Books by Stephen Tuck
We Ain't What We Ought To Be: The Black Freedom Struggle from Emancipation to Obama
by Stephen Tuck
In this exciting revisionist history, Stephen Tuck traces the black freedom struggle in all its diversity, from the first years of freedom during the Civil War to President Obama’s inauguration. As it moves from popular culture to high politics, from the Deep South to New England, the West Coast, and abroad, Tuck weaves gripping stories of ordinary black people—as well as celebrated figures—into the sweep of racial protest and social change. The drama unfolds from an armed march of longshoremen in post–Civil War Baltimore to Booker T. Washington’s founding of Tuskegee Institute; from the race riots following Jack Johnson’s “fight of the century” to Rosa Parks’ refusal to move to the back of a Montgomery bus; and from the rise of hip hop to the journey of a black Louisiana grandmother to plead with the Tokyo directors of a multinational company to stop the dumping of toxic waste near her home.
We Ain’t What We Ought To Be rejects the traditional narrative that identifies the Southern non-violent civil rights movement as the focal point of the black freedom struggle. Instead, it explores the dynamic relationships between those seeking new freedoms and those looking to preserve racial hierarchies, and between grassroots activists and national leaders. As Tuck shows, strategies were ultimately contingent on the power of activists to protest amidst shifting economic and political circumstances in the U.S. and abroad. This book captures an extraordinary journey that speaks to all Americans—both past and future.
Copies
No copies available.
The American Civil Rights Movement The Story of One of the Most Important Political Movements of Modern Times
by Stephen Tuck, Dr. Imaobong Umoren
Despite all the traumas, violence and setbacks which marked its progress, the story of the American civil rights movement is an uplifting one. It is the story of one of America’s greatest revolutions. In the popular imagination, it is often seen as little more than a series of set-piece protests against Southern segregation, led by a charismatic minister, Martin Luther King – protests that eventually moved the conscience of a nation and inevitably climaxed in victory. But it was much more than that, and its roots stretch back to World War Two and beyond – back to the fight against slavery and the aftermath of emancipation. In the meantime, the movement has generated a vast and rich scholarship from historical researchers not just in America but all round the world. Stephen Tuck and Imaobong Umoren tell the story of US civil rights, from its origins to the present day, and explain what it was like to be black in the American South in the 1950s, when all areas of life were segregated, with black Americans having to attend vastly inferior schools, being restricted to the back of public transport, and not being allowed to eat at department store lunch counters at all. Birmingham, Alabama’s notorious Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene “Bull” Connor, once vowed: “I may not be able to preserve segregation, but I’ll die trying.”. But despite the progress since then the civil rights debate remains at the forefront of American life. As Barack Obama, America’s first African American president, observed at the dedication of a memorial to Martin Luther King in 2011, “our work, Dr. King’s work, is not yet complete”.
Copies
No copies available.
Fog of War: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement
by Kevin M. Kruse, Stephen Tuck
It is well known that World War II gave rise to human rights rhetoric, discredited a racist regime abroad, and provided new opportunities for African Americans to fight, work, and demand equality at home. It would be all too easy to assume that the war was a key stepping stone to the modern civil rights movement. But Fog of War shows that in reality the momentum for civil rights was not so clear cut, with activists facing setbacks as well as successes and their opponents finding ways to establish more rigid defenses for segregation. While the war set the scene for a mass movement, it also narrowed some of the options for black activists. This collection is a timely reconsideration of the intersection between two of the dominant events of twentieth-century American history, the upheaval wrought by the Second World War and the social revolution brought about by the African American struggle for equality.
Copies
No copies available.
Historians across Borders: Writing American History in a Global Age
by Stephen Tuck, Nicolas Barreyre, Michael Heale, Cecile Vidal
In this stimulating and highly original study of the writing of American history, twenty-four scholars from eleven European countries explore the impact of writing history from abroad. Six distinguished scholars from around the world add their commentaries.
Arguing that historical writing is conditioned, crucially, by the place from which it is written, this volume identifies the formative impact of a wide variety of institutional and cultural factors that are commonly overlooked. Examining how American history is written from Europe, the contributors shed light on how history is written in the United States and, indeed, on the way history is written anywhere. The innovative perspectives included in Historians across Borders are designed to reinvigorate American historiography as the rise of global and transnational history is creating a critical need to understand the impact of place on the writing and teaching of history.
This book is designed for students in historiography, global and transnational history, and related courses in the United States and abroad, for US historians, and for anyone interested in how historians work.
Copies
No copies available.
Historians across Borders: Writing American History in a Global Age (Fletcher Jones Foundation Book in the Humanities)
by Stephen Tuck, Nicolas Barreyre, Michael Heale, Cecile Vidal
In this stimulating and highly original study of the writing of American history, twenty-four scholars from eleven European countries explore the impact of writing history from abroad. Six distinguished scholars from around the world add their commentaries.
Arguing that historical writing is conditioned, crucially, by the place from which it is written, this volume identifies the formative impact of a wide variety of institutional and cultural factors that are commonly overlooked. Examining how American history is written from Europe, the contributors shed light on how history is written in the United States and, indeed, on the way history is written anywhere. The innovative perspectives included in Historians across Borders are designed to reinvigorate American historiography as the rise of global and transnational history is creating a critical need to understand the impact of place on the writing and teaching of history.
This book is designed for students in historiography, global and transnational history, and related courses in the United States and abroad, for US historians, and for anyone interested in how historians work.
Copies
No copies available.
We Ain’t What We Ought To Be: The Black Freedom Struggle from Emancipation to Obama
by Stephen Tuck
In this exciting revisionist history, Stephen Tuck traces the black freedom struggle in all its diversity, from the first years of freedom during the Civil War to President Obama’s inauguration. As it moves from popular culture to high politics, from the Deep South to New England, the West Coast, and abroad, Tuck weaves gripping stories of ordinary black people―as well as celebrated figures―into the sweep of racial protest and social change. The drama unfolds from an armed march of longshoremen in post–Civil War Baltimore to Booker T. Washington’s founding of Tuskegee Institute; from the race riots following Jack Johnson’s “fight of the century” to Rosa Parks’ refusal to move to the back of a Montgomery bus; and from the rise of hip hop to the journey of a black Louisiana grandmother to plead with the Tokyo directors of a multinational company to stop the dumping of toxic waste near her home.
We Ain’t What We Ought To Be rejects the traditional narrative that identifies the Southern non-violent civil rights movement as the focal point of the black freedom struggle. Instead, it explores the dynamic relationships between those seeking new freedoms and those looking to preserve racial hierarchies, and between grassroots activists and national leaders. As Tuck shows, strategies were ultimately contingent on the power of activists to protest amidst shifting economic and political circumstances in the U.S. and abroad. This book captures an extraordinary journey that speaks to all Americans―both past and future.
Copies
No copies available.
The Night Malcolm X Spoke at the Oxford Union: A Transatlantic Story of Antiracist Protest (George Gund Foundation Imprint in African American Studies)
by Stephen Tuck
Less than three months before he was assassinated, Malcolm X spoke at the Oxford Union―the most prestigious student debating organization in the United Kingdom. The Oxford Union regularly welcomed heads of state and stars of screen and served as the training ground for the politically ambitious offspring of Britain’s "better classes." Malcolm X, by contrast, was the global icon of race militancy. For many, he personified revolution and danger. Marking the fiftieth anniversary of the debate, this book brings to life the dramatic events surrounding the visit, showing why Oxford invited Malcolm X, why he accepted, and the effect of the visit on Malcolm X and British students.
Stephen Tuck tells the human story behind the debate and also uses it as a starting point to discuss larger issues of Black Power, the end of empire, British race relations, immigration, and student rights. Coinciding with a student-led campaign against segregated housing, the visit enabled Malcolm X to make connections with radical students from the Caribbean, Africa, and South Asia, giving him a new perspective on the global struggle for racial equality, and in turn, radicalizing a new generation of British activists. Masterfully tracing the reverberations on both sides of the Atlantic, Tuck chronicles how the personal transformation of the dynamic American leader played out on the international stage.
Copies
No copies available.