Description

‘One of our most brilliant contemporary thinkers’ Claudia Rankine

‘An unrelenting exploration of slavery and freedom’ New Yorker

In this radical re-evaluation of American history, Saidiya Hartman draws together a striking portrait of nineteenth-century slavery and its many afterlives. Through close examination of a variety of ‘scenes’, ranging from the auction block and the minstrel show to plantation diaries and legal cases, Scenes of Subjection investigates the interconnected nature of historical enslavement and present-day racism.

With bold and persuasively argued possibilities for Black resistance and transformation, this book shows how far we have yet to go to dismantle the pervasive legacy of slavery.

Publisher Review

One of our most brilliant contemporary thinkers — Claudia Rankine * New York Times Book Review * A lodestar for a generation of students and, increasingly, for politically engaged people outside the academy — Alexis Okeowo * the New Yorker * What Hartman has to say about both slavery and its continuing resonances should be heard as widely as possible … A major scholarly contribution to the project of expanding and refining the nation’s political memory. * the Nation * Meticulously researched …. The 25th-anniversary edition of this pathbreaking work of scholarship is a gift to those interested in thinking deeply and expansively about slavery’s ever-running machinations. — Omari Weekes * Vulture * The brilliance of the book – a brilliance that is considerable, formidable and rare – is present in the space Hartman leaves for the ongoing (re)production of [black] performance in all its guises and for a critical awareness of how each of those guises is always already present in and disruptive of the supposed originality of that primal scene [of violence] — Fred Moten, author of The Consent Not to Be a Single Being Innovative … [Hartman’s] writing is impassioned and even lyrical at times … This is a powerful and thought-provoking examination of slavery’s far-reaching legacy * Publishers Weekly * Sharpens our understanding of whiteness, property, and happiness in startling ways — David Roediger, author of Wages of Whiteness