The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place is a testament to the power of geographic location. Although purportedly an autobiographic work, it is equally a sociological treatise on the themes of ‘rootedness’ and ‘displacement’. Author Mindy Fullilove links these concepts to the process of identity formation. She contends that, on par with culture…
Tag: New Jersey
Did women have an impact on American political culture through nineteenth century?
In many ways, women are history’s largest minority. Their voice was for most part suppressed under male domination. It is only in recent decades that they have attained legal and nominal equality with men. America has been a theatre for women’s rights going back to the late 18th and 19th centuries. The Catholic Church provided…
How important are cultural and national identities for an individual?
Our cultural and national identities play an important role in the formation of our individual identities. While care must be taken to not stereotype people based on their ethnicities/nationalities/gender identities, such attributes do contribute to defining personal identities of people. In the case of a country such as the United States, the exercise of locating…
Review of ‘Assata: An Autobiography’
Assata Shakur was an important figure during and after the civil rights movement. Being an African American woman, she was disadvantaged both in terms of race and gender. Hence her social activism served a two-fold purpose. But her association with the militant wings of the civil rights movement, such as the Black Panther Party and…
The American Declaration of Independence: A Brief History
When, in 1776, the 13 American colonies east of the Appalachian Mountains declared their independence from the British Crown, they set about forming a national government in subsequent years. The Articles of Confederation is the culmination of this process which concluded with the signing of a peace treaty with Britain in the year 1783. However,…