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About This Book
Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson lived a colorful and amazing life. Her career and commitments took her many places: colonial Africa in 1936, the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, the founding meeting of the United Nations, Nazi-occupied Berlin, Stalin's Russia, and China two months after Mao's revolution. She was a woman of unusual accomplishmentāan anthropologist, a prolific journalist, a tireless advocate of women's rights, an outspoken anti-colonial and antiracist activist, and an internationally sought-after speaker. Yet historians for the most part have confined Essie to the role of Mrs. Paul Robeson, a wife hidden in the large shadow cast by her famous husband. In this masterful book, biographer Barbara Ransby refocuses attention on Essie, one of the most important and fascinating black women of the twentieth century. Chronicling Essie's eventful life, the book explores her influence on her husband's early career and how she later achieved her own unique political voice. Essie's friendships with a host of literary icons and world leaders, her renown as a fierce defender of justice, her defiant testimony before Senator Joseph McCarthy's infamous anti-communist committee, and her unconventional open marriage that endured for over 40 yearsāall are brought to light in the pages of this inspiring biography. Essie's indomitable personality shines through, as do her contributions to United States and twentieth-century world history.
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Table of contents
- COVER
- COPYRIGHT
- CONTENTS
- PREFACE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- ONEĀ Ā Growing Up along the Color Line, 1895-1918
- TWOĀ Ā A Harlem Love Story, 1919-1927
- THREEĀ Ā Onto the World Stage, 1920s
- FOURĀ Ā Remapping a Marriage, Career, and Worldview, 1927-1933
- FIVEĀ Ā Becoming a Writer and Anthropologist, 1930s
- SIXĀ Ā Africa at Last, 1936
- SEVENĀ Ā Madrid to Moscow, Political Commitments Deepen, 1936-1939
- EIGHTĀ Ā Returning Home and Finding a New Voice, 1939-1945
- NINEĀ Ā Into the Congo, 1946
- TENĀ Ā American Arguments, 1946-1950
- ELEVENĀ Ā The United Nations and a World Political Family, 1950-1956
- TWELVEĀ Ā Standing Tall: The Cold War and Politics of Repression, 1950s
- THIRTEENĀ Ā A Failing Body and a Hopeful Heart, 1958-1961
- FOURTEENĀ Ā Always the Fighter: A Pen as Her Weapon, 1961-1965
- EPILOGUE
- CHRONOLOGY
- ABBREVIATIONS TO THE NOTES
- NOTES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SELECT WRITINGS BY ESLANDA ROBESON
- INDEX
- BACK COVER