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Jacqueline Goggin, Carter G. Woodson: A Life in Black History
In this succinct biography, Jacqueline Goggin, who is affiliated with the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute of Harvard University and is the managing editor of the Harvard Guide to Afro-American History, presents a nuanced account of the life and scholarship of the irascible father of black history. And, although she traverses ground familiar to scholars and persons who have read Patricia W. Romero's dissertation, Goggin's own dissertation, and August Meier's Black History and the Historical Profession, 1915-1980, she nevertheless advances an interpretation of Woodson which boldly challenges the depiction of him as a mere "entrepreneur."
The son of former Virginia slaves, Woodson successfully lifted himself up from abject poverty to reasonable comfort through sheer pluck, hard work, and perseverance. After receiving degrees from Berea College and the University of Chicago successfully, the capstone of his apprenticeship in the historical profession occurred in...