Drew Gilpin Faust

An intriguing memoir of growing up during a tumultuous time in the 1950's & 60's. The author is a professional historian who grew up in rural Virginia during the post WWII era and the racial unrest of that time. As the only girl in a family with three brothers, she was keenly aware of how people were treated differently and had an strong innate sense of fairness and justice. Because of radio broadcast while riding in the car around age 9, she also became aware of the racial injustice that surrounded her.

Granted the author had the privileges of race, social class, and economic security. But the narrative of her activism demonstrates that she leveraged those advantages to take a stand for her beliefs as a teen and young adult.

I'm slightly younger than the author and remember most of the events in the late 50's and 60's. Reading this book reminded me of the discomfort I felt as a child & youth regarding those news stories. That discomfort remains with me today, because the issues are still unresolved. There is some irony that by participating in history, this young woman then made a life out of history. Relevant quote: "Coming to terms with the past would ultimately become an intellectual and professional commitment as well as a personal necessity. I grew up to be a historian." p. 257.… (mer)

Drew Gilpin Faust writes about growing up in a privileged Virginia environment in the mid-20th century, and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights Movement, among other causes of the day. Her southern, traditional upbringing came into conflict with her experiences at Concord Academy for high school and Bryn Mawr for college. While just 15, she took the first of 2 trips to Eastern Europe, quite unusual during the Cold War. She also became an activist traveling in the south in the Jim Crow era. The book traces her youth and ends at her graduation from college.

I have mixed feelings about the book. She has an interesting story to tell about mid-century America, but it is a story of privilege that I found hard to relate to. Despite a difficult relationship with her parents, there is never a mention of the funding of her exceptional lifestyle, which helped give her such insight into the larger world. She went to a boarding school, and then could choose pretty much any college she preferred, which in her writing she doesn’t seem to recognize as privileged. I appreciate what she did and learned given her background, but coming from quite a different background myself, it feels like quite an elitist perspective. I tip my hat to her accomplishments, but they seem a little less remarkable given her background.… (mer)