From Scottsboro to Munich:
Race and Political Culture in 1930s Britain
Susan D. Pennybacker

Paper | 2009 | $27.95 / £19.95
Cloth | 2009 | $55.00 / £37.95
400 pp. | 6 x 9 | 27 halftones.

e-Book | 2009 | $27.95 | ISBN: 978-1-4008-3141-8

Shopping Cart | Endorsements | Table of Contents
Introduction [PDF]

Presenting a portrait of engaged, activist lives in the 1930s, From Scottsboro to Munich follows a global network of individuals and organizations that posed challenges to the racism and colonialism of the era. Susan Pennybacker positions race at the center of the British, imperial, and transatlantic political culture of the 1930s--from Jim Crow, to imperial London, to the events leading to the Munich Crisis--offering a provocative new understanding of the conflicts, politics, and solidarities of the years leading to World War II.

Pennybacker examines the British Scottsboro defense campaign, inaugurated after nine young African Americans were unjustly charged with raping two white women in Alabama in 1931. She explores the visit to Britain of Ada Wright, the mother of two of the defendants. Pennybacker also considers British responses to the Meerut Conspiracy Trial in India, the role that antislavery and refugee politics played in attempts to appease Hitler at Munich, and the work of key figures like Trinidadian George Padmore in opposing Jim Crow and anti-Semitism. Pennybacker uses a wide variety of archival materials drawn from Russian Comintern, Dutch, French, British, and American collections. Literary and biographical sources are complemented by rich photographic images.

From Scottsboro to Munich sheds new light on the racial debates of the 1930s, the lives and achievements of committed activists and their supporters, and the political challenges that arose in the postwar years.

Susan D. Pennybacker is the Borden W. Painter, Jr., Professor of European History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She is the author of A Vision for London, 1889-1914.

Endorsements:

"This extraordinarily well-researched book puts notable 1930s causes and individuals into new global contexts. Pennybacker leaves no stone unturned--she examines fugitive writings, newspaper coverage, government documents, and many other sources to tell a richly detailed story of the period."--Werner Sollors, Harvard University

"From Scottsboro to Munich is an important intervention in the history of the 1930s, not only the history of Britain but of the West and the international Left. The book brings together people and campaigns that have been written about separately but never before treated as a whole."--Jeffrey Cox, University of Iowa

Table of Contents:

List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Ada Wright and Scottsboro 16
Chapter 2: George Padmore and London 66
Chapter 3: Lady Kathleen Simon and Antislavery 103
Chapter 4: Saklatvala and the Meerut Trial 146
Chapter 5: Diasporas: Refugees and Exiles 200
Chapter 6: A Thieves' Kitchen, 1938-39 240
Conclusion 265
Chronology 275
Notes on Sources 279
Notes 283
Glossary 341
Bibliography 353
Index 371

Subject Areas:

• European History
• American History
• World History / Comparative History

Shopping Cart:

For customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia
Paper: $27.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-14186-2
Cloth: $55.00 ISBN13: 978-0-691-08828-0

For customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India
Paper: £19.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-14186-2
Cloth: £37.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-08828-0

Our e-Book editions are available from many of these online vendors

Prices subject to change without notice

File created: 11/4/2009

Questions and comments to: webmaster@press.princeton.edu
Princeton University Press