{"product_id":"unloose-my-heart-a-personal-reckoning-with-the-twisted-roots-of-my-southern-family-tree-paperback-softback-9780817361662","title":"Unloose My Heart; A Personal Reckoning with the Twisted Roots of My Southern Family Tree (Paperback \/ softback) 9780817361662","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eUnloose My Heart\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eA Personal Reckoning with the Twisted Roots of My Southern Family Tree\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eMarcia Edwina Herman-Giddens (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780817361662\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 15 April 2024\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e288 pages, 24 b\u0026amp;w figures\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.272 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"A vividly detailed contribution to civil rights history.\" —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Marcia Edwina Herman-Giddens has written a powerful and moving memoir of her life growing up in segregated Birmingham. Her honest and candid story engages both the reader’s attention and sympathy. Her book will take its place among other such memoirs as a distinguished addition to the autobiographical literature looking at the city’s critical experience during the Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of its white citizens.” —Charles B. Dew, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Making of a Racist: A Southerner Reflects on Family, History, and the Slave Trade\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eUnloose My Heart\u003c\/i\u003e is a sweeping account by Marcia Edwina Herman-Giddens, a white woman who wrestles with her slave-owning ancestors, her years as a child and young mother in Birmingham, her visits with Black relatives, and her response to the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. Herman-Giddens recalls the horrific bombing of Black homes and churches in Birmingham—nicknamed ‘Bombingham’—from the first bombing of an African American home in 1947 when she was in the first grade to when she herself heard ‘the Klan’s dynamite detonating’ with four bombings in one week in 1962 and when the Klan murdered four young girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. A gripping tale of self-discovery that is both painful and inspiring.”—William R. Ferris, author of \u003ci\u003eI AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Marcia Edwina Herman-Giddens’ memoir, \u003ci\u003eUnloose My Heart\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003ci\u003eA Personal Reckoning with the Twisted Roots of My Southern Family Tree\u003c\/i\u003e, is both a moving and sobering account of her coming of age during the civil rights movement and investigating her family history during the pandemic. Her research is thorough, and she writes of the wrongdoing her family perpetuated with a keen eye, not shying away from the generational horrors that are part of her family tree.\" —\u003ci\u003eSouthern Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eUnloose My Heart\u003c\/i\u003e is a remarkable achievement of personal and historical journalism, a gripping account of how one young woman came to understand her family’s debts in a segregated world and the steps she took to settle them.” —Jim Willse, former editor of \u003ci\u003eThe New York Daily News\u003c\/i\u003e and reporter for \u003ci\u003eThe Southern Courier\u003c\/i\u003e in the 1960s\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eA deeply personal memoir that unearths a family history of racism, slaveholding, and trauma as well as love and sparks of delight\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Marcia Herman’s family moved to Birmingham in 1946, when she was five years old, and settled in the steel-making city dense with smog and a rigid apartheid system. Marcia, a shy only child, struggled to fit in and understand this world, shadowed as it was by her mother’s proud antebellum heritage. In 1966, weary of Alabama’s toxic culture, Marcia and her young family left Birmingham and built a life in North Carolina.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Later in life, Herman-Giddens resumed a search to find out what she did not know about her family history. \u003ci\u003eUnloose My Heart \u003c\/i\u003einterweaves the story of her youth and coming of age in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement together with this quest to understand exactly who and what her maternal ancestors were and her obligations as a white woman within a broader sense of American family.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e More than a memoir set against the backdrop of Jim Crow and the civil rights struggle, this is the work of a woman of conscience writing in the twenty-first century. Haunted by the past, \u003ci\u003eUnloose My Heart\u003c\/i\u003e is a journey of exploration and discovery, full of angst, sorrow, and yearning. Unearthing her forebears’ centuries-long embrace of plantation slavery, Herman-Giddens dug deeply to parse the arrogance and cruelty necessary to be a slaveholder and the trauma and fear that ripple out in its wake. All this forced her to scrutinize the impact of this legacy in her life, as well as her debt to the enslaved people who suffered and were exploited at her ancestors’ hands. But she also discovers lost connections, new cousins and friends, unexpected joys, and, eventually, a measure of peace in the process. With heartbreak, moments of grace, and an enduring sense of love, \u003ci\u003eUnloose My Heart\u003c\/i\u003e shines a light in the darkness and provides a model for a heartfelt reckoning with American history.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"The University of Alabama Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52574445961496,"sku":"9780817361662","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/unloose-my-heart-a-personal-reckoning-with-the-twisted-roots-of-my-southern-family-tree-paperback-softback-9780817361662","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}