Darkology : blackface and the American way of entertainment / Rhae Lynn Barnes.
| Author/creator | Barnes, Rhae Lynn author. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication | New York, NY : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, [2026] |
| Copyright Date | ©2026 |
| Description | xix, 501 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), photographs ; 25 cm |
| Subjects |
| Portion of title | Blackface and the American way of entertainment |
| Contents | Introduction. The hidden history America lives with ; Darktown ; Blacking up ; The even stranger career of Jim Crow in modern America -- Part one: The Jolly Corks. Face value ; Five Points ; Jolly Corks ; Benevolent blackface ; BPOE and political power -- Part two: Booked. Entertainment service no further than your mailbox ; Stage to page ; Blackface capitalism -- Part three: Uncle Sam and the business of blackface. Happy days ; Blackface bureau ; This is the Army ; Jim Crowed -- Part four: Dixie in the desert. Manzanar minstrelsy ; Minstrels in Japan ; Assembly centers ; Japanese American concentration camps ; Furusato -- Part five: Polio minstrels. The death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt ; Medical minstrel shows ; Skin deep ; Redaction -- Part six: "A thing apart". Mailbag ; Suburbia ; Migrant mothers ; Riveting lives ; A learning place ; A plain reading ; Breaking records -- Part seven: Sugarcoating slavery. Dancing with the devil ; Rituals ; Dagger in my heart ; Walkouts ; Over my dead body -- Part eight: A Ford, not a Lincoln ; Showboating ; Whistling Dixie ; Troubled waters -- When the American dream wore blackface. |
| Abstract | "Historian Rhae Lynn Barnes meticulously unravels the complex, subterranean, and all-too-often expunged history of "Darkology"-the insidious study, commodification, and dehumanization of Black life, through which performers caricatured the enslaved and formerly enslaved for their supposed subservience and happy demeanor. Darkology dismantles the myth that blackface was a fleeting, post-Civil War phenomenon. Even in eras known for liberal progressivism, it flourished, its legacy still percolating in variable forms today."--Adapted from jacket flaps. |
| Abstract | Darkology by Rhae Lynn Barnes is a scholarly historical work examining the development, spread, and cultural impact of blackface minstrelsy in the United States. Drawing on archival research, oral histories, visual culture, and institutional records, the author traces how blackface performance became embedded in American entertainment, politics, education, and public life from the nineteenth century through the twentieth century and into more recent decades. The book analyzes the relationship between minstrelsy and constructions of race, power, and national identity, and considers its continuing legacy in American culture. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages [437]-486) and index. |
| Issued in other form | ebook version : 9781631496356 |
| Genre/form | Informational works. |
| Genre/form | Informational works. |
| Genre/form | Illustrated works. |
| Genre/form | Documents d'information. |
| Genre/form | Ouvrages illustrés. |
| ISBN | 9781631496349 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 1631496344 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | (ePub ebook) |
| ISBN | (ePub ebook) |
| Standard identifier# | CIPO000341062 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | New Books | PN2071 .B58 B37 2026 | ✔ Available | Want This? |