Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie

by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Book Overview

A classic in contemporary Oklahoma literature, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Red Dirt unearths the joys and ordeals of growing up poor during the 1940s and 1950s. In this exquisite rendering of her childhood... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1859841627
• ISBN13: 9781859841624
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Verso
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

The shaping of an activist.

This book was my introduction to Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz. I read it before I learned more about her and her career as an activist for the past 40 years. She reflects on her life from birth until her move to California. She grew up in rural Oklahoma during some of the worst years ever. These were the years that shaped her, the launching pad of her feminist, anti-family, pro-socialist, anti-war, ... efforts. The reader can learn a good bit about the Socialist movement in Oklahoma in the early 1900's, the Green Corn Rebellion and the patriotic surge that accompanied World War I. Roxanne's grandfather, one of the less 'disfunctional' family members was a Socialist and strongly pro-labor and imparted his views to her. She remembers him fondly. It appears that her abusive alcoholic mother influenced her ideas about the family and church. She had very little to say about her mother or father that is not negative. Considering these influences, the dire poverty of her early childhood, and her marriage 'up' the social ladder her views on things are not too surprising. Simple - yes, but undeniably true, at least in part. And that does not take away from her drive, talent and desire to make a positive change in the world. You can learn more about Roxanne at her website, reddirt.com. I think I will read Outlaw Woman, the next volume of her story.

history and struggles of the frontier settler class

...The best of autobiographical works are those that convey, in the telling of one life story, larger truths than those we experience as individuals. To accomplish this feat with seeming effortlessness, as Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz has done with Red Dirt, is to create not only a valuable historical record, but a literary work that is a pleasure to read. Employing the finest storytelling skills, Dunbar-Ortiz lovingly recollects her youth in Oklahoma and the family dynamics she experienced "growing up Okie" during the mid-20th-century. In the process, she touches upon a host of social issues--among them racism, sexism, and economic disparity--that have plagued the U.S. since its earliest days. Perhaps most importantly, she offers one resounding voice from among a vast population--namely, the white underclass--that consistently has been underrepresented in historical texts, and misrepresented in popular culture. Exploding the notion of 'poor white trash,' Dunbar-Ortiz offers three-dimensional alternative as she reconstructs through her personal memoir the history and struggles of the frontier settler class and its descendants. As we move into the next century, Red Dirt is a text of vital significance to our collective humanity

A New Fan

I grew up in central Oklahoma and can identify with many of the themes Ms. Dunbar-Ortiz writes about in Red Dirt. I think anyone who is on a journey of self-discovery or is attempting to reconcile his or her past will enjoy this book as much as I did. I rarely read literature about Oklahoma that makes me proud to be an "Okie" - this book does just that.

A Must Read

I love this book. A book written about my home state with honesty and clarity of what it means to be Okie. Class struggles, hard working people, historic pain and abuse and the eventual dementia of a woman struggling with her suppressed indianess. Keep the spirit of the Wobblies alive!

Dunbar-Ortiz has produced an American classic in biography.

With the publication of Red Dirt Dunbar-Ortiz has made a major contribution to American biography. She has managed to write a Steinbeckian account of her childhood and youth in Oklahoma in the 1950s. The humanity and oppression of poor white people is writ large here. Red Dirt is informed by a feminist and class analysis but with great grace and touching honesty. like Meridel LeSueur's novels of 60 years ago, Dunbar-Ortiz shows the quotidian lives of working people who are ignored or riduculed by the outside world. The book is clear eyed and rich in detail. I used the book as a required text in a Sex and Gender course and it was a great hit among my students.