GRUESOME LOOKING OBJECTS A New History of Lynching and Everyday Things (Cambridge Studies on the American South)

GADDIS Elijah

ISBN 10: 1316514021 / ISBN 13: 9781316514023

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2023. 9781316514023, 2022

About this Item

1st edn. 8vo. Original laminated pictorial boards (Fine), no dustwrapper issued. Pp. xv + 240, illus with b&w photos (no inscriptions).

Seller Inventory # 167543

Bibliographic Details

• Title: GRUESOME LOOKING OBJECTS A New History of Lynching and Everyday Things (Cambridge Studies on the American South)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 9781316514023
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1316514021
• ISBN 13: 9781316514023
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Modern History

About this title

Synopsis

The 1898 lynching of Tom Johnson and Joe Kizer is retold in this groundbreaking book. Unlike other histories of lynching that rely on conventional historical records, this study focuses on the objects associated with the lynching, including newspaper articles, fragments of the victims' clothing, photographs, and souvenirs such as sticks from the hanging tree. This material culture approach uncovers how people tried to integrate the meaning of the lynching into their everyday lives through objects. These seemingly ordinary items are repositories for the comprehension, interpretation, and commemoration of racial violence and white supremacy. Elijah Gaddis showcases an approach to objects as materials of history and memory, insisting that we live in a world suffused with the material traces of racial violence, past and present.

About the Author

Elijah Gaddis is Assistant Professor of History at Auburn University, and the co-director of A Red Record, a comprehensive mapping of lynching victims in the American South.