December HistoryCAT: 1945-1990, Civil Rights & Equality

Converses2015 Category Challenge

Afegeix-te a LibraryThing per participar.

December HistoryCAT: 1945-1990, Civil Rights & Equality

Aquest tema està marcat com "inactiu": L'últim missatge és de fa més de 90 dies. Podeu revifar-lo enviant una resposta.

1sjmccreary
nov. 15, 2015, 5:48 pm

Here we are, already to the end of the year, and the end of history. Our period this month doesn't seem very historical to many of us. We remember this time, and we remember the events that were important during this time.

A quick list of some big events during the 2nd half of the 20th century:
End of WWII and post-war recovery
Baby Boom generation is born and comes of age
Cold War, and rise of nuclear weapons
Chinese Civil War
French-Indochina War
Arab-Israeli conflicts
Korean War
Cuban Missile Crisis
rise of Rock and Roll music
apartheid government of South Africa
Vietnam War
Civil Rights movement
Summer of Love and hippy lifestyle, "drugs, sex and rock and roll"
Space race and moon landing
Women's Liberation movement, feminism and sexual revolution
Soviet-Afghan war
AIDS epidemic
Iran-Iraq war

The possibilities of books appropriate to this period are nearly endless, and are still being written.

Civil Rights & Equality is a wide-open topic, and has been in the news nearly continuously for most of our time period. However, the concern about civil rights, human rights, and all kinds of equality issues is not new. Probably the only constant throughout history is that the group in power oppresses the group without power.

Some specific topics that can be included in this theme:
Slavery
Serfdom
racial segregation and discrimination
Suffragettes, votes for women
suppression of indigenous people
equal rights for women, equal pay for equal work
equal access to healthcare, or education, or adequate housing
LGBT issues and same-sex marriages

And here as well as for the time period, the possibilities for possible books are nearly endless.

The book I have chosen to read in December, fulfilling both the time period and the topic guidelines, is The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, a novel about being black in America in the 1950s.

What are you planning to read? Do you have suggestions for the rest of us? Post your plans and suggestions here, and don't forget to enter your books on the wiki, too: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2015_HistoryCAT#December:

2MarthaJeanne
nov. 15, 2015, 5:51 pm

3cbl_tn
nov. 15, 2015, 5:56 pm

I am planning to listen to Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.

4DeltaQueen50
Editat: nov. 15, 2015, 6:20 pm

I am planning on reading The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew.

And if I might just take a minute to tell all lovers of historical fiction about a group that some of us Category Challengers, along with others, are a part of. It's called Reading Through Time and every month one of the members sets the theme and we chose our books accordingly. It's a take it or leave it challenge which means you can pick and choose which months you wish to join in. We usually pick our themes by the 15th of the previous month so members have time to pick their books. We already know that our January theme is "Women in Command". Along with a monthly theme, we have a quarterly time period and this January we are starting at the beginning again with Prehistory. The quarterly challenge is also a take-it-or-leave-it. So, if you are thinking that you are going to miss the HistoryCat, drop on by and check us out.

Reading Through Time Challenge

5rabbitprincess
nov. 15, 2015, 6:25 pm

I'm going to finally get around to one of the books my BF's dad loaned me: Turing's Cathedral, by George Dyson, which is about developing early computers following the Second World War.

6LibraryCin
nov. 15, 2015, 10:44 pm

I am attempting to get this via ILL, but what I hope to read - that should fit both theme and time period - is:
The Freedom Summer Murders / Don Mitchell

A couple others I came up with:
Mary / Janis Cooke Newman (theme)
Everything I Never Told You / Celeste Ng (I'm not certain this fits both, but over at shelfari, it does have "civil rights" as a tag. It definitely fits the time period.)

7mamzel
Editat: des. 1, 2015, 11:26 am

I'm starting The Watsons Go to Birmingham, a book I have never managed to read in all the years I've been in school libraries. (Shame on me!)

8Kristelh
nov. 30, 2015, 8:48 pm

I hope to get to something, maybe X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz

9mamzel
des. 2, 2015, 10:39 am

The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963 is a short book written for upper elementary/middle school level but is satisfyingly full of love and humor. It culminates in a church bombing that rocks the family.

10countrylife
des. 2, 2015, 7:22 pm

I'm reading We are all welcome here by Elizabeth Berg, which should fit both time and theme.

11Robertgreaves
des. 5, 2015, 2:18 am

Starting Peace and War by Joe Haldeman, an omnibus edition of "The Forever War" (1974), "Forever Free" (1997) and "Forever Peace" (1999).

The dates of writing put it within our time period, and the dedication to "Forever Peace" also puts it within our theme:

This novel is for two editors: John W. Campbell, who rejected a story because he thought it was absurd to write about American women who fight and die in combat, and Ben Bova, who didn't.

12DeltaQueen50
des. 5, 2015, 4:00 pm

Fitting both the time period and the theme, The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew was a stellar read for me.

13Kristelh
des. 6, 2015, 7:04 pm

I read X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz.
This covers the time period of the Great Depression, WWII and the fifties and sixties. But mostly it centered on the early life of Malcolm X up to the time he decides to become an activist for civil rights.

14RidgewayGirl
des. 7, 2015, 3:15 am

I'm reading Fallout by Sadie Jones, which takes place in London in the 1970s. I'm loving it so much.

15LibraryCin
des. 8, 2015, 12:10 am

Fits time period

The Peaceable Kingdom: A Year in the Life of America's Oldest Zoo / John Sedgwick
4 stars

This book takes a look at the Philadelphia Zoo and all the goings-on for a year in the mid-1980s. Not only do we meet some of the animals and learn their stories, but we meet many of the staff, as well as other people (including the “Wolf Lady”, who came every day to watch the wolves). Other events were included, such as the planning and building of a new building, then moving the animals into said building.

I really enjoyed this. Of course, I love animals, so it would have been surprising for me not to. It was interesting to get behind the scenes. You could see in the book where things were much better than they had been for zoo animals (moving from concrete/barren (i.e. sanitary) enclosures to more natural ones), but at the same time I hope other things have changed still (they were still using bull hooks on the elephants...). Of course, my favourite parts were stories of the animals, but I enjoyed “meeting” some of the people, as well. I think the author did a good job wrapping up the book, though the lives of both the people and animals go on.

16cbl_tn
des. 8, 2015, 6:08 am

I listenedcto the audiobook of Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. It was excellent.

17khanPrasad123
des. 8, 2015, 6:39 am

S'ha suprimit aquest usuari en ser considerat brossa.

18Robertgreaves
des. 10, 2015, 3:42 am

COMPLETED Peace and War by Joe Haldeman - period and theme (women as soldiers)

19LibraryCin
des. 12, 2015, 10:39 pm

The Freedom Summer Murders / Don Mitchell
4 stars

In 1964, two young white men (civil rights workers), headed down to Mississippi from New York to help register black people to vote. Andy Goodwin and Mickey Schwerner, along with a 21-year old black man, James Chaney, were murdered by local KKK (including local law enforcement). It made headlines throughout the U.S.

It's scary to read about the kinds of things that were happening in the South at the time; apparently Mississippi was the worst place to be. At the same time, it's heartwarming to read about the civil rights workers who went there, knowing what it might be like and that they were putting their lives at risk, to do the right thing. If they were all black men, it would never have made headlines like it did. It took years to bring some of the men who committed the murders to justice. This book also looked at little bit at the lives of the three men, in general, and what brought them to where they were. As this book is apparently marketed toward young adults, it was a quick read and it was populated with many photos of the people involved, their families, and the events.

20RidgewayGirl
des. 13, 2015, 9:55 am

I read Fallout by Sadie Jones for time period part of this CAT. Set in 1972, it was full of the atmosphere of the time and the book was excellent.

I'm now reading The Clarinet Polka by Keith Maillard, which is set during the Vietnam War, and involves a veteran (who spent the war on Guam) returning to a steel mill town in West Virginia. I'm enjoying it so far, although it did trick me into listening to polka music.

21sallylou61
des. 13, 2015, 10:12 am

I've read two books for this month's challenge, Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds: LBJ, Barry Goldwater, and the Ad that Changed American Politics by Robert Mann for the time period only and Rickey & Robinson: the True, Untold Story of the Integration of Baseball by Roger Kahn. Daisy Petals gave a history of the ad suggesting that Goldwater would get us into a nuclear war (although his name was not mentioned in the ad), and how it influenced future political advertising aimed towards emotions. It also placed the ad in the context of the times -- the Cold War.

Rickey & Robinson was a bit disappointing. Kahn wrote a book about the history of discrimination in baseball, both racial and to a lesser extent anti-Jewish. Although he points out how vicious the attacks against Robinson were and how little Robinson was earning financially (he was not paid enough to live in decent housing), Kahn also talked about himself a lot. Kahn gave virtually no documentation (i.e. footnotes or bibliography), and the book tended to be repetitious.

22inge87
des. 14, 2015, 4:30 pm

So far I've read four books for the challenge this month:

The Huron Carol originally written in the 17th century, my 1990 picture book edition has an afterward that set the book firmly within the era of increasing awareness of Native American cultural legitimacy.

In Bitter Chill a contemporary thriller set in Northern England, the original crime occurred in 1978 and there a quite a few flashback chapters recounting what happened.

Mrs. Pringle of Fairacre the last of the Fairacre books to be published during this period, it recounts everything everyone knows about Mrs. Pringle, Fairacre's grouchiest cleaner.

and finally,

Goodbye to a River an account of a 1957 canoe trip the author took with his dachshund to say goodbye to the middle Brazos River before more dams were built and destroyed the places he grew up with. It is both a memoir of his journey and an account of the local history and people.

23Kristelh
des. 18, 2015, 9:46 pm

Bonfire of the Vanities a book about the Eighties, it covers racism, Wall Street, Bond market.

24Robertgreaves
des. 19, 2015, 3:18 am

COMPLETED The Truth Can Get You Killed by Mark Richard Zubro, which fits both period (1990s) and theme (gay police detective in Chicago working on case of anti-gay judge found dead in a dumpster outside a gay bar).

25MissWatson
des. 19, 2015, 4:30 pm

I finished The water is wide set in South Carolina during the time of desegregation, so it fits both time and theme.

26countrylife
des. 28, 2015, 5:21 pm

My reads for December's HistoryCAT: Time: 1945-1990 (late 20th century) and Theme: Civil Rights and Equality

Fits Both Time and Theme:
We are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg (1960s) (black rights, handicapped rights) - 3.5 stars
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1970s-2007, human rights for muslim women) - 4

Fits Theme only:
Hiding Places by Erin M. Healy (civil rights – Japanese Americans during WWII) - 3.6
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende (civil rights – Japanese Americans during WWII) - 3.7
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (human rights for autists) - 3.9

27MarthaJeanne
des. 30, 2015, 7:14 am

Rosa Parks : my story

Simply written, this is the autobiography of the woman who didn't give up her seat on the bus. This fits both time and theme. I hadn't realized that she had long been involved in the struggle for civil rights.

28Dejah_Thoris
des. 30, 2015, 5:24 pm

I've read two that work for this month. Annamaria Alfieri's Strange Gods is a mystery set in British East Africa in 1911 and the issue of rights for the native peoples of the region permeates the plot. It was interesting - I'm going to try one of her books set in Latin America in January.

I really enjoyed reading Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, a YA biography by Philip M. Hoose (thank you for mentioning it, Carrie!). As a teenager in Montgomery, AL, Colvin spontaneously refused to give up her seat on a bus and was arrested months before Parks. Supported by local Civil Rights leaders, she plead not guilty, which was apparently a first for Montgomery. It's argued that her spur of the moment decision motivated the 'adults' in the movement to carefully orchestrate Parks' refusal and arrest and the subsequent Bus Boycott. Colvin was one of the four parties in the Federal lawsuit that actually struck down segregation on Montgomery buses. Colvin certainly deserves more recognition for her courageous choices. Fascinating.

If I get my act together, I'll read All the Way, a play about LBJ and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There's an HBO version in production......

29Kristelh
des. 31, 2015, 3:02 pm

I read On Beauty by Zadie Smith for one of my last books of the year. This book covers family/academia but a strong theme was equal opportunity pro and con and Haiti immigrants.

30MarthaJeanne
gen. 9, 2016, 5:24 pm