| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880–1930. By Patricia A. Schechter. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. xx, 386 pp. Cloth, $55.00, ISBN 0-8078-2633-2. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8078-4965-0.)

The 1989 film Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice introduced this Memphis and Chicago antilynching crusader, clubwoman, and community builder to an audience beyond the classroom. After Patricia A. Schechter's intellectual and social portraiture, historians must recognize the power of Ida B. Wells-Barnett's thought as well as the "talking through tears" through which she pleaded for action. (Wells married the reformer Ferdinand Barnett in 1895.) This compelling public biography reminds us how African American politics was not merely a contest between men over self-help versus civil rights, nor was women's activism limited to the maternalist nonpartisanship of some white women. Through stunning readings of Wells-Barnett's autobiography, Crusade for Justice (edited by her daughter and published in 1970), and meticulous social history, Schechter not only has produced the best and most serious analysis of this protean figure but also has enriched our understanding of the politics of the body. . . .

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