Eugene D. Genovese
A preeminent scholar in his field, Eugene D. Genovese challenged the traditional view of slavery in the antebellum South with his prize-winning book Roll, Jordan, Roll. Eugene Dominic Genovese was born May 19, 1930 in Brooklyn and grew up in the working class Bensonhurst neighborhood. He joined the Communist Party as a teenager, but was later expelled when, as he said, “I zigged when I was supposed to zag.” He was a 1953 graduate of Brooklyn College and later he received a master’s degree and doctorate from Columbia University. A member of the Rutgers University faculty, Genovese was considered a political agitator and fierce antiwar activist. Speaking at a 1965 teach-in organized for the campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, he declared, “I do not fear or regret the impending Viet Cong victory in Vietnam. I welcome it.” The uproar this statement caused throughout the United States precipitated calls for Genovese’s removal from the faculty. The FBI entered the case, but the president of Rutgers defended his right to speak freely. Two years later Genovese resigned after extreme pressure from veterans groups that with one voice exclaimed that he wanted American troops to die in battle. He responded that comments about Vietnam were misinterpreted. “It …show more content…
But it was his 1974 work, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made that changed a lot of views of slavery. The most controversial view of the book was that the relationship between slave and master was paternalistic and mutually dependent, and Genovese claimed to have discovered evidence that some slaves and slaveholders considered themselves part of one “family.” Despite some critics calling it a simplistic view of the role of slaves in society, the book received the prestigious Bancroft Prize in
A preeminent scholar in his field, Eugene D. Genovese challenged the traditional view of slavery in the antebellum South with his prize-winning book Roll, Jordan, Roll. Eugene Dominic Genovese was born May 19, 1930 in Brooklyn and grew up in the working class Bensonhurst neighborhood. He joined the Communist Party as a teenager, but was later expelled when, as he said, “I zigged when I was supposed to zag.” He was a 1953 graduate of Brooklyn College and later he received a master’s degree and doctorate from Columbia University. A member of the Rutgers University faculty, Genovese was considered a political agitator and fierce antiwar activist. Speaking at a 1965 teach-in organized for the campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, he declared, “I do not fear or regret the impending Viet Cong victory in Vietnam. I welcome it.” The uproar this statement caused throughout the United States precipitated calls for Genovese’s removal from the faculty. The FBI entered the case, but the president of Rutgers defended his right to speak freely. Two years later Genovese resigned after extreme pressure from veterans groups that with one voice exclaimed that he wanted American troops to die in battle. He responded that comments about Vietnam were misinterpreted. “It …show more content…
But it was his 1974 work, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made that changed a lot of views of slavery. The most controversial view of the book was that the relationship between slave and master was paternalistic and mutually dependent, and Genovese claimed to have discovered evidence that some slaves and slaveholders considered themselves part of one “family.” Despite some critics calling it a simplistic view of the role of slaves in society, the book received the prestigious Bancroft Prize in