Lifting the Chains

Bill Chafe’s Lifting the Chains tells the powerful story of men, women, and children who wrote themselves into history, battled the contradictions of slavery and freedom, strove to end the hurts of racism, and in the process made the nation better. A fitting addition to a long and distinguished career. * Earl Lewis, Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies and Public Policy, University of Michigan *
Written by one of the nation’s most distinguished scholars, Lifting the Chains is a vivid, highly readable yet also well researched survey of African American history in the post-slavery era. * Clayborne Carson, Martin Luther King Jr., Centennial Professor of History, Emeritus, Stanford University *
The distinguished historian William Chafe has offered another gem to the growing body of knowledge on Black-led freedom campaigns, and the importance of Black leadership in establishing liberatory institutions. By making unrelenting demands on an often unresponsive government, and by building and creating independent projects, Black historical actors have been in the forefront of the fight to make ‘freedom’ real and tangible for all. Lifting the Chains eloquently reminds us of these important truths, and their relevance to contemporary struggles for Black freedom. * Barbara Ransby, John D. MacArthur University Chair and Distinguished Professor of Black Studies and History, University of Illinois at Chicago, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement and Making All Black Lives Matter *
Recommended. All readers. * Choice *
Key strengths of the book include its demonstration of continuities from the nineteenth century to the present, and the intersection of political, economic, and social issues in the ongoing struggle for equality, shown through the centring of Black voices. Microhistorical details - individual, familial, and community experiences, heartening successes tempered by accounts of violence and oppression - elevate the book from familiar retelling to a timely new synthesis of unique and irreplaceable archives. Ultimately, Lifting the Chains paints an invaluable picture of a people who, though consistently victimised, have rarely, if ever, allowed themselves to be victims. * Eleanor Morecrof, Studies in Oral History *

William H. Chafe graduated from Harvard College in 1962, received his Ph.D from Columbia University in 1971, and has taught at Duke University for the past fifty years. Former Chair of the History Department and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, he has published 13 books, been selected as president of the Organization of American Historians, is a Phi Beta Kappa Fellow, and has been awarded two Fulbright Awards. He is married to Lorna Chafe, and they have two children, Christopher and Jennifer.

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