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72
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
70/100Critics
75/100Scholars
Author:
Annette Gordon-Reed
Publisher:
Liveright
Date:
May 4, 2021
Combining personal anecdotes with facts gleaned from the annals of American history, Gordon-Reed shows how, from the earliest presence of Black people in Texas to the day in Galveston on June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of legalized slavery in the state, African-Americans played an integral role in the Texas story.
What The Reviewers Say
... if this book is a departure for [Gordon-Reed], it’s still guided by the humane skepticism that has animated her previous work.
... she offers a thoughtful and affectionate meditation on the state in which, despite its dualities, she still feels most at home. Where others might see a simple picture of unreconstructed racism, Gordon-Reed sees — and dissects — complexities that largely defy stereotypes. In so doing, she makes On Juneteenth an important part of the discussion about who and what we are as 21st-century Americans.
... written on a smaller and more personal scale than [Gordon-Reed's] previous work, but it is no less powerful. Gordon-Reed’s essays seamlessly merge history and memoir into a complex portrait of her beloved, turbulent Texas, revealing new truths about a state that, more than any other, embodies all the virtues and faults of America..
Like the story of Juneteenth itself, the history she tells is one of yarns woven, dark truths glossed over and freedom delayed.
