The Other Brahmins: Boston's Black Upper Class 1750-1950 (Black Community Studies)

Rating:
Summary: An excellent piece of work, stimulating and enlightening.
Review: The Other Brahmins challenges us to find out more about our culture. It is a "must have" for every reader interested in an accurate account of the black experience in an American city. In almost every ethnic culture there is a group that steps to the forefront to set the standards of social leadership. Boston being one of the older cities in this country would be no better place to look at the rise of the black upper class. Adelaide Cromwell's work explores the life of upper class blacks in this old northern city from the end of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. It is a well researched and fascinating profile of the activities of this often alluded to, but largely unknown class of Americans. The central focus is the comparison of black and white upper class woman in the 1940s. The author traces the early black leaders in Boston society; the social structure of the black upper class; factors in the lifestyle of Boston's black elite women; and race and the black upper class in Boston. I find it to be one of the finest examples of sociological scholarship. The author truly ranks among the great social historians of the day. This rare look at the black social establishment is very timely in that there had not been any resourceful books on the subject since the 1970s with the works of Gerri Majors and Stephen Birmingham. This work along with the works of Williard Gatewood( Aristocrats of Color) and William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours by Roger Lane were only books that I had seen published during the 1990s on the subject of the black upper class. During my own research the only article that I had read focusing on the black community of Boston was the 1948 article featured in Ebony entitled "Boston Elite Worships Ancestors". This work was a breakthrough for me and I am sure for those who have established an interest in the social history of Black America.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent piece of work, stimulating and enlightening.
Review: The Other Brahmins challenges us to find out more about our culture. It is a "must have" for every reader interested in an accurate account of the black experience in an American city. In almost every ethnic culture there is a group that steps to the forefront to set the standards of social leadership. Boston being one of the older cities in this country would be no better place to look at the rise of the black upper class. Adelaide Cromwell's work explores the life of upper class blacks in this old northern city from the end of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. It is a well researched and fascinating profile of the activities of this often alluded to, but largely unknown class of Americans. The central focus is the comparison of black and white upper class woman in the 1940s. The author traces the early black leaders in Boston society; the social structure of the black upper class; factors in the lifestyle of Boston's black elite women; and race and the black upper class in Boston. I find it to be one of the finest examples of sociological scholarship. The author truly ranks among the great social historians of the day. This rare look at the black social establishment is very timely in that there had not been any resourceful books on the subject since the 1970s with the works of Gerri Majors and Stephen Birmingham. This work along with the works of Williard Gatewood( Aristocrats of Color) and William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours by Roger Lane were only books that I had seen published during the 1990s on the subject of the black upper class. During my own research the only article that I had read focusing on the black community of Boston was the 1948 article featured in Ebony entitled "Boston Elite Worships Ancestors". This work was a breakthrough for me and I am sure for those who have established an interest in the social history of Black America.