Reviews tagging 'Violence'

A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry, Kali Nicole Gross

13 reviews

decklededgess's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

trigger warnings: rape, assault, suicide, depression, murder, forced sterilization, sexism, homophobia, racism, violence

Most of the triggers are mentioned in passing and not described in detail. The impact of these acts is definitely expounded on to explain how such events impacted history and the lives of the women and non binary people mentioned throughout the book.

A heartbreaking yet inspiring account of Black women and gender non conforming people who changed the course of history in America. This was super informative and adds to the wealth of Black history I've been reading up on. This certainly fills out a lot of the holes in the historical accounts considering women and Black people are consistently left out due to their "lack of relevance" or whatever weak excuse there is.
I did find that the book tended to focus more on the general history surrounding the women instead of detailed accounts of their lives and accomplishments but I think this book is meant more as a survey and a jumping point to start researching the names over a comprehensive guide of history itself. I really appreciated this.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Biphobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Murder

aqtbenz's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Murder

unread_shelves's review against another edition

informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

I originally put this book on hold at the library back in late March / early April. Quarantine was getting under way and I was catching up on BookTube videos. I believe this came onto my radar from K.D. Winchester (Kendra) on her BookTube channel. Kendra always has great recommendations, and books that I don't typically see mentioned elsewhere.

This book spans approximately 400 years and following the roles of various Black women in a specific time periods. While the Black women we know of in history are mentioned, Daina Ramey Berry, Kali Nicole Gross make a point to include the stories of women that aren't as well known. 

This book was fascinating! I found myself highlighting (it was an e-copy!) so many names and references to moments in history to be able to go back and learn more. I loved the approach of highlighting women that we may not have heard of with the standard way history is taught (which is quite poor, but that's a topic for a different time). 

There is talk of violence throughout this book. History is steeped in violence, and not acknowledging it would be a disservice. Overall, I loved this! It was well-written had the right amount of historical facts to narrative and covered a lot of ground. If you're re-learning history, not unlike myself and so many others, this is one that should be on your list. Learning about the many amazing Black women in history should be on everyone's TBR list!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence