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Informationen zum Autor William Loren Katz (1927-2019) was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Greenwich Village in a progressive family dedicated to social justice. After serving in WWII and attending college on the GI Bill, he became a teacher in New York for many years. The author of more than 40 books, many for younger readers, he documented the often overlooked contributions of black and indigenous people through history. Through his scholarship and educational outreach, he helped to refashion social studies curriculums across the country, encouraging the histories of minorities and women to be part of American history courses rather than siloed into their own fields of study. In one of his best-known books, Black Indians, he wrote, “I have been humbled by the awesome task of rejecting bias. I have never sought bland neutrality and have consoled myself that unbiased history has yet to be written.” Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. He is the author of many books including Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times and Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. Klappentext "Generations of American history students have grown up believing that slave rebellion was relatively rare, that slaves accepted their lot and became attached to their masters, and that they were ultimately liberated with little or no effort of their own. Centering Black voices and slave narratives, celebrated historian and children's book author, William Loren Katz offers a thoroughly researched look at the lives of enslaved people in the United States in Breaking the Chains. From their African abductions, through their brave resistance to and escape from the ships and harsh plantation life, to their roles in the Civil War, those given voice here show that the slaves themselves were a driving force behind their emancipation"-- Leseprobe INTRODUCTION TO THE 2023 EDITION Robin D. G. Kelley “It seemed un-American to depict the evils of slavery and disloyal to talk about African American people fighting for freedom against whites. Omitting, neglecting, or suppressing the facts of slave defiance became a lasting American tradition.” William Loren Katz wrote these words in the introduction to this marvelous book over three decades ago. As I write this foreword in the summer of 2022, Katz’s words ring truer now than when he published Breaking the Chains thirty-two years ago. We are living through a new wave of intellectual McCarthyism. Driven by white nationalism, the latest wave of attacks on multicultural education is shrouded in racially coded language of “anti-wokeness.” The Right is using the law and bullying tactics to declare war on “critical race theory” (CRT)—which has become a stand-in for liberal multiculturalism—banning books and curricula dealing with racism, sexism, or gender identity. Moms for Liberty in New Hampshire offered a $500 reward for turning in teachers who violate the state’s anti-CRT law. In April 2022, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed into law the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, or Stop WOKE Act, which prohibits teaching anyone that they bear “personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex or national origin.” Iowa governor Kim Reynolds signed a similar bill that criminalizes teaching anything considered to be “divisive,” including subject matter that might make “any individual . . . feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of that individual’s race or sex.” The “individuals” these laws are designed to protect are white kids who presumably would feel shame and guilt if they had to confront the history of American raci...
