For over two centuries, in the North as well as the South, both within their own community and in the public arena, African Americans have presented their bodies in culturally distinctive ways. Shane White and Graham White consider the deeper significance of the ways in which African Americans have dressed, walked, danced, arranged their hair, and communicated in silent gestures. They ask what elaborate hair styles, bright colors, bandanas, long watch chains, and zoot suits, for example, have really meant, and discuss style itself as an expression of deep-seated cultural imperatives. Their wide-ranging exploration of black style from its African origins to the 1940s reveals a culture that differed from that of the dominant racial group in ways that were often subtle and elusive.
A wealth of black-and-white illustrations show the range of African American experience in America, emanating from all parts of the country, from cities and farms, from slave plantations, and Chicago beauty contests. White and White argue that the politics of black style is, in fact, the politics of metaphor, always ambiguous because it is always indirect. To tease out these ambiguities, they examine extensive sources, including advertisements for runaway slaves, interviews recorded with surviving ex-slaves in the 1930s, autobiographies, travelers’ accounts, photographs, paintings, prints, newspapers, and images drawn from popular culture, such as the stereotypes of Jim Crow and Zip Coon.
Reviews
"As this brisk, illuminating survey amply documents, African American culture--from the 19th-century dandy mocked by whites to today’s baggy hip-hop clothing--has helped make black survival possible in America, both as link to the homeland and as voice of resistance. Using material as varied as runaway slave advertisements, autobiographies, beauty-contest fliers and sociological surveys, [the authors] bring to vivid life ‘the way in which, over more than two centuries, ordinary black men and women developed a style that did indeed affirm their lives.’ . . . This well-researched and engaging history pulls together a mostly untold story with as much verve as the swinging dandies it depicts."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
“[This] volume provides fascinating glimpses (including more than 50 illustrations) of black culture, from owners’ annoyance at their slaves’ taste in color to beauty contests."-- Booklist
"Focusing on such variegated indicators of black style as dress, hair, body language, and dance, the authors reveal an evolving semiotics of black self-creating that has been designed from its very outset to impose a degree of individuality on the numbing uniformity bred of slavery, poverty, Jim Crow laws, and white racism. . . . This volume represents an excellent example of how to use the most unlikely materials, such as newspaper-sponsored beauty pageants from the ‘20s, to examine how a people’s culture defines its values in the face of oppression. . . . Well written and intelligently argued. It even has that rarity of rarities in a university press book: a preface that is delightfully funny. A highly useful contribution to black history from an unexpected direction, in every sense of that phrase."--Kirkus Reviews
"Sifting through photographs, paintings, interviews, and surveys, [the authors] detail how blacks from the slavery era to World War II developed a self-affirming, expressive body style that differentiated them from the larger society and was manifested in clothing, hairstyles, dance, gestures, and other personal attributes. [They] argue that the politics of ‘black’ style was the embodiment of ambiguity, acting as subtle jab to the dominant racial group."--Library Journal
"In this slim but fascinating volume of essays, scholars Shane White and Graham White try to divine the roots and meanings of African-American body adornment."--Baltimore Sun Newspaper, Baltimore MD
"[A] lively survey of Afro-American culture from its roots to the zoot suit."--The Bookwatch, The Midwest Book Review
"Innovative, thought-provoking, and consistently entertaining. . . . [The authors’] observations on the distinctive ways in which working class African Americans have dressed, styled their hair, and communicated meaning via gesture, dance, and other forms or bodily display reveal the existence of a vibrant, life-affirming black aesthetic sensibility that for generations has challenged white Americans’ misplaced assumptions of superiority. . . . [T]his well-illustrated, beautifully produced study does an admirable job of extracting an African-American perspective on cultural mediation from non-black and non-traditional sources."--Georgia Historical Quarterly
"[A]n eloquent account of ways in which ordinary black men and women have affirmed their lives."--EBSCO Publishing
"[F]ascinating reading for black dancers, athletes, and just plain folks of both races who marvel at the differences and similarities between black and white cultural expression."--Rosalind Alexander, Seattle Weekly
"[P]ersuasive. . . . Stylin’ is a splendid . . . examination of the meaning of black style."--Choice
"This is an impressive book. It is written in a compelling, readable style, one that never loses its pace. . . . Stylin’ is a work of scholarship of the first order, and it should be regarded as required reading for those interested in African American culture as well as popular culture in general."--H-Net Reviews.
"Any reader . . . can pick up Stylin’ at any point and find fascinating nuggets of information and intelligent commentary on such issues as what happened when slaves moved from consumers to producers of cloth and why blacks preferred some forms of bodily display to others. . . . Stylin’ is what a book should be--lest we forget--a great read. . . . [T]he authors give much room for their heroes, common black men and women, to speak and to create once again . . . [and] their words and works are a joy to behold and give life to this book."--Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.
"A major contribution to the study of African American and American history and culture...[H]ighly recommended."--The North Carolina Historical Review.
"I see this as a book well worth having and working with. It is well-written, thoughtful and muy sympatico."--Plantation Society in the Americas.
"The Whites adeptly link presentations of the body with other modes of black aesthetics and tie present styles to those of the past. . . . Scholars of African American culture as well as the general reader will find Stylin' to be an engaging book, free of academic jargon and rich in pictorial evidence. Shane White and Graham White contribute significantly to the scholarship on African Americans' many forms of self- and communal preservation. . . "--Helen Bradley Foster, College of Visual Arts, St. Paul, MN. The Journal of American History. September, 2000.
"This book. . . is indeed an impressive genealogy. . . It is written in a compelling, readable style, one that never loses its pace. . . remarkable for both the detail of its primary research and its analytic reach. All told, Stylin' is a work of scholarship of the first order, and it should be regarded as required reading for those interested in African American culture as well as popular culture in general."--Michael T. Carroll, Highlands University, NM. Journal of American Culture.
"Shane and Graham White have written a remarkable account of African-American expressive culture in the United States from slavery times through to the 1940s. . . .finely nuanced and interesting throughout. . . the White brothers are to be commended."--Tim Lockley, University of Warwick, Slavery and Abolition
"White and White have a great deal to say to Americans about their past. What makes Stylin' a remarkable book is...[the authors'] breakthrough scholarship on the social and cultural significance of African-American public style...It is White and White's meticulous portrayal of African-American style as distinct from, even critical of white culture, yet at the same time constantly influencing and reacting to "mainstream" trends, which is the most compelling aspect of this book...Stylin' is an excellent book. It is an invaluable contribution to the field of African-American cultural history. It is useful and innovative, but most importantly, it suggests new directions in which scholarship might go."--Susannah Walker, Carnegie Mellon University, Journal of Social History.
"In their thoroughly researched and brilliantly argued study,...[the authors] have enriched our understanding of and appreciation for black cultural style over the last three centuries...[and]have penetrated the inner world of Aftrican America, a world that has both fascinated and mystified many white Americans. Fortunately these two perceptive scholars from Australia have demystified tis world, revealing its critical relationship to the whole of American culture."--James Oliver Horton, Australasian Journal of American Studies. December, 1999.
"This is an ambitious study,...impressive in its scope...It is uncommon in histories written anywhere to find the combination of careful close analysis and authoritative but unobtrusive narration of the larger historical processes. Stylin' is a substantial achievement and deserves to be widely read."--David Goodman, University of Melbourne, Labour History. May, 1999.
"[This book} is indeed an impressive genealogy. . . an impressive book. It is written in a compelling, readable style, one that never loses its pace; and yet, it is just as remarkable for both the detail of its primary research and its analytic reach. All told, Stylin' is a work of scholarship of the first order, and it should be regarded as required reading for those interested in African American culture as well as popular culture in general."--Michael T. Carroll, Highlands University, NM, Journal of American Culture.
"The book is meticulously researched...[A] rich study that comprehensively situates the role of expressive culture in the development of black American history."--Trevor McCrisken, University of Sussex. American Studies, Vol. 34, 2000
“In this brilliant and much anticipated book, Graham White and Shane White have essentially given us a history of the black body in public during the last two centuries. Building from a rich lode of historical and anecdotal evidence, their readings of antebellum clothing and hairstyles, social dancing, parades, beauty pageants, even self-mutilation offer a fresh interpretation of African American political and cultural history. Each page testifies to African American culture’s enduring hybridity; it has always drawn from the wellspring of Afro-diasporic traditions, popular culture, the vernacular of previous generations of black folk, technological innovations, and a whole lot of imagination.”--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America
“Must reading for anyone interested in cracking the mysteries of African-American culture. From language to gestures, dance to dress, hair to high-steppin’, Stylin’ decodes the deepest secrets of black life.”--Ira Berlin, author of Families and Freedom: A Documentary History of African American Kinship in the Civil War Era
