Young White Research Articles

Reviewed by: The Story of Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic Miriam Janechek (bio) The Story of Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic. By Michael Sims. New York: Walker, 2011. Michael Sims's The Story of Charlotte's Web offers an intimate account of the life of one of the most revered American writers. He artfully navigates the creative waters between factual account and inviting story, and skillfully accomplishes both. Sims traces the life of Elwyn Brooks White (Andy, as he was known as an adult) from his childhood in the quiet town of Mount Vernon, New York, through his college years at Cornell University, to finding his way as a writer in New York City. The book is a satisfying read, in large part because Sims never loses the rhetorical thread established in his subtitle, E. B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic. From the opening pages to the end of Andy's life, Sims uses biographical evidence to demonstrate the author's lifelong love of animals, particularly spiders; the evidence builds an artfully told story of how E. B. White's Charlotte is the result of a life spent watching and documenting the animals of his world. It is clear in every chapter, and therefore in every moment of White's life, that the quiet and reserved man loved both nature and writing, combining the two passions in his canonical children's stories, of which Charlotte's Web stands at the forefront. Part one of Sims's project concentrates on White's childhood adventures in New York, and his yearly family trips to the serene landscape of Maine. And as E. B.'s biography unfolds, so do the beginnings of his children's story. The opening paragraph of Sims's book is reminiscent of a well-known Charlotte's Web scene: "The coachman said the eggs would never hatch. They were infertile, he insisted, as he tossed them onto the manure pile outside the stable" (1). Just as Fern watches Templeton scurry away with the goose's rotten egg, so Elwyn's story begins with him watching the animal world around him; and, when the manure-pile eggs do hatch, Sims channels the excitement [End Page 505] the young child felt watching the impossible. Young White's life included far more than animals and nature, and Sims takes his readers through that childhood full of family, travel, and writing. White, who was an unusually reserved child, exhibited his writing skills at an early age with a poem inspired by an animal friend, published in a lady's magazine. Sims takes great care to establish Andy not just as a nature enthusiast turned writer, but also as a participant in the American literary world, starting from his youth. He describes White's rich reading history, which included nature books and literary magazines. Sims's description of E. B.'s formative reading habits works well for his overarching narrative because it connects directly to White's adult life, and in part two it is clear how invested his career was in American magazines. Andy's tenure at The New Yorker begins almost as early as the magazine itself, as does his relationship with his wife, New Yorker editor Katharine Angell. Sims never strays far from the topic of nature, because White never did; he consistently included animals in his writing, even though (or particularly because) he was surrounded by the city. Sims juxtaposes the writer's eye trained on the sparrows, flowers, and parks with the bustling metropolis, and the contrast makes clear Andy's longing for a life surrounded by nature. Part three begins with White happily married and situated on a farm in upstate New York. Sims's description of the farm in Allen Cove evokes feelings of quiet and charm. It accommodated White's longing for animals, barns, and physical work. It was here, surrounded by piles of books to be edited and articles to be written, that Andy found enjoyment in his cows, lambs, chickens...

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Reviewed by: A Hard Rain Fell: SDS and Why It Failed Damon Randolph Bach A Hard Rain Fell: SDS and Why It Failed David Barber Jackson University Press of Mississippi, 2008; 286 pp. $50.00, ISBN 978-1-934110-17-1 (cloth) A Hard Rain Fell encompasses more than the subtitle implies. According to author David Barber, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) represented the direction of the white New Left, thus this study is not only about the failure of SDS, but about the disintegration of the white New Left as well. In November 1968, SDS had over 80,000 members. Less than a year later, the organization fractured and was "dead." Barber identifies the factors that hastened the New Left 's dissolution: it foundered "because it ultimately came to reflect the dominant white culture's understandings of race, gender, class, and nation" (5). Barber contends that the New Left's inability to break from a traditional American perspective on race undermined its effectiveness. Young white activists did not fully comprehend their white racialization or white identity and the privileges that came with it. White superiority was pervasive in American society, and young whites within the movement came to believe that they alone could "pave the way for a better world for all" (228). They saw themselves as the "normal" Americans, the vanguard of a mass movement, and subordinated the racial struggle to a broader fight for social change. Again and again, whites ignored the advice of black leaders such as Stokely [End Page 167] Carmichael and Donald Jackson, who prodded whites to organize against racism in white communities. They continued to mobilize blacks in Northern cities with the Economic Research and Action Project (ERAP). Unexamined whiteness and the belief in the superiority of white intellect also prevented an SDS-Panther alliance. Whites—especially Bernardine Dohrn—took a "more revolutionary than thou" (49) stance toward the black militants, unwilling to accept black leadership. Barber also contends that the New Left never fully understood the nature of American empire. Young white revolutionaries believed that imperialism happened to people of color overseas, while capitalism happened to mainstream Americans at home. Many were unable to make the connections between race and imperialism. Black leaders like Malcolm X did understand the link, but whites did not wholly embrace his belief that blacks had been colonized within the United States. Furthermore, white activists were also blind to the fact that they, too, had been the beneficiaries of a race-based empire and had helped to maintain it. Moreover, the New Left did not transcend or adequately combat male domination, sexism, and chauvinism. Males directed most of the ERAP projects. Men ignored women in SDS, while also sexually exploiting them. The Weathermen's efforts at smashing monogamy equated to "sex on demand" for men. Women reacted to male supremacy in divergent ways. The "politicos" committed themselves to women's liberation within a larger movement context, while the "radicals" severed from SDS. Th e refusal of white males to abandon their sexism and domination of the New Left was damaging, as the movement lost valuable and experienced female members. Barber also finds fault with white women who undermined the resilience of the New Left. White female activists in New York Radical Women (NYRW) for instance, placed struggles pertaining to white women above other issues such as racial oppression. By 1969, SDS was headed toward destruction. As the Panthers faced their ruin under government repression, SDS membership burgeoned and the organization saw itself as the vanguard of a radical revolutionary movement. Weathermen fought police in the streets of Chicago during the Days of Rage. They had disregarded Panther Fred Hampton's counseling against "adventurism," and ignored the advice of the Vietnamese at Havana who had urged them to cultivate a broad, unified, antiwar movement. Weathermen [End Page 168] tactics were self-defeating. They only wanted to "kick ass," and SDS ceased to exist just as antiwar agitation hit its apex. Barber's book is a valuable contribution to the scholarly literature on the New Left and SDS. He has succeeded in pointing out problems that undercut the New Left's viability, shortcomings that other scholars have overlooked...

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Young White Research Articles

Articles published on Young White

Traumatic brain injury is associated with the subsequent risk of atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter

Habitual Sleep Duration and Sleep Effciency Do Not Mediate the Relationship Between Race and Nocturnal Blood Pressure Dipping in Young Black and White Women

Sympathetic transduction at rest and during cold pressor test in young healthy non-Hispanic Black and White women.

Conflicting Associations among Bioelectrical Impedance and Cardiometabolic Health Parameters in Young White and Black Adults.

Topsoil Moisture Depletion and Recharge below Young Norway Spruce, White Birch, and Treeless Gaps at a Mountain-Summit Site

Age-dependent changes in intervertebral disc cell mitochondria and bioenergetics.

Leptin and its Relation to Autonomic Activity, Endothelial Cell Activation and Blood Pressure in a Young Black and White Population: The African-PREDICT study

Prioritizing Young Western White Pine Stands for Blister Rust Pruning on the Warm Springs Reservation

MP45-03 AGE RELATED PENILE HEMODYNAMIC IMPAIRMENT AND FIBROSIS: POSSIBLE ROLE OF GIV-WNT SIGNALING PATHWAYS

Características ultrassonográficas de fígado, vesícula biliar, rins, vesícula urinária e jejuno em coelhos jovens e adultos

Early maladaptive schemas, behavioral inhibition/approach systems, and defense styles in the abusers of opiate, stimulant, and cannabis drugs and healthy subjects

Early maladaptive schemas, behavioral inhibition/approach systems, and defense styles in the users of natural and synthetic substances and healthy subjects

Differential Expression of Vitreous Proteins in Young and Mature New Zealand White Rabbits

The Story of Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic (review)

Electromechanical and structural alterations in the aging rabbit heart and aorta

Gamma-ray-induced mutagen sensitivity and risk of sporadic breast cancer in young women: a case–control study

A Hard Rain Fell: SDS and Why It Failed (review)

A Comparison of Caregiver Child Feeding Behaviors, Family Environment and Dietary Quality between Young African American and White American Children

A Weberian medievalist: Hayden White in the 1950s

Age-Related Differences in Rabbits during ExperimentalStaphylococcus aureusKeratitis

Lead the way for us

Editage

Paperpal

R Discovery

Mind the Graph

Young White Research Articles

Articles published on Young White

Traumatic brain injury is associated with the subsequent risk of atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter

Habitual Sleep Duration and Sleep Effciency Do Not Mediate the Relationship Between Race and Nocturnal Blood Pressure Dipping in Young Black and White Women

Sympathetic transduction at rest and during cold pressor test in young healthy non-Hispanic Black and White women.

Conflicting Associations among Bioelectrical Impedance and Cardiometabolic Health Parameters in Young White and Black Adults.

Topsoil Moisture Depletion and Recharge below Young Norway Spruce, White Birch, and Treeless Gaps at a Mountain-Summit Site

Age-dependent changes in intervertebral disc cell mitochondria and bioenergetics.

Leptin and its Relation to Autonomic Activity, Endothelial Cell Activation and Blood Pressure in a Young Black and White Population: The African-PREDICT study

Prioritizing Young Western White Pine Stands for Blister Rust Pruning on the Warm Springs Reservation

MP45-03 AGE RELATED PENILE HEMODYNAMIC IMPAIRMENT AND FIBROSIS: POSSIBLE ROLE OF GIV-WNT SIGNALING PATHWAYS

Características ultrassonográficas de fígado, vesícula biliar, rins, vesícula urinária e jejuno em coelhos jovens e adultos

Early maladaptive schemas, behavioral inhibition/approach systems, and defense styles in the abusers of opiate, stimulant, and cannabis drugs and healthy subjects

Early maladaptive schemas, behavioral inhibition/approach systems, and defense styles in the users of natural and synthetic substances and healthy subjects

Differential Expression of Vitreous Proteins in Young and Mature New Zealand White Rabbits

The Story of Charlotte's Web: E. B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic (review)

Electromechanical and structural alterations in the aging rabbit heart and aorta

Gamma-ray-induced mutagen sensitivity and risk of sporadic breast cancer in young women: a case–control study

A Hard Rain Fell: SDS and Why It Failed (review)

A Comparison of Caregiver Child Feeding Behaviors, Family Environment and Dietary Quality between Young African American and White American Children

A Weberian medievalist: Hayden White in the 1950s

Age-Related Differences in Rabbits during ExperimentalStaphylococcus aureusKeratitis