From Scottsboro to Munich: Race and Political Culture in 1930s Britain - Softcover

Pennybacker, Susan D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 069114186X ISBN 13: 9780691141862

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Presenting a portrait of engaged, activist lives in the 1930s, From Scottsboro to Munich follows a global network of individuals and organizations that posed challenges to the racism and colonialism of the era. Susan Pennybacker positions race at the center of the British, imperial, and transatlantic political culture of the 1930s--from Jim Crow, to imperial London, to the events leading to the Munich Crisis--offering a provocative new understanding of the conflicts, politics, and solidarities of the years leading to World War II.

Pennybacker examines the British Scottsboro defense campaign, inaugurated after nine young African Americans were unjustly charged with raping two white women in Alabama in 1931. She explores the visit to Britain of Ada Wright, the mother of two of the defendants. Pennybacker also considers British responses to the Meerut Conspiracy Trial in India, the role that antislavery and refugee politics played in attempts to appease Hitler at Munich, and the work of key figures like Trinidadian George Padmore in opposing Jim Crow and anti-Semitism. Pennybacker uses a wide variety of archival materials drawn from Russian Comintern, Dutch, French, British, and American collections. Literary and biographical sources are complemented by rich photographic images.

From Scottsboro to Munich sheds new light on the racial debates of the 1930s, the lives and achievements of committed activists and their supporters, and the political challenges that arose in the postwar years.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"This extraordinarily well-researched book puts notable 1930s causes and individuals into new global contexts. Pennybacker leaves no stone unturned--she examines fugitive writings, newspaper coverage, government documents, and many other sources to tell a richly detailed story of the period."--Werner Sollors, Harvard University

"From Scottsboro to Munich is an important intervention in the history of the 1930s, not only the history of Britain but of the West and the international Left. The book brings together people and campaigns that have been written about separately but never before treated as a whole."--Jeffrey Cox, University of Iowa

About the Author:

Susan D. Pennybacker is the Borden W. Painter, Jr., Professor of European History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She is the author of A Vision for London, 1889-1914.

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 069114186X
• ISBN 13: 9780691141862
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 408