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Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson de Ashley Brown

Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson

Autor Ashley Brown
en Limba Engleză Hardback – 7 feb 2023

Actualizarea perspectivelor asupra istoriei sportului american impune o reevaluare critică a figurilor care au spart barierele rasiale în secolul XX. În acest context, apreciem modul în care Serving Herself reușește să depășească hagiografia sportivă clasică pentru a oferi o analiză clinică a vieții lui Althea Gibson. Merită menționat că, deși este catalogată editorial într-o sferă medicală de nișă, lucrarea este în esență o biografie sociopolitică riguroasă care utilizează istoria orală pentru a reconstrui tensiunile dintre identitatea individuală și așteptările comunitare. Putem afirma că Ashley Brown nu se limitează la a enumera succesele de pe teren, ci investighează mecanismele psihologice și instituționale care au transformat-o pe Gibson într-o figură solitară, adesea reticentă în a asuma rolul de simbol al rasei sale.

Comparația cu literatura existentă subliniază valoarea academică a acestui titlu. Acolo unde volumul Althea de Sally H Jacobs oferă o narațiune captivantă despre ascensiunea legendei, Serving Herself aprofundează declinul și dificultățile financiare din perioada post-activitate sportivă, oferind un studiu de caz despre prețul integrării. Față de lucrările anterioare ale autoarei, precum Routine Building Handbook, care se concentrează pe structuri comportamentale zilnice, acest volum aplică o rigoare metodologică mult mai vastă, ancorând viața subiectului în contextul Războiului Rece și al feminismului de al doilea val. Rezultatul este un portret complex al unei atlete ultra-competitive care a refuzat conformismul de gen și social, plătind adesea prețul izolării în ultimii ani de viață.

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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9780197551752
ISBN-10: 0197551750
Pagini: 616
Ilustrații: 74 black and white illustrations
Dimensiuni: 166 x 236 x 42 mm
Greutate: 1.15 kg
Editura: Oxford University Press
Colecția OUP USA
Locul publicării:New York, United States

De ce să citești această carte

Această biografie este esențială pentru cititorii interesați de intersecția dintre sport, sociologie și istoria drepturilor civile. Cititorul câștigă o înțelegere profundă a barierelor sistemice din tenisul mondial și a modului în care succesul atletic nu garantează stabilitatea economică. Este o recomandare solidă pentru cei care caută o analiză factuală, documentată masiv, despre reziliență și costul succesului într-o societate marcată de prejudecăți.

Despre autor

Ashley Brown este o cercetătoare dedicată explorării biografiilor complexe și a structurilor sociale care definesc experiența umană. În Serving Herself, ea își demonstrează expertiza în utilizarea arhivelor și a istoriilor orale pentru a construi narațiuni istorice dense. Opera sa anterioară variază de la ghiduri practice de organizare personală, precum Routine Building Handbook, până la antologii culturale precum Agave. Această diversitate tematică îi permite să abordeze viața lui Althea Gibson nu doar ca pe un parcurs sportiv, ci ca pe o negociere continuă între ambiția personală și limitele impuse de mediul extern, oferind o perspectivă nuanțată asupra istoriei americane.

Descriere

A compelling narrative of the trials and triumphs of tennis champion Althea Gibson, a key figure in the integration of American sports and, for a time, one of the most famous women in the world.From her start playing paddle tennis on the streets of Harlem as a young teenager to her eleven Grand Slam tennis wins to her professional golf career, Althea Gibson became the most famous black sportswoman of the mid-twentieth century. In her unprecedented athletic career, she was the first African American to win titles at the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.In this comprehensive biography, Ashley Brown narrates the public career and private struggles of Althea Gibson (1927-2003). Based on extensive archival work and oral histories, Serving Herself sets Gibson's life and choices against the backdrop of the Great Migration, Jim Crow racism, the integration of American sports, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, and second wave feminism. Throughout her life Gibson continuously negotiated the expectations of her supporters and adversaries, including her patrons in the black-led American Tennis Association, the white-led United States Lawn Tennis Association, and the media, particularly the Black press and community's expectations that she selflessly serve as a representative of her race. An incredibly talented, ultra-competitive, and not always likeable athlete, Gibson wanted to be treated as an individual first and foremost, not as a member of a specific race or gender. She was reluctant to speak openly about the indignities and prejudices she navigated as an African American woman, though she faced numerous institutional and societal barriers in achieving her goals. She frequently bucked conventional norms of femininity and put her career ahead of romantic relationships, making her personal life the subject of constant scrutiny and rumors. Despite her major wins and international recognition, including a ticker tape parade in New York City and the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time, Gibson endeavored to find commercial sponsorship and permanent economic stability. Committed to self-sufficiency, she pivoted from the elite amateur tennis circuit to State Department-sponsored goodwill tours, attempts to find success as a singer and Hollywood actress, the professional golf circuit, a tour with the Harlem Globetrotters and her own professional tennis tour, coaching, teaching children at tennis clinics, and a stint as New Jersey Athletics Commissioner. As she struggled to support herself in old age, she was left with disappointment, recounting her past achievements decades before female tennis players were able to garner substantial earnings.A compelling life and times portrait, Serving Herself offers a revealing look at the rise and fall of a fiercely independent trailblazer who satisfied her own needs and simultaneously set a pathbreaking course for Black athletes.

Recenzii

A sprawling—and in many ways outstanding—biography...[that] uses the story of Althea Gibson—'the preeminent African American female athlete of the twentieth century'—to explore the history of integration in American sports....Honest, sympathetic and nuanced, a labor of love and respect that should go a long way to remedy the unpardonable disappearance of Althea Gibson from the American imagination.
Brown's narrative is at its best when it contextualizes the most consequential moments in Gibson's career within the backdrop of broader racial tensions....Serving Herself is a stark reminder of how, in some ways, little has changed in tennis since Gibson's trailblazing career began more than three-quarters of a century ago—and how hard it still is for a Black woman to succeed in the sport.
A monumental, comprehensive biography that blends Gibson's remarkable athletic accomplishments with the inspirational story of how she lived through the Jim Crow era and navigated segregation, racism, and gender discrimination, all the while fighting for the integration of sports. After triumphing at Wimbledon, Gibson pledged to 'wear the title with dignity and humility'; this fine tribute makes clear that she did just that.
Brown's absorbing exploration of Gibson's lengthy athletic career...introduces the elite 'high-toned and ultra-white' world of tennis and golf in an accessible and entertaining way....The book is not just for sports fans: it is set against the vivid backdrop of twentieth century social history, detailing the growth of women's athletics, integration, and the 1970s golf and tennis explosion, arcing upwards even as Gibson lost power and speed. Serving Herself traces a tennis player's iconoclastic journey to athletic greatness.
A highly recommended, inspirational title....With interviews, personal correspondence, newspaper articles, archives, records, and recordings, Brown gives readers a full portrait of Gibson.
An in-depth look at how racism and homophobia challenged the life of a sports superstar. Brown...makes her book debut with a thoroughly researched, insightful biography of Althea Gibson....A palpable portrait of an aggressive, ambitious woman whose race made her an outsider in the White-dominated sports world and whose gender nonconformity—refusal to meet expectations about how a Black woman should look and behave—made her a social misfit....Brown sensitively examines Gibson's refusal to be seen as 'a representative' of her race, offering context for her views on social justice, women's rights, and African American causes.
Ashley Brown's riveting and truly stunning biography of Althea Gibson fills a gaping hole in the historical literature on the experiences and contributions of African American athletes. Brown's comprehensive and insightful account of Gibson's extraordinary odyssey-a life filled with both triumph and disappointment, ranging from the streets of Harlem to the hallowed tennis courts of Wimbledon and Forest Hills-offers an unblinking look at the challenges that racial and gender discrimination posed for even the most talented of African American women.
Ashley Brown's critical feminist biography of Althea Gibson places her squarely-and queerly-at the center of mid-twentieth century American history. Thanks to a perfect match between subject and biographer, Althea Gibson will finally get the recognition and respect she craved and so often lacked during her lifetime.
Tennis is a sport that imposes the rigid boundary of its rectangular court. The tennis champion Althea Gibson, however, devoted her life on and off the court to variously defying, finessing, transgressing, and transcending period norms of race, class, and gender. In this incisive, engaging biography, Ashley Brown both restores Gibson to her place in the athletic pantheon and unflinchingly illustrates the price she paid.
What does it mean to be an individual when everyone else insists that you are foremost a representative of a category? Althea Gibson, one of the most important sports figures of the twentieth century, constantly juggled the challenges of breaking barriers in the elite worlds of tennis and golf and wanting to compete at the highest levels without the baggage that 'the first Black' and/or 'the first woman' routinely faced. Ashley Brown's comprehensive biography offers searing insight into the history of sports integration through the life of this scrutinized, underappreciated, and underpaid pioneer in Jim Crow America. It is crucial that we know and remember this not-so-distant history that paved the way for latter-day tennis stars like Serena Williams and Venus Williams.
Brown (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) has revised her 2017 dissertation on Althea Gibson into a highly readable book... This stellar biography stands as a tribute to the bravery and perseverance of a pioneer.
Brown has provided a microscopic account of the life and times of Althea Gibson. She not only provides detailed information on Gibson's tennis and sporting ups and downs, but also her personal life and her attitudes to major issues of her times. Brown carefully examines and provides valuable information on the internal dynamics and operation of the various orbits that Gibson interacted with, in both America and overseas. She also has an acute sense for the major shifts and changes that occurred in America and weaves together this broader information with the minutiae of Gibson's life. Brown writes with insight and understanding in what can only be described as a splendid and outstanding work of scholarship on Althea Gibson, this champion tennis player.
A captivating biography about the ups and downs of Gibson's life and career as a Black female athlete in the mid-20th Century.
[A] well-argued and expansive sports biography, in which a narrative of sport facilitates the examination of marginalized experiences... Brown moves beyond traditional sport hero biographies by arguing that Gibson's life is a unique vehicle for exploring the intersection of race, gender, sport, class, and place... Interdisciplinarity is difficult, but Brown comprehensively delivers, forging new connections between traditional sport histories, gender studies, and social history- a welcome, refreshing direction of scholarship.
This richly detailed biography cements Gibson as one of the most important athletes of the 20th century, while exploring what happens after a star leaves the spotlight.

Notă biografică

Ashley Brown is Assistant Professor and the Allan H. Selig Chair in the History of Sport and Society at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an expert on sport history, women's history, and African American history.