Title: Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle
Author: Kristen Green
Published: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 336
Rating: 2/5
Summary:
This book tells the story of the authors hometown and a small Virginia county that refused and fought against integration in their educational system, resulting in closing public schools all together, and about how that affected the people living there then and now.
Review:
This was quite an interesting story and one I was wholly unfamiliar with until I read this.
I really like reading about history and I find this particular part of American history to be fascinating. I think this book offers up a unique perspective into a place that held on to segregation for much longer than other places, and I think it's an interesting look into Southern culture. It was devestating to read about what happened to the African American population of this county, especially the long lasting repercussions of denying them an education.
I think, however, that the book would've been better if the author had pulled herself out of the story. I understand that this is where she comes from and that she wanted to take a look at the history of her hometown, but I think the story would have been stronger if it had focused more on the actual issues and on the people affected by it. It might just be a personal preference, to have historians and biographers not be so much in the story - but I have read books where having them in there has been done well, and this is not it. If she wanted to tell her own story, she should've written a memoir.
I also think the author goes to great lengths to assure the reader that she is not racist under any stretch of the imagination and I felt at a certain point it got to be too much - I ended up getting annoyed and thinking; this isn't about you. The repetition works against its purpose.
I think there's a story in here that is worth reading and learning about, but I wish all the pages had been spent telling that story, instead of the author waffling about her personal life. There's a limit to how much an author should put themselves in this sort of book and I think, sadly, it was crossed - and it ends up suffering for it.
You can get this book at The Book Depository*
You can read more about it on Goodreads
Author: Kristen Green
Published: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 336
Rating: 2/5
Summary:
This book tells the story of the authors hometown and a small Virginia county that refused and fought against integration in their educational system, resulting in closing public schools all together, and about how that affected the people living there then and now.
Review:
This was quite an interesting story and one I was wholly unfamiliar with until I read this.
I really like reading about history and I find this particular part of American history to be fascinating. I think this book offers up a unique perspective into a place that held on to segregation for much longer than other places, and I think it's an interesting look into Southern culture. It was devestating to read about what happened to the African American population of this county, especially the long lasting repercussions of denying them an education.
I think, however, that the book would've been better if the author had pulled herself out of the story. I understand that this is where she comes from and that she wanted to take a look at the history of her hometown, but I think the story would have been stronger if it had focused more on the actual issues and on the people affected by it. It might just be a personal preference, to have historians and biographers not be so much in the story - but I have read books where having them in there has been done well, and this is not it. If she wanted to tell her own story, she should've written a memoir.
I also think the author goes to great lengths to assure the reader that she is not racist under any stretch of the imagination and I felt at a certain point it got to be too much - I ended up getting annoyed and thinking; this isn't about you. The repetition works against its purpose.
I think there's a story in here that is worth reading and learning about, but I wish all the pages had been spent telling that story, instead of the author waffling about her personal life. There's a limit to how much an author should put themselves in this sort of book and I think, sadly, it was crossed - and it ends up suffering for it.
You can read more about it on Goodreads
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