Background
Williamson, Joel Rudolph was born on October 27, 1929 in Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. Son of James Henry and Carrie Mae (Swaney) Williamson.
(One of America's great novelists, William Faulkner was a ...)
One of America's great novelists, William Faulkner was a writer deeply rooted in the American South. In works such as The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner drew powerfully on Southern themes, attitudes, and atmosphere to create his own world and place--the mythical Yoknapatawpha County--peopled with quintessential Southerners such as the Compsons, Sartorises, Snopes, and McCaslins. Indeed, to a degree perhaps unmatched by any other major twentieth-century novelist, Faulkner remained at home and explored his own region--the history and culture and people of the South. Now, in William Faulkner and Southern History, one of America's most acclaimed historians of the South, Joel Williamson, weaves together a perceptive biography of Faulkner himself, an astute analysis of his works, and a revealing history of Faulkner's ancestors in Mississippi--a family history that becomes, in Williamson's skilled hands, a vivid portrait of Southern culture itself. Williamson provides an insightful look at Faulkner's ancestors, a group sketch so brilliant that the family comes alive almost as vividly as in Faulkner's own fiction. Indeed, his ancestors often outstrip his characters in their colorful and bizarre nature. Williamson has made several discoveries: the Falkners (William was the first to spell it "Faulkner") were not planter, slaveholding "aristocrats"; Confederate Colonel Falkner was not an unalloyed hero, and he probably sired, protected, and educated a mulatto daughter who married into America's mulatto elite; Faulkner's maternal grandfather Charlie Butler stole the town's money and disappeared in the winter of 1887-1888, never to return. Equally important, Williamson uses these stories to underscore themes of race, class, economics, politics, religion, sex and violence, idealism and Romanticism--"the rainbow of elements in human culture"--that reappear in Faulkner's work. He also shows that, while Faulkner's ancestors were no ordinary people, and while he sometimes flashed a curious pride in them, Faulkner came to embrace a pervasive sense of shame concerning both his family and his culture. This he wove into his writing, especially about sex, race, class, and violence, psychic and otherwise. William Faulkner and Southern History represents an unprecedented publishing event--an eminent historian writing on a major literary figure. By revealing the deep history behind the art of the South's most celebrated writer, Williamson evokes new insights and deeper understanding, providing anyone familiar with Faulkner's great novels with a host of connections between his work, his life, and his ancestry.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195101294/?tag=2022091-20
(New People is an insightful analysis of the miscegenation...)
New People is an insightful analysis of the miscegenation of American whites and blacks from colonial times to the present, of the "new people" produced by these interracial relationships, and of the myriad ways miscegenation has affected our national culture. Because the majority of American blacks are of mixed ancestry, and because mulattoes and pure blacks ultimately combined their cultural heritages, what begins in the colonial period as mulatto history and culture ends in the twentieth century as black history and culture. Thus, exploring the history of the mulatto becomes one way of understanding something of the experience of the African American. Williamson traces the fragile lines of color and caste that have separated mulattoes, blacks, and whites throughout history and speculates on the effect that the increasing ambiguity of those lines will have on the future of American society.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807120359/?tag=2022091-20
(The Crucible of Race, a major reinterpretation of black-w...)
The Crucible of Race, a major reinterpretation of black-white relations in the South, was widely acclaimed on publication and compared favorably to two of the seminal books on Southern history: Wilbur J. Cash's The Mind of the South and C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Representing 20 years of research and writing on the history of the South, The Crucible of Race explores the large topic of Southern race relations for a span of a century and a half. Oxford is pleased to make available an abridgement of this parent volume: A Rage for Order preserves all the theme lines that were advanced in the original volume and many of the individual stories. As in Crucible of Race, Williamson here confronts the awful irony that the war to free blacks from slavery also freed racism. He examines the shift in the power base of Southern white leadership after 1850 and recounts the terrible violence done to blacks in the name of self-protection. This condensation of one of the most important interpretations of Southern history is offered as a means by which a large audience can grasp the essentials of black-white relations--a problem that persists to this day and one with which we all must contend--North and South, black and white.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195040252/?tag=2022091-20
(One of America's great novelists, William Faulkner was a ...)
One of America's great novelists, William Faulkner was a writer deeply rooted in the American South. In works such as The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner drew powerfully on Southern themes, attitudes, and atmosphere to create his own world and place--the mythical Yoknapatawpha County--peopled with quintessential Southerners such as the Compsons, Sartorises, Snopes, and McCaslins. Indeed, to a degree perhaps unmatched by any other major twentieth-century novelist, Faulkner remained at home and explored his own region--the history and culture and people of the South. Now, in William Faulkner and Southern History, one of America's most acclaimed historians of the South, Joel Williamson, weaves together a perceptive biography of Faulkner himself, an astute analysis of his works, and a revealing history of Faulkner's ancestors in Mississippi--a family history that becomes, in Williamson's skilled hands, a vivid portrait of Southern culture itself. Williamson provides an insightful look at Faulkner's ancestors, a group sketch so brilliant that the family comes alive almost as vividly as in Faulkner's own fiction. Indeed, his ancestors often outstrip his characters in their colorful and bizarre nature. Williamson has made several discoveries: the Falkners (William was the first to spell it "Faulkner") were not planter, slaveholding "aristocrats"; Confederate Colonel Falkner was not an unalloyed hero, and he probably sired, protected, and educated a mulatto daughter who married into America's mulatto elite; Faulkner's maternal grandfather Charlie Butler stole the town's money and disappeared in the winter of 1887-1888, never to return. Equally important, Williamson uses these stories to underscore themes of race, class, economics, politics, religion, sex and violence, idealism and Romanticism--"the rainbow of elements in human culture"--that reappear in Faulkner's work. He also shows that, while Faulkner's ancestors were no ordinary people, and while he sometimes flashed a curious pride in them, Faulkner came to embrace a pervasive sense of shame concerning both his family and his culture. This he wove into his writing, especially about sex, race, class, and violence, psychic and otherwise. William Faulkner and Southern History represents an unprecedented publishing event--an eminent historian writing on a major literary figure. By revealing the deep history behind the art of the South's most celebrated writer, Williamson evokes new insights and deeper understanding, providing anyone familiar with Faulkner's great novels with a host of connections between his work, his life, and his ancestry.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195074041/?tag=2022091-20
(Black/White Relations in the American South since Emancip...)
Black/White Relations in the American South since Emancipation. Winner of the Parkman Prize of The Society of American Historians.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195033825/?tag=2022091-20
Williamson, Joel Rudolph was born on October 27, 1929 in Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. Son of James Henry and Carrie Mae (Swaney) Williamson.
AB, University of Southern California, 1949; Master of Arts, University of Southern California, 1951; Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, 1964.
Instructor department history, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1960-1964;
assistant professor, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1964-1966;
associate professor, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1966-1969;
professor, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1969-1985;
Lineberger professor in humanities, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, since 1985. Resident fellow Rockefeller Center, Bellagio, Italy, 1988. Eudora Weltyprof. in southern studies Millsaps College, 1984.
Distinguished visiting professor Rhodes College, 1984. Visiting professor department history, associate Lowell House Harvard University, 1981-1982.
(New People is an insightful analysis of the miscegenation...)
(The Crucible of Race, a major reinterpretation of black-w...)
(One of America's great novelists, William Faulkner was a ...)
(One of America's great novelists, William Faulkner was a ...)
(Black/White Relations in the American South since Emancip...)
(Will be shipped from US. Brand new copy.)
(Book by Joel Williamson)
Lieutenant United States Navy, 1951-1955. Member Society of America Historians, Organization American Historians, American History Association, Southern History Association, Southern Association for Women Historians.
Married Marie Ahearn, November 17, 1953 (divorced May 1983). Children: Joelle, William, Alethea. Married Anna Woodson, October 18, 1986.