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Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala

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Student - LOVED IT!
It's still happening!
Power and influence
More accounts of U.S. terrorism in the world
Fast-paced and balanced account of American foreign policy

Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala
Stephen C. Schlesinger , and Stephen Kinser
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala
Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954
Silence on the Mountain: Stories of Terror, Betrayal, and Forgetting in Guatemala (American Encounters/Global Interactions)
The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention (Texas Pan American Series)
Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy

ASIN: 0385183542
Release Date: 1983-01-18

Book Description

There is a newer edition of this book.

Bitter Fruit recounts in telling detail the CIA operation to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954. The 1982 book has become a classic, a textbook case study of Cold War meddling that succeeded only to condemn Guatemala to decades of military dictatorship. The authors make extensive use of U.S. government publications and documents, as well as interviews with former CIA and other officials. The Harvard edition includes a powerful new introduction by historian John Coatsworth, Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; an insightful prologue by Richard Nuccio, former State Department official who revealed recent evidence of CIA misconduct in Guatemala to Congress; and a compelling afterword by coauthor Stephen Kinzer, now Istanbul bureau chief for the New York Times, summarizing developments that led from the 1954 coup to the peace accords that ended Guatemala's civil strife forty years later.

Customer Reviews:

Student - LOVED IT!.......2007-06-10

If you are new to political type books, this is a great read! It reads very much like a novel. I had to read the book for a class and couldn't put it down because I just couldn't wait to see what happened next. It is a disturbing tale of the manipulative power of the U.S. government and press among other things.

It's still happening!.......2006-05-14

After the successful coup by the CIA, general Castillo Armas was "made" president. Just two years later he was murdered, and Gen. Ydigoras Fuentes took power (1958). In response to the increasingly autocratic rule of Gen. Fuentes, a group of junior military officers revolted in 1960. When they failed, several went into hiding and established close ties with Cuba. This group (the guerrillas) became the nucleus of the forces that were in armed insurrection against the government for the next 36 years.

Nearly 300,000 people died.

The civil war ended in 1996. And we are still living with the repercussions of a 36 year war: violence, poverty, industrial underdevelopment, resentment, corruption etc.

So, if you think this book speaks of events long past and forgotten... think again. The same MO was used in Irak. There were no WMDs (Bush lied), there was no reason to start a war! Or was it? Did american big business benefit?

37,000 civilians from Iraq have died.

3,000 american soldiers have died.

And when you see the millions of latin immigrants protesting in all your major cities, don't be so quick to blame our countries. The CIA did similar things in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Chile, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Argentina, Honduras etc.

Do yourself a favor and read this book.

Power and influence.......2005-07-31

BITTER FRUIT is about the means and methods the U.S. government, through the CIA and the American ambassador to Guatemala, used to overthrow the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954. The Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz was leading an administration that was working to enact land reform. It was hoped that these efforts, among others, would stem the tide of poverty in a country still bound to a labor system that forced poor people to work a certain number of days on large farms or face prison time. Shaking off the vestiges of a dictatorship that was defeated by popular elections in the 1940s, Guatemala sought such reforms to enfranchise more citizens.

The "fruit" of the title is that of the United Fruit Company, an American concern with large land, labor and capital holdings in Guatemala and the Caribbean. UFC also had a lot of influence in government, particularly with Eisenhower's Republican administration. When Arbenz's government took the rights to Fruit Company land (much of its land was left uncultivated, held as an "in case" the company said) and paid it the value the company had listed on its Guatemalan tax returns, influence was peddled in Washington, the word "communism" was thrown around, and Eisenhower gave the go-ahead to covert operations to overthrow the democratically elected Arbenz and replace him with an American supported military junta. Ironically, the Guatemalan move to democracy in the 1940s was inspired by FDR and the country's belief in rights for all humans, whatever the economic level. (Truman, apparently, would not approve such operations, so the Fruit Company had to wait for Eisenhower to effect the outcome it wanted.)

The book is a model historical work, heavily footnoted, clearly written, factually presented and overwhelmingly upsetting. It has a chapter on Edward Bernays, an early practioner of PR, who was Freud's nephew, and who was hired by the United Fruit Company to advance its goals in the United States. Bernays did powerful work and was probably instrumental in the coup taking place by building public sentiment in the United States against the Arbenz government.

The greatest and most painful irony of all was that not long after the coup, which was instigated, basically on behalf of United Fruit Company, the U.S. government, concerned that it would seem a little "too convenient" to have overthrown a popularly elected president on behalf of a banana company, decided to bring an anti-trust suit against United Fruit, hobbling the company. One has to ask at that point, "What the heck was it all for, then?"

The final chapter answers that: An April 1998 report found that 150,000 people had been killed and 50,000 had disappeared in the time since the coup in 1954, with 80 percent of the casualties caused by government forced.

What this book reports on made me sad and disgusted, but the book is well written and fascinating, a model historical account of a pivotal incident in the history of both Guatemala and the United States.

More accounts of U.S. terrorism in the world.......2004-09-22

I'm glad to see yet one more accurate account of how far an almost imperceptible percentage of this country's population is willing to go in the name of their interests. It's really sad that those who should be most interested in this, namely U.S. citizens, turn a blind eye to it. But as it has been proven throughout centuries of history, silent propaganda, coupled with loud lies told by the rest of the press, works really well at keeping the population in a different galaxy. Otherwise, they would not allow these things to happen.

Poor education must have something to do with this phenomenon, as illustrated by the disastrous spelling and grammar in some of the negative reviews coming from U.S. locations above.

Fast-paced and balanced account of American foreign policy.......2004-05-31

I had wanted to read this book ever since reading Mr. Kinzer's account of the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran, entitled "All the Shah's Men," which I would also heartily endorse. Like that book, "Bitter Fruit" is an intricately detailed yet fast-paced account of an American-sponsored overthrow of a popularly-elected foreign leader. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the book is the attention that the authors give to providing biographical sketches of all the participants. These portraits serve to contextualize the situation and render the actors' motives more understandable.

As a graduate student in political science, I have been trained to explain political phenomena as functions of identifiable and measurable independent factors. While the parsimony afforded by the academic approach has its advantages, Schlesinger and Kinzer's account reminds us that political reality is shaped by fallibe individuals often guided by imperfect information and their own ideological commitments. Indeed, the most vexing question that came to my mind was how men like the American Ambassador to Guatemaula in '54 and the dogmatic Dulles brothers ever attained positions of such prominence. Their belief that the social reforms being enacted in Guatemala represented the initial stage of a Communist revolution that would spread through all of Latin America seems ludicrous in hindsight, and Schlesinger and Kinzer's account makes clear that the evidence upon which this domino theory rested was shaky to begin with. The role that the "liberal" media played in reproducing the American accusations against Arbenz's government is one of the most interesting aspects of this book.

In conclusion, the authors are clearly antagonistic to the neoconservative ideology that justified American intervention around the world in the name of "anti-communism." Advocates of this view will naturally find weaknesses in their account. That said, Schlesinger and Kinzer are not apologists of the Guatemalan revolution of 1944. They devote ample space to detailing the weaknesses of the economic and social reforms enacted in the name of the revolution. All in all, their tone and their evidence permit the reader to form his or her own conclusions regarding the sagacity of America's interference in Guatemala's political and social evolution.

Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Revised and Expanded (David Rockefeller Center Series on Latin American Studies)
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Can You Name The Seven Central American Countries?

Great blunder for the US

Destroying democracy behind a charade of anti-Communism

Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Revised and Expanded (David Rockefeller Center Series on Latin American Studies)
Stephen Schlesinger , Stephen Kinzer , and John H. Coatsworth
Manufacturer: Harvard University David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Central America | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954

ASIN: 067401930X

Book Description

Bitter Fruit is a comprehensive and insightful account of the CIA operation to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954. First published in 1982, this book has become a classic, a textbook case of the relationship between the United States and the Third World. The authors make extensive use of U.S. government documents and interviews with former CIA and other officials. It is a warning of what happens when the United States abuses its power.

Customer Reviews:

Can You Name The Seven Central American Countries?.......2007-05-21

After reading this one, you will not forget Guatemala.

Great blunder for the US.......2006-12-29

America has staged many coup's throughout the years but this one will always hold a special place in history. Feeling good from our overthrow of the Shah we attempted to put our own government in Guatemala and entered a botched attempt that would lead to disaster. America's involvement in Latin America has always been tenuous with the natives but this account really shows why they fear and hate us at times. It is very well written and covers the information clearly. Highly recommend.

Destroying democracy behind a charade of anti-Communism.......2006-06-08

Schlesinger's and Kinzer's classic study examines one of the more disgraceful chapters in the history of American foreign policy: the CIA-sponsored overthrow in 1954 of the democratically elected government of Guatemala. The long-term repercussions of this unprovoked excursion are still felt today; many Latin American countries still do not trust United States intentions because of our actions in both Guatemala and, two decades later, Chile.

"Bitter Fruit" explodes some cherished myths that apologists for the coup have proffered over the years. First, it's clear that Roosevelt rather than Stalin provided the inspiration to the presidencies of Juan Jose Arevalo (1945-1951) and Jacobo Arbenz Guzman (1951-1954). Both Arevalo and Arbenz were motivated by the policies and practices of the New Deal; their support for labor and their actions towards American businesses must be viewed in this light and were never any worse than the laws passed during the Depression in the United States. Regardless of whatever tolerance Guatemalan Communists may have enjoyed, or influence they may have had--and it's clear that they didn't have much--the Eisenhower administration was motivated as much by scorn of the Roosevelt and Truman years as by anti-Communism. (Tellingly, those who cite Che Guevera's presence in Guatemala often fail to note that his arrival, at the age of 25 in early 1954, postdated the planning of American intervention and predated by many years Guevera's notoriety.)

Second, the succession of American puppets who succeeded Arbenz were certainly not supported by the people of Guatemala: the ragtag opposition "army" never exceeded 400 troops in number, and none of the dictators during the next four decades could have survived a freely held election. Between 1954 and the early 1990s, tens of thousands of civilians were imprisoned, executed, or "disappeared" at the fleeting whims of a series of brutal tyrants--and this, to most Central Americans, is the "bottom line" legacy of American interference. Third, some defend American intervention because the Guatemalan land reforms in the early 1950s "stole" property from the United Fruit Company. What the supporters of the company's property rights rarely acknowledge is that one of the company's early founders, Samuel Zemurray, acquired its land, as well as a railroad monopoly, by organizing from New Orleans a coup in 1905 that overthrew the existing government and installing UFC's own puppet--all in violation of American law. In addition, when the Arbenz government attempted to compensate UFC for the land (all of it fallow), the company admitted that it had fraudulently undervalued their holdings for tax purposes at $627,000; the land was worth closer to $16 million.

And, finally, what is clear from Schlesinger's and Kinzer's account is that the Americans behind the 1954 coup, from Ambassador John Peurifoy to the Dulles brothers to Eisenhower himself, knew that what they were doing was indefensible. In order to "sell" the coup at all they had to invent a propagandistic war against a democratically elected government to a gullible American media. Not surprisingly, they covered up and denied American involvement not only at the time but during the ensuing years. Furthermore, many of the participants who survived into the late 1970s either confessed their regret to the authors of this book or admitted that the horrific long-term consequences of the coup in no way justified its short-term "success."

The American adventure in Guatemala was fostered by bad intelligence, furthered by greedy intentions, and executed with no coherent strategy, and it dealt a serious blow both to democracy and to the immediate and long-term interests of the United States government. Meticulously documented, this blood-boiling yet even-handed study should be read by all who are concerned by the consequences of ill-conceived, unilaterally executed, and short-sighted foreign policy planning.

Bitter Fruit: The Politics of Black-Korean Conflict in New York City

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Good view of how Korean-Americans see themselves and others

Bitter Fruit: The Politics of Black-Korean Conflict in New York City
Claire Jean Kim
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0300093306

Book Description

This book examines escalating conflicts between Blacks and Koreans in American cities by focusing on the Flatbush Boycott of 1990, led by Black and Haitian activists against Korean-owned produce stores in Brooklyn. Claire Jean Kim rejects the notion that Black-Korean conflict constitutes racial scapegoating and helps us understand Black activists' collective action and the responses of others.

Customer Reviews:

Good view of how Korean-Americans see themselves and others.......2003-11-16

I have read some of the theories surrounding post-colonialism, identity and the like, but this book stuck me as something different. Claire Kim refuses to be draw into the binary mode of thinking surrounding identity (specifically racial identity) whilst clearing a path with her clearly defined view of racial conflict in America as part of of a wider culture and psychological war in modern society. For many Korean immigrants to go to America to fullfill their 'dream' this experience of race, identity and politics is a new cultural experience. However, maintaining the status-quo is easier than rocking-the-boat - thus the conflict begins with the other cultural groups contesting the space for their 'dream'. Her style is open and concise, which makes this a great book for those who don't know anything about identity and culture. In summary, I am very pleased with this book which I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in the source of these news stories from the 1990's in America. I would especially recommend this book for Korean-American's as well.

Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931-1991

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Complex

Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931-1991
William J. Grimshaw
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0226308936

Book Description

William Grimshaw offers an insider's chronicle of the tangled relationship between the black community and the Chicago Democratic machine from its Great Depression origins to 1991. What emerges is a myth-busting account not of a monolithic organization but of several distinct party regimes, each with a unique relationship to black voters and leaders.

Customer Reviews:

Complex.......2007-04-04

It's insightful. It's dry. It's daedal (not a typo) and complex and surprisingly interesting.

My professor wrote it and my professor assigned it. He says that Ch.2 is embarrassing and skipped it.

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Bitter over 'Bitter Fruit'
Like Molasses
Thought Provoking
A Novel by an Activist.
Torture

Bitter Fruit: A Novel
Achmat Dangor
Manufacturer: Black Cat
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802170064

Book Description

With the publication of Kafka's Curse, Achmat Dangor established himself as an utterly singular voice in South African fiction. His new novel, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award, is a clear-eyed, witty, yet deeply serious look at South Africa's political history and its damaging legacy in the lives of those who live there. The last time Silas Ali encountered Lieutenant Du Boise, Silas was locked in the back of a police van and the lieutenant was conducting a vicious assault on Silas's wife, Lydia, in revenge for her husband's participation in Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. When Silas sees Du Boise by chance twenty years later, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is about to deliver its report, crimes from the past erupt into the present, splintering the Alis' fragile peace. Meanwhile Silas and Lydia's son, Mikey, a thoroughly contemporary young hip-hop lothario, contends in unforeseen ways with his parents' pasts. A harrowing story of a brittle family on the crossroads of history and a fearless skewering of the pieties of revolutionary movements, Bitter Fruit is a cautionary tale of how we do, or do not, address the past's deepest wounds.

Customer Reviews:

Bitter over 'Bitter Fruit'.......2007-03-10

I usually read novels, thick and thin, within a week; but this book took months. I couldn't stand to read more than a few pages at a time because it was just that terribly written. It was probably one of the worst books I've ever read. I'd much rather read a boring textbook on math theory than read this again. I don't understand how it won the awards it did because I don't think it deserved it. The progression was dreadfully slow, and many times the author was redundant and appears to be just filling space. Also, I don't think it dealt much with apartheid at all, but more so about a dysfunctional family in general. And Michael's rage and his driving force (in the end) was really appalling and so fitting with the sensationalism in society and the media today. This book was rubbish and I wish there was a 0 star rating because it definitely isn't even worth one. Don't waste your time.

Like Molasses.......2007-02-11

This story takes place in South Africa. It starts off with the promise of a great read as Silas encounters Francoise Du Boise, who had raped his wife Lydia decades earlier. This wound is freshly reopened not only for Silas but for Lydia when he tells her about it.
Then the book becomes boring and as slow as molasses with very little action, which when it fleetingly appears is interspersed with a whole lot of thinking. Example: On page 95 "he urinated" but since page 92 we'd been hearing of the hospitalized Silas's "unbearable need to urinate."
On page 30 the action here is Mikey peeing and watching "the steamed froth with some satisfaction, shivers with delight at the end. How pleasing the simplest acts of gratification." I think the author loves to pad.
The story improves slightly (pg.36) when Mikey remembers how he and Mireille as youngsters "played Ghandi." However when Mikey falls asleep while he is looking at Lydia's diary hidden in her bureau, for which he went out of his way to search for the key, there was something definitely askew here, I thought.
On page 78 Kate stumbles on Mikey's ritual but the story gets diluted with that time when she sees a leopard up close. Aouch!!
And that "stuff" between Silas and Betty was..... (pg. 98). I persevered to page 100 (1/3 of the book). Couldn't take more.
The author's positives were in some of his descriptions, which were sometimes interesting and humorous.

Thought Provoking.......2006-06-25

This is one of the best books I have read in my life! I never heard of this author, I just happened to pick up the book while I was in an airport. I was so engaged with this book I could barely put it down! As an African American who has never been to South Africa I felt this book was absolutely extraordinary and I loved the intertwining of so many characters while not losing the identity of any of them. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in books that are for pleasure but also cause you to reflect.

A Novel by an Activist........2006-05-27

In spite of trying, I could not complete the 'Bitter Fruit'!

This is a story of a black middle-class family in post-apartheid South Africa. After years of struggle and deprivation they now enjoy material comforts, but events from the brutal past give them no peace of mind. The story of Silas family’s struggles to come to terms with the past, even as prosperity and equality beckons, is used as a metaphor for the dilemma in present-day South Africa. While the Truth and Reconciliation Committee works to heal the society from the indignities of the apartheid-era, individuals must still confront their demons from the past in private.

In this story, Silas and his wife see their lives turned upside-down when he runs into a white policeman who raped her a long time ago. It is fertile territory for Mr. Dargor with his social activist background, but the result falls short.

Torture.......2005-08-23

Rape, incest, broken marriages, endless bitterness, rage, sorrow, and self-destruction. As I write this, I realize I am flying in the faces of all the serious reviewers who have weighed in about the historical importance of this work, of its reflection of a post-apartheid era where the wounds of the past take their awful toll on every aspect of living for both blacks and whites in South Africa today. Nonetheless, I found this work to be unbearable, stifling, suffocating, and terribly written. Its self-conscious literary style was embarrassing. Its pace makes a snail look like a racehorse. Its endless redundancy drove me nuts!! Its minute observations about the three main characters, Lydia, Silas, and Mikey, made me hate them. Its self-important deadly seriousness made me want to die. Its structure is that of (1) memories of brutalities and divisions, (2) confessions of crimes committed, and (3) bloody vengeance taken. Not a pretty story. Not a pretty book. Its title is perfect. Be prepared, gentle reader, to drink from a large cup of bitterness, if that's where you want to go. I personally found it impossible to feel the full weight of the bitterness this author has to offer here because I have not lived his life, nor have all the reviewers who have "enjoyed" this work. If I had it to do over again, I would not have suffered through this book. It was torture. But perhaps that was the author's point, to project the torture these characters have lived through. Even so, bad writing.

Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit: Nelly Roussel and the Politics of Female Pain in Third Republic France

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Her biographer does an outstanding job of linking Roussel's life and thoughts

Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit: Nelly Roussel and the Politics of Female Pain in Third Republic France
Elinor Accampo
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0801884047

Book Description

Nelly Roussel (1878--1922) -- the first feminist spokeswoman for birth control in Europe -- challenged both the men of early twentieth-century France, who sought to preserve the status quo, and the women who aimed to change it. She delivered her messages through public lectures, journalism, and theater, dazzling audiences with her beauty, intelligence, and disarming wit. She did so within the context of a national depopulation crisis caused by the confluence of low birth rates, the rise of international tensions, and the tragedy of the First World War. While her support spread across social classes, strong political resistance to her message revealed deeply conservative precepts about gender which were grounded in French identity itself.

In this thoughtful and provocative study, Elinor Accampo follows Roussel's life from her youth, marriage, speaking career, motherhood, and political activism to her decline and death from tuberculosis in the years following World War I. She tells the story of a woman whose life and work spanned a historical moment when womanhood was being redefined by the acceptance of a woman's sexuality as distinct from her biological, reproductive role -- a development that is still causing controversy today.

Customer Reviews:

Her biographer does an outstanding job of linking Roussel's life and thoughts.......2006-12-12

One of French feminism's most courageous public figures has received relatively little in-depth mention until now: Nelly Roussel's crusade gave women control over their own bodies and sexuality and Blessed Motherhood Bitter Fruit reveals her sacrifices and accomplishments during the process. Roussel was an actress and beauty who defined parameters of the women's movement which would not be realized for over seventy years: she was the first feminist spokeswoman for birth control in Europe and her lectures, essays, and speeches promoted then-radical ways of thinking. Her biographer does an outstanding job of linking Roussel's life and thoughts to her times and the evolving history of the women's movement as a whole, making it a top pick for any definitive women's history collection.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Bitter Fruit (Deathlands #35) (Deathlands , No 35)

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Pilgramige to Hell
An awesome epic saga of high adventure!
Fast paced, hard hitting action/adventure...engrossing!

Bitter Fruit (Deathlands #35) (Deathlands , No 35)
Axler
Manufacturer: Gold Eagle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0373625359

Customer Reviews:

Pilgramige to Hell.......2000-01-10

All of Axler's books rock. I want them all. This book was the first in this EXCELLENT SERIES! I really enjoy this series because of the plots, action & story lines. I just LOVE IT!

An awesome epic saga of high adventure!.......1999-08-02

This is another triumph in the deathlands tales. The writer is definately different and somewhat better, the storyline is stronger than in past novels and everything is told so well that it was more fun than usual reading these novels. I love them all and everything this author or people using his name print. They are a group of talented writers and are on the top of their game in the action/adventure new wave genre.

Fast paced, hard hitting action/adventure...engrossing!.......1997-08-31

The person who likes fast-paced, hard-hitting action and adventure will not be able to put this book, or any of Axler's Deathlands series down. I have read all but a couple of the very early titles, as well as his Earthblood trilogy and am on the second of his Outlander's series...all great and published about every other month. Highly recommended for those who enjoy getting lost in a good yarn with vivid writing, and no slow down, that leaves you turning pages well past your bedtime...much to my chargin many mornings. Essentially "blood, guts and gore" in nature with a good story line that follows the trials of a small group of "survivors" in a series of stories set a hundred years in the future following a nuclear holocaust. Basic survivalism with instinct, common sense, and preholocaust weapons to keep you alive. I challenge anyone to just try and put one of Axler's novels down

Bitter Fruits Of Bondage: The Demise Of Slavery And The Collapse Of The Confederacy, 1861-1865 (Carter G Woodson Institute Series in Black Studies)

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A Dedicated Historian's Final Testament
Review from New Orleans Times-Picayune, February 20, 2005
Bitterly disappointing work
Opinions rather than research
Extremely disappointing Civil War work

Bitter Fruits Of Bondage: The Demise Of Slavery And The Collapse Of The Confederacy, 1861-1865 (Carter G Woodson Institute Series in Black Studies)
Armstead L. Robinson
Manufacturer: University of Virginia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0813923093

Book Description

Bitter Fruits of Bondage is the late Armstead L. Robinson's magnum opus, a controversial history that explodes orthodoxies on both sides of the historical debate over why the South lost the Civil War.

Recent studies, while conceding the importance of social factors in the unraveling of the Confederacy, still conclude that the South was defeated as a result of its losses on the battlefield, which in turn resulted largely from the superiority of Northern military manpower and industrial resources. Robinson contends that these factors were not decisive, that the process of social change initiated during the birth of Confederate nationalism undermined the social and cultural foundations of the southern way of life built on slavery, igniting class conflict that ultimately sapped white southerners of the will to go on.

In particular, simmering tensions between nonslaveholders and smallholding yeoman farmers on the one hand and wealthy slaveholding planters on the other undermined Confederate solidarity on both the homefront and the battlefield. Through their desire to be free, slaves fanned the flames of discord. Confederate leaders were unable to reconcile political ideology with military realities, and, as a result, they lost control over the important Mississippi River Valley during the first two years of the war. The major Confederate defeats in 1863 at Vicksburg and Missionary Ridge were directly attributable to growing disenchantment based on class conflict over slavery.

Because the antebellum way of life proved unable to adapt successfully to the rigors of war, the South had to fight its struggle for nationhood against mounting odds. By synthesizing the results of unparalleled archival research, Robinson tells the story of how the war and slavery were intertwined, and how internal social conflict undermined the Confederacy in the end.

Customer Reviews:

A Dedicated Historian's Final Testament.......2005-03-26

The late Armstead Robinson was a gifted, committed scholar. Writing apparently did not come easily to him; his mountain of data, painstaking methods and final illness delayed this book's appearance til after his passing. This long-awaited posthumous revision of his PhD thesis took years to complete, but is worth the wait. A wealth of detail supports his findings on the scope of resistance and internal dissent in the Confederacy. While it is not the last word on this subject, it advances debate in numerous ways. African American participants in the Southern cause mostly contributed under duress, had close social ties to white neighbors or were wealthy slaveowners themselves. This important issue deserves fuller treatment. Black rebels were an interesting phenomenon, but the tiny percentages of willing volunteers made them statistically insignificant, and most of the book focuses on Southern whites anyway. Neo-Confederate reviewers dishonor the memory of a dedicated historian who cannot defend his work against distortions. 25 years ago L. Litwack's "Been In The Storm So Long" revealed slaves' hatred of the Confederacy and welcome of freedom. W. Jordan, "Tumult & Silence at Second Creek" tells how Mississippi planters brutally crushed a major wartime slave conspiracy. W. Freehling, "The South Vs. the South" is a concise survey of divisions in the Confederacy.

Review from New Orleans Times-Picayune, February 20, 2005.......2005-02-21

In 1861, the Washington Artillery left New Orleans to join the Confederacy in Richmond. This elite company, whose ranks included members of some of the Crescent City's most prominent slaveholding families, did not travel alongside other Louisiana volunteers. Instead, they rode to Richmond aboard a special train that "carried a chest of gold donated by doting relatives." In Virginia, they dined separately from poor enlisted men on delicacies prepared by Edouard, a cook borrowed from a fine New Orleans restaurant. "Ah! He was magnifique," unit member William Miller Owen remembered. "His dishes were superb, the object of adoration of all the visitors who did not enjoy the luxury of French cuisine in their own camps."

In "Bitter Fruits of Bondage," Armstead Robinson notes that the members of the Washington Artillery were not alone. Other slaveholders claimed similar privileges. Some also dined in separate mess tents where their slaves prepared meals with ingredients paid for by the mess tents' "members". Many brought personal servants who attended to laundry and other chores. And slaveholders were far more likely to made officers than non-slaveholders. But rather than being "the object of adoration" of those who did not enjoy such perks, the slaveholders' privileges caused dissension. In an army where poor yeoman farmers did most of the fighting, Robinson asserts, the slaveholders' inegalitarian behavior fatefully undermined the army's esprit de corps.

By 1862, according to Robinson, animosity between slaveholders and yeoman increased exponentially. The Confederate congress instituted a draft that exempted overseers on plantations with twenty or more slaves from service. The draft law also allowed wealthy men to buy their way out of the war by paying for a substitute to fight in their stead. Confederate leaders justified these measures by citing the need to maintain order and discipline on plantations. Some planters and overseers, they claimed, needed to man the homefront or chaos would ensue. But many non-slaveholders remained unconvinced. They began to view the conflict as a "rich man's war and a poor man's fight." These yeoman joined up initially, Robinson argues, to defend their homes and because they feared the results of emancipation. But as the war ground on and wealthy planters appeared not to be carrying their share of the burden, many poor farmers began to feel that they had been duped into fighting a slaveholders' war. As class fissures grew, Robinson maintains, support for the Confederacy waned.
"Bitter Fruits of Bondage" is Robinson's magnum opus, a book he had been researching and writing for over twenty years. A legendary figure in the field of African-American Studies, Robinson died unexpectedly in 1995. His widow Mildred brought the unfinished 1,200 page manuscript to the University of Virginia Press. Enlisting the editorial acumen of Barbara Fields, Eugene Genovese, and other leading scholars, the press has now shepherded the project to completion. The result is a compelling book that is sure to spark contentious debates because Robinson rejects the popular notion that the South lost the Civil War only because it lacked the manpower and industrial might of the North. He notes that the colonists in the American Revolution and the Vietnamese who fought the French and the United States in the 20th century persevered despite even greater odds. Instead, he attributes the comparatively swift collapse of the Confederacy to the debilitating effects of slavery and class conflict.
Although Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens called slavery "the cornerstone of the Confederacy," Robinson argues that the "peculiar institution" undermined the Confederate war effort from the outset. After Fort Sumter, slaveowners feared that their slaves might view the war as an opportunity to revolt. Rumors of plots and insurrections swirled in Louisiana's Tensas Parish, Mississippi's Jefferson County, and throughout the South. To prevent uprisings, dissident state Governors like Georgia's Joseph Brown refused to turn over weapons seized from federal arsenals to the Confederate government in Richmond and, instead, armed their state militias and slave patrols. As a result, over 200,000 Confederate volunteers had no weapons in the war's early stages. If armed, those men might have allowed Confederate generals to follow the rout at First Bull Run with an invasion of Washington that may have brought the war to an immediate close.
The selfish behavior of individual slaveowners also undermined the war effort. Planters proved reluctant to lend their slaves to the Confederate army. Robinson attributes key defeats in the West, including the fall of Forts Donelson and Henry, to poorly-constructed fortifications that could have been strengthened by slave labor. Reports also circulated that many planters continued to use their land and slaves to grow profitable cash crops like cotton even as food shortages caused women to riot in Richmond and Confederate soldiers to starve. While planters reaped profits, many yeoman found "that they were expected to fight to save slavery and to replace with their own bodies slaveholders and overseers who avoided military service."
As non-slaveholders' disgruntlement grew, Robinson argues, many simply quit fighting. In 1863, Jefferson Davis warned the Confederate Congress that one-third of the army had deserted. Louisiana Governor Henry Allen reported a "terrible state of affairs" noting that there were over 8,000 deserters in the city of Alexandria alone. By September 1864, almost three-fourths of Confederate soldiers were absent without leave. Today, Alabama is called the "Heart of Dixie." But during the Civil War, northern Alabama was roiling with anti-war dissent and was home to secret organizations like the Order of the Heroes of America who met Confederate draft officials with violence. Resistance also flourished in East Texas, East Tennessee, northern Louisiana, Arkansas, and the upcountry of Georgia, the Carolinas, and Mississippi. Many southern yeomen even fought for the Union. An estimated 104,000 white southerners eventually served in the Union Army.
Black southerners also helped bring down the Confederacy. Slaves provided crucial intelligence to Union scouts and spies, sabotaged the work on plantations, and freed themselves by running to northern lines when the federal army drew near. Over 170,000 former slaves donned Union blue and fought against their former masters.
Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis acknowledged the significant contributions African-American soldiers made to the northern war effort. In the desperate, final weeks of the conflict, Robinson notes, the Confederates abandoned their doomed nation's founding principles and made a surreal effort to recruit their own black regiments.
Because "Bitter Fruits of Bondage" was so long in the making, many readers will already be familiar with some of Robinson's central arguments. The important role the slaves played by fleeing to Union lines, for example, is by now an oft-told tale. But there is also much here that is as fresh today as the day it was written. Robinson's forceful prose, meticulous research, and command of the subject, make this an important book. He provides powerful evidence to refute those who argue that all white southerners, slaveholder and non-slaveholder alike, supported the Confederate cause until its last moments. Because of slavery and its discontents, Robinson contends, the Confederacy began to unravel even before the first battle was fought.

Bitterly disappointing work.......2005-02-08

Mr. Robinson's long awaited Bitter Fruits of Bondage, proves to be a bitter pill to swallow. I expected far more than suppositions , guesswork, and mere personal opinion. It truly was a major disapointment. Fortunately the book was loaned to me and I am not out any hard earned money. I give it one star.

Opinions rather than research.......2005-02-08

Robinson contends that the superiority of Northern military manpower and industrial resources were not decisive in the defeat of the South, but that discord between slaves, poor whites, and the planter class was instrumental in its downfall. Pure rubbish, since Southerners of every color went eagerly off to War and fought to the bitter end while the slaves supported the troops in the field by working back home. Even though slave revolts could have brought the South to its knees, none occurred, much to the chagrin of Lincoln who hoped for such when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Don't waste your money.

Extremely disappointing Civil War work.......2005-02-06

This long-awaited work proves disappointing to Civil War historians and buffs alike. Robinson contends that the Confederacy lost the war as much through demoralization at home due to the pending demise of slavery rather than the defeat on the battlefield, a supposition which easily collapses under the weight of historical fact. Less than ten percent of the men who fought for the South ever owned a slave, and neither did the vast majority of white southerners. Slavery was not the sole cause of the war and hardly a reason for people who did not own them, and thus were unaffected by either its existence or its demise, to fight in its defense. Taken against the fact that the Confederate government in its last year was willing to free slaves in return for fighting - which would have dismantled slavery, this allegation simply has no basis in reality.

Virginia was the first state to ban the African slave trade and in 1859 the Virginia Legislature very narrowly defeated an amendment that would have ended the "peculiar institution" in that state. When added to the fact that thousands of non-whites (including my grandfather and his Cherokee nation), including free and slave blacks also fought for the Confederacy, Robinson's allegations are unfounded in real history. This book adds nothing to the student's understanding of the war and is based on supposition rather than historical fact.

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Bitter Melon: Nature's Anti-Diabetic
W. G. Goreja
Manufacturer: Amazing Herbs Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nutrition | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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General | Health, Mind & Body | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

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Accessories:

Airborne Effervescent Health Formula, Original Orange, 10 Tablets (Pack of 3)
RESPeRATE Blood Pressure Lowering Device
Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 0974296201

Book Description

The benefits and potency of Bitter Melon have been known to Asian, South American and African cultures for centuries, but only now is the therapeutic potential of this herb being fully unraveled to those of us in the Western World, wherein thousands of individuals already use Bitter Melon as an alternative herbal remedy to treat diabetes, to help regulate fat metabolism and as an antiviral agent, particularly in HIV/AIDS. This book takes you through the history of the herb's use around the globe and explains its application in the treatment of a range of illnesses and conditions. We summarize the latest scientific and medical research into the mode of action of the active components within the Bitter Melon fruit, plant, root and seeds and also provide a number of recipes that you can use as a means to include this nutritious and potentially therapeutic vegetable in your daily diet.

Bitter Fruit: African American Women in World War II

Average customer rating:

An important observational collection of Black experience.

Bitter Fruit: African American Women in World War II

Manufacturer: University of Missouri Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Our Mothers' War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II
Creating G. I. Jane
Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda During World War II
Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II
Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory

ASIN: 0826212654

Customer Reviews:

An important observational collection of Black experience........2000-03-03

Bitter Fruit surveys the experiences of Afro-American women in World War II, contrasting sharply with the largely white surveys of women of the times. Photos, essays, fiction and poetry by and about black women's roles provide quite a different image of experiences, and offers works from some eighty writers on the topic. An important observational collection about black experiences during the war.

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