a course on this Renaissance, but many of the things I once learned have slipped through my sieve-like brain over the course of many years. Had I had access to this book then, things would have been different. “Harlem Stomp” is written with a teen audience in mind, but its catchy style, beautiful graphics, and appealing text will make it a highly sought out title for people of every age. If you have only one teen book on New York history, this would be the one to own.
Divided into ten chapters, the book spends the first four leading up to the Renaissance, and then the next five chronicling different areas of arts, music, culture, and social participation. The last chapter shows us the end of an era that began with the fall of the stock market and ended finally with the Harlem Riots. Right from the start we understand the true depths of racism that plagued America in the early twentieth century. We meet W.E.B. DuBois and there is a chilling graph of some of the lynchings and rioting that occurred just prior to 1910. Then, slowly, groups form. Housing in Harlem is steadily purchased. And with the aid of benefactors and the community itself, Harlem morphs into an amazing climate that nurtures culture, creativity, and originality.
It would have been easy as pie for author Laban Carrick Hill to write this book in a simplistic manner where everyone during the Renaissance got along and where the stock market crash alone contributed to its downfall. Fortunately, Hill is not above tackling thorny issues and even thornier problems. W.E.B. Dubois, we learn, was part of a community that was entitled The Talented Tenth. A form of classism where those African-Americans that belonged reaped greater benefits than their brethren. Langston Hughes, however, belonged to a younger generation. One that celebrated African heritage and acknowledged the tawdrier side of black society. Says Hughes in a stirring passage, “It is the duty of the younger Negro artist … to change through the force of his art that old whispering 'I want to be white,' hidden in the aspiration of his people, to 'Why should I want to be white? I am Negro - and beautiful!'”.
What also sets this book apart from other Harlem Renaissance texts is the large portion devoted to African-Americans who were living in Harlem but were not creating great art, poetry, or music. The larger population itself is rarely chronicled except in the abstract in such books as this. I can almost hear authors saying to themselves, “Well everyone's going to want to hear about Duke Ellington and Aaron Douglas. Why talk about anyone else?”. Hill, fortunately, is smarter than that. In a section entitled, “Dark Tower”, we see a fabulous Harlem Jive dictionary, real reproductions of Rent Party invitations (worth the price of this book alone), a large section devoted to religion in Harlem, and a portion that explains the importance of strolling about in one's Sunday best in the 20s.
The book is not without its flaws, of course. There are many sections that some will feel say too little on an important topic. There's also one portion that talks about a scam that began to take advantage of white racism which is referred to as “particularly horrendous”. Due to the fact that white racists were the “victims”, the reader can decide for his or her own self if this was as bad as all that. Still, on the whole this is a readable, thoroughly enjoyable, and beautiful hardcover text. A necessary addition to any and every school library in America today.
The textbook, Harlem Stomp! : A Cultural History of Harlem, by Laban Carrick Hill, available in Hardback. Published by: Hachette Book Group USA. Ed...More at Textbooks.com
The Harlem Renaissance (1919-1934) is one of the most fascinating periods of American cultural history. Harlem Stomp! is the first trade book to bring...More at HotBookSale
The Harlem Renaissance (1919-1934) is one of the most fascinating periods of American cultural history. Harlem Stomp! is the first trade book to bring...More at HotBookSale
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