Amazon.com
Nineteenth-century African American businessman, activist, and educator Booker Taliaferro Washington's Up from Slavery is one of the greatest American autobiographies ever written. Its mantras of black economic empowerment, land ownership, and self-help inspired generations of black leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan. In rags-to-riches fashion, Washington recounts his ascendance from early life as a mulatto slave in Virginia to a 34-year term as president of the influential, agriculturally based Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From that position, Washington reigned as the most important leader of his people, with slogans like "cast down your buckets," which emphasized vocational merit rather than the academic and political excellence championed by his contemporary rival W.E.B. Du Bois. Though many considered him too accommodating to segregationists, Washington, as he said in his historic "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, believed that "political agitation alone would not save [the Negro]," and that "property, industry, skill, intelligence, and character" would prove necessary to black Americans' success. The potency of his philosophies are alive today in the nationalist and conservative camps that compose the complex quilt of black American society.
From AudioFile
This production offers an exemplary life in sound, with an outstanding reading by Andrew L. Barnes revealing Booker T. Washington as a sagacious American leader by any standard. From the first sentence to the last, Barnes's deep, expressive tones mold Washington's autobiography with a warm, stentorian resonance. In crisp and uncompromising style UP FROM SLAVERY presents a true historical overview of a period of intense cultural and racial change in our country. Washington's wit and humility shine throughout the recording, offering an unvarnished account that can serve as a fine educational tool for schools, libraries, and students of American history and African-American culture. Barnes is a patient, thoughtful reader--his gifts make this a memorable listen. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
