Book Review

A Shining Thread of Hope represents the first general history of African American women—an astonishing fact given the thirty-year existence of the field of women's history and the large number of studies of black women that have appeared in recent years. But this survey is well worth the wait, for it provides a highly readable, comprehensive account that includes historiographical debates. The bibliography and endnotes demonstrate that this is a solid synthesis of current scholarship. Indeed, it may ultimately become a classic for black women's history, comparable to John Hope Franklin's From Slavery to Freedom (1947).

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This survey is an exemplary model of the new narrative history, which tries to connect with the nonprofessional, educated, general reader. It makes the gains of the historical profession's emphasis on social science palatable by providing stories that highlight individuals whose experiences illuminate particular historical conditions, but it avoids the genre's excesses where fact and fiction blur. The authors limit themselves to a few ideal types embodying the general circumstances of women in places where the historical record for individuals is thin, while focusing most of the narrative on women who deserve recognition.

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