Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Vella, Christina (1952-2017)
Titre(s) : George Washington Carver [Texte imprimé] : a life / Christina Vella
Publication : Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 2020
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (x, 422 pages) : illustrations ; 25 cm
Collection : Southern biography series
Lien à la collection : Southern biography series
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references (pages 407-412) and index
Nearly every American can cite at least one of the accomplishments of George Washington
Carver. The many tributes honoring his contributions to scientific advancement and
black history include a national monument bearing his name, a U.S.-minted coin featuring
his likeness, and induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Born into slavery,
Carver earned a master's degree at Iowa State Agricultural College and went on to
become that university's first black faculty member. A keen painter who chose agricultural
studies over art, he focused the majority of his research on peanuts and sweet potatoes.
His scientific breakthroughs with the crops--both of which would replenish the cotton-leached
soil of the South--helped spare multitudes of sharecroppers from poverty. Despite
Carver's lifelong difficulties with systemic racial prejudice, when he died in 1943,
millions of Americans mourned the passing of one of the nation's most honored and
well-known scientists. Scores of children's books celebrate the contributions of this
prolific botanist, but no biographer has fully examined both his personal life and
career until now. Christina Vella offers a thorough biography of George Washington
Carver, including in-depth details of his relationships with his friends, colleagues,
supporters, and those he loved. Despite the exceptional trajectory of his career,
Carver was not immune to the racism of the Jim Crow era or the privations and hardships
of the Great Depression and two world wars. Yet throughout this tumultuous period,
his scientific achievements aligned him with equally extraordinary friends, including
Teddy Roosevelt, Mohandas Gandhi, Henry A. Wallace, and Henry Ford. In pursuit of
the man behind the historical figure, Vella discovers an unassuming intellectual with
a quirky sense of humor, striking eccentricities, and an unwavering religious faith.
She explores Carver's anguished dealings with Booker T. Washington across their nineteen
years working together at the Tuskegee Institute--a turbulent partnership often fraught
with jealousy. Uneasy in personal relationships, Carver lost one woman he loved to
suicide and, years later, directed his devotion toward a white man. A prodigious and
generous scholar whose life was shaped by struggle and heartbreak as well as success
and fame, George Washington Carver remains a key figure in the history of southern
agriculture, botanical advancement, and the struggle for civil rights. Vella's extensively
researched biography offers a complex and compelling portrait of one of the most brilliant
men of the last century
Sujet(s) : Carver, George Washington (1864?-1943)
Agriculture -- Recherche -- États-Unis -- 1800-....
Tuskegee Institute
Indice(s) Dewey :
630.973 09 (23e éd.) = Agronomie, agriculture et techniques connexes - États-Unis - Histoire
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780807160749. - ISBN 0807160741. - ISBN 9780807160756 (erroné). - ISBN 9780807160763
(erroné). - ISBN 9780807160770 (erroné). - ISBN 9780807190756 (erroné)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb46885800r
Notice n° :
FRBNF46885800
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
Table des matières : Carver's George ; Drifting toward life ; A real human being ; Booker ; Dominion
of poverty ; "Stand up for the stupid and crazy" ; Love and lynch mobs ; Wrestling
with devils ; Bad days and worse ; The curtain lifts ; Trying to be serious ;
A real chemist? ; Passion pure and simple ; Suffering humanity ; Fame and its discontents
; Miles to go ; A million thanks ; Epilogue ; Appendices: 1. Experiment Station
Bulletins by George W. Carver; 2. Partial list of Carver's products from peanuts and
sweet potatoes (compiled by Carver); 3. Dr. Joseph Kenney's letter to Booker T. Washington
and the Executive Council concerning unsanitary conditions at Tuskegee, March 26,
1903.
