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manwithanagenda's review against another edition
2.0
This was one of several popular non-fiction titles I read for a course called Intermarriage in the U.S. This court case, one of the most shocking, if forgotten, miscegenation cases in United States history.
In the early 1920s a rich heir falls in love and marries a woman, and then (most surely under pressure from his parents) files for annulment on the basis that his wife had misled him about her race. This poor woman is paraded before the court, her family belittled and her character ruined forever in the eyes of the public.
The story itself is riveting, the case exceptionally important both as a reflection of "race relations" at the time and as a look at how the media fuels a frenzy and prefers covering lurid gossip over actual news copy.
I'm afraid the book is just no good however, the authors make numerous assumptions and leaps of the imagination due to favoring lurid news reports and much of the original case files being lost. The authors play up the drama for the mass market, but sacrifice the credibility of their coverage of this case.
In the early 1920s a rich heir falls in love and marries a woman, and then (most surely under pressure from his parents) files for annulment on the basis that his wife had misled him about her race. This poor woman is paraded before the court, her family belittled and her character ruined forever in the eyes of the public.
The story itself is riveting, the case exceptionally important both as a reflection of "race relations" at the time and as a look at how the media fuels a frenzy and prefers covering lurid gossip over actual news copy.
I'm afraid the book is just no good however, the authors make numerous assumptions and leaps of the imagination due to favoring lurid news reports and much of the original case files being lost. The authors play up the drama for the mass market, but sacrifice the credibility of their coverage of this case.
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