This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait, 1900-1950

by Jervis Anderson

Book Overview

Rear dust jacket notes: "This Was Harlem is an important essay in American cultural history, filled with incidents, insights and memorable characters, and most vividly evocative of the glamour and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374276234
• ISBN13: 9780374276232
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 389 Pages
• Weight: 1.88 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The struggle continues

A very good look into the life of Harlem. Harlem was the place to be. This was a very good read, it gave me a good picture of what Harlem might be like.

Excellent read

This book was recommended to me and I realy loved it - Anderson did an excellent job by describing decades of Harlem from a slightly detached position and he clearly resisted temptation to dwell on certain celebrities,giving everybody more or less same place in his book.So Duke Ellington,Bessie Smith and Joe Louis did not overshadow importance of less-known names of certain black preachers,polititians and artists - in fact this book actually inspired me to search for more informations about Madame C.J.Walker who went from being washerwoman to first black woman millionaire in USA ("On her own ground" by A'lelia Boundles and "Black Rose" by Tanarive Due are my next read).People like Paul Robeson,Zora Neale Hurtson and James Baldwin are mentioned almost in the same breath as some long -forgotten names and I found it fascinating that someone had talent to describe Harlem so knowingly and lovingly AND still the book is not boring factual encyclopedia but characters are breathing and living.Great.

Outstading story about a poorly understood part of America

Jervis Anderson has contributed mightily to the history of New York, America and African American life with this work. This is a comprehensive exploration of the area which was without question the center of African-American life. Harlem was first settled by the Dutch, New York's first immigrant group. African Americans ultimately resided in much of it, as it became the Mecca for Blacks arriving from the South. Harlem became the epicenter for Black America, and was such a source of pride in the accomplishments of the race. Before the era of integration, Harlem was home to a multitude of Black-owned businesses. During the Renaissance in the early 1900's it was the center of Black culture, and some of the greatest thinkers, sociologists and entertainers of the era called Harlem home.It is an easy read, worth searching for.