Word: schama
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...book, Schama traces the path of “Black Loyalists,” slaves in Revolutionary America promised their freedom by the British in return for their military service against the incipient Continental Army of incensed patriots...
...Schama, university professor of history and art history at Columbia University, is a veritable superstar of popular academic writing. His sweeping history of the French Revolution, “Citizens,” published in 1989, first established his reputation as a canonical modern historian. His three-volume “History of Britain” cemented his prestige...
...quirks, while notable, are not without precedent; Schama belongs to a school of British-educated historians (specifically those who studied under the legendary John Harold Plumb at Cambridge) who place a refreshing emphasis on literary style—whether it be Linda Colley’s riveting yet sprawling “Captives,” or David Cannadine’s controversial study of the British Empire, “Ornamentalism...
...Schama’s first book since the third volume of “Britain” came out in 2002, and it’s a return to form of the highest order. Instead of resting on his laurels and keeping to well-worn historiographical ruts, Schama seems to be using his fame to push a far more idiosyncratic project...
...second half of Schama's powerful book follows the former slaves in their wretched exile after the war, when thousands joined an exodus of white loyalists to Nova Scotia. Others shipped out to Africa to establish a struggling township in Sierra Leone. Although the African settlers suffered years of illness and near starvation, they were the first largely self-governing community of African Americans. If it wasn't quite "British freedom," it was still a taste of the liberty the U.S. would not offer blacks for many years to come...