Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom

by Lawrence W. Levine

Very good+ in illustrated wrappers. Trade paperback. A landmark book at the time of its publication - one which showed - contrary to the prevailing ideas at the time, which held that African culture disappeared quickly under slavery and that black Americans had little group pride, history, or cohesiveness - that there was a rich and complex African American oral tradition, including songs, proverbs, jokes, folktales, and long narrative poems called toasts--work that dated from before and after emancipation. Notes, index. 522 pp.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, African American, Folklore, Race, Cultural, American History

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Lawrence William Levine was a celebrated American historian. He was born in Manhattan and died in Berkeley, California.

A model of the engaged scholar throughout his life, Levine lived both his scholarship and his politics. From the very outset, he immersed himself in the political life of Berkeley – in, for example, a sleep-in in the rotunda of the state capitol in Sacramento to press for fair housing legislation, and the sit-ins in Berkeley organized by CORE to force stores to hire black people.

He participated in the march from Selma to Montgomery, expressing his solidarity with the civil rights movement. During the Free Speech upheaval at Berkeley, he came to the defense of students protesting a ban on political activity on campus in support of the civil rights movement.

He received numerous awards and accolades over the course of his career, most of which was spent in the History Department at the University of California, Berkeley.

Among the honors bestowed upon him were a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1983, election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985, election as President of the Organization of American Historians in 1992, recognition as a Guggenheim Fellow in 1994, the 2005 Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Historical Association, and the posthumous designation of the Lawrence W. Levine Award, which is given annually by the OAH to the author of the best book in American cultural history.

His books include:
• Defender of the Faith: William Jennings Bryan, the Last Decade, 1915-1925. Oxford University Press, 1965.
• Black Culture and Black Consciousness. Oxford University Press, 1978.
• Highbrow/Lowbrow. Harvard University Press, 1990.
• The Unpredictable Past. Oxford University Press, 1993.
• The Opening of the American Mind. Beacon Press, 1997.
• [with Cornelia R. Levine] The people and the President: America's Conversation with FDR. Beacon Press, 2002.

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray]

Simultaneously an awesome collection of folklore broadly defined and a discussion of what it all says about African American culture, this scholarly work is a riveting page-turner. The chapter on "Black Laughter" is wonderful. Overall, in addition to being exhaustive with the material, the discussion in a very natural way considers the people who shared these songs, stories, jokes and toasts as people. The author, without getting heavy-handed, invites the reader to consider how he or she would have thought or felt about these texts if in the same position. So much scholarship, even today, views African American culture as pathological... but it's a society that continues to deny the descendants of slaves their human rights that is sick. This book does not fall into that pattern, instead after taking a long hard look at all the material, Levine opens it up so the reader can feel what some folks would call "soul."

[Lacey]

read this book. it's incredibly insightful and a fabulous cultural history. read it! read it!

[Crystal]

Classic. Sturdy. Great.

[Nik]

It's a pity this book has so few reviews. I ran across it in a google search for a sample used at the beginning of Erykah Badu's 'My People' (New Amerykah Part 1). The quote I was searching for was in one of those google books preview. This probably doesn't seem necessary to some, but I'd like to remember this. -___-

I'll come back and write a proper review once I've read.

[Jennifer]

Read for NEH Gullah seminar.

[Quintin R]

Essential reading for any wannabe historian.

[Laura Israelsen]

Very interesting read in preparation for a week in Savannah studying the Gullah people living in Sapelo Island. Insightful and opened me to ideas, thoughts and cultural ideas that I hadn't considered before about the slave, black and Afro-American experience in the United States.

[Nathan San Filippo]

One of the few academic reads I enjoyed.

[Andrew]

Brilliant scholarship

[Jennifer Wojeck]

This was super informative and eye opening. Highly recommend for anyone looking to inform themselves on culture during the antebellum period and well as the projection of those elements and themes afterwards.

[Diana]

Essential reading in my opinion. I was forced by an American Studies class, and have never regretted taking that class. Not an easy read but worth it for the education in a culture about which many are ignorant.

[Jennifer Smoliga]

Very interesting but very hard to read. It had a lot of great stories but some were so drawn out that it was hard to keep interested. It had a lot of history and gave a perspective into a different world.

[Arrianna]

I was OBSESSED with this book. The section on Black humor had me laughing and smiling the whole time.

[Katie]

pg. 262 discusses movement and travel as ultimate signal of freedom

[Rizky Hutapea]

Quite imformative but he uses white perspective so much

[Megan]

Read the required chapters for my NEH course.