Looking for Clark Gable and Other 20th-Century Pursuits: Collected Writings - Softcover

Hamilton, Virginia Van Der Veer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0817308342 ISBN 13: 9780817308346

Publisher: University Alabama Press, 1996

Synopsis

Reared amid liberal intellectuals and writers in Birmingham, Alabama, during the Great Depression, the author anticipated that, like her Wellesley-educated mother, her destiny would be that of full-time wife and homemaker. Instead, World War II afforded her the opportunity to become a "girl reporter," a career hitherto closed to all but a few women. Her journalistic beat included not only Alabama but also Washington, D.C., the nation's nerve center. At war's end, instead of "retiring" as did most middle-class women, she continued her journalistic career and then successfully moved into another male fiefdom--the American professorate.

Hamilton, in commentary interspersed throughout this collection of her essays and news stories, reflects on the major changes that have taken place in her native South during the course of the 20th century: a rural region becoming urbanized, Democrats emerging openly as Republicans, legal segregation giving way to educational and political segregation, and the virtual disappearance of white southern liberalism.

On a personal level, Hamilton notes social mores of the early and mid-20th century that have become seriously endangered or have vanished from the American scene: virginal brides, lifelong marriages, serious reading, daily newspapers, train travel, and family pilgrimages to historic sites.

Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton is Professor of History Emerita from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

From "girl reporter" to professor of history, Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton has witnessed some of the major events of the 20th century. Her stories of growing up during the Depression and coming of age during World War II evoke warm memories of another time - a time of innocence, a time when people dressed up to go riding in a car, a time when the whole town danced in the streets until midnight to celebrate the return of some soldiers... a time when two young girls from Birmingham could safely take a train to Miami to catch a glimpse of a national hero, Clark Gable. From Birmingham to Washington, D.C., and back to Birmingham again, Hamilton's essays allow us to travel with her and relive some of the major events and themes of our times: the nation's reaction to the death of FDR, the reminiscences of Hosea Williams on the "Bloody Sunday" march in Selma, the struggle by women to enter male-dominated professions, and the views of senior citizens and others toward the idea of "retirement".

Review:

"Hamilton has written a delightful memoir of her life growing up during the Depression, coming of age during World War II, pursuing a career first as a journalist, then as a historian in a male-dominated world. The serious themes--the changing South from the New Deal liberalism of the 1930s to the conservatism of the present day and that of a middle-class white woman breaking into two traditionally male fields, journalism and history--are handled with humor and a light touch, making the book a delight to read; in fact, I could hardly put it down."—Mary Martha Thomas, Professor Emerita, Jacksonville State University

About this edition

• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0817308342
• ISBN 13: 9780817308346
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224