Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga book by Pamela Newkirk
By Pamela Newkirk2016 NAACP Image Award Winner Winner of the 2016 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction An award-winning journalist reveals a little-known and shameful episode in American history, when an African man was used as a human zoo exhibit—a shocking story of racial prejudice, science, and tragedy in the early years of the twentieth century in the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Devil in the White City, and Medical Apartheid. In 1904, Ota Benga, a young Congolese “pygmy”—a person of petite stature—arrived from central Africa and was featured in an anthropology exhibit at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Two years later, the New York Zoological Gardens displayed him in its Monkey House, caging the slight 103-pound, 4-foot 11-inch tall man with an orangutan. The attraction became an international sensation, drawing thousands of New Yorkers and commanding headlines from across the nation and Europe. Spectacle explores the circumstances of Ota Benga’s captivity, the international controversy it inspired, and his efforts to adjust to American life. It also reveals why, decades later, the man most responsible for his exploitation would be hailed as his friend and savior, while those who truly fought for Ota have been banished to the shadows of history. Using primary historical documents, Pamela Newkirk traces Ota’s tragic life, from Africa to St. Louis to New York, and finally to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he lived out the remainder of his short life. Illuminating this unimaginable event, Spectacle charts the evolution of science and race relations in New York City during the early years of the twentieth century, exploring this racially fraught era for Africa-Americans and the rising tide of political disenfranchisement and social scorn they endured, forty years after the end of the Civil War. Shocking and compelling Spectacle is a masterful work of social history that raises difficult questions about racial prejudice and discrimination that continue to haunt us today. Published By Amistad on 2015-06-02
Book details
- Paperback
- 336 pages
- English
- 006220100X
- 9780062201003
About Pamela Newkirk
pamela newkirk is an award-winning journalist and a professor of journalism at new york university. she is the author of within the veil: black journalists Read More about Pamela Newkirk
More Books By Pamela Newkirk
People who bought this also bought
To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others book by Daniel H. Pink
New Book
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True book by Richard Dawkins
New Book
Great Escape Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality book by Angus Deaton
New Book
Surrounded by Setbacks: Or, How to Succeed When Everything's Gone Bad book by Thomas Erikson
New Book
The Safest Place on Earth : Where People Connect and are Forever Changed
Used Book
Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul: 101 Stories of Courage, Hope and Laughter book by Jack Canfield
Used Book
Renegades: Born in the USA book by Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen
New Book
The How: Notes on the Great Work of Meeting Yourself book by Yrsa Daley-Ward
New Book
Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life book by Bill Burnett
New Book
The Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business book by Steve Mariotti
New Book
365 Ways to Cook Pasta: For Every Season, for Every Reason, a Pasta Lover's Paradise
Used Book
Levitation's View: Lessons Voiced from an Extraordinary Journey Volume I, the Wonder Years
Used Book
A Year in the Dark: Journal of a Film Critic 1968-1969 book by Renata Adler
Used Book
Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution book by Mona Eltahawy
New Book
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance book by Barack Obama
Like New
Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things book by Michael Braungart
New Book
Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight book by Robert Mnookin
New Book