NetGalley ARC | Administrations of Lunacy: A Story of Racism and Psychiatry at the Milledgeville Asylum

I received a free ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The book makes for some very grim reading, but that reading is important nonetheless. The author dives deep into the history of psychiatry. I would love to say I am shocked at the blatant racism of said origins of the field, but we all know that would be a big fat lie because racism is STILL everywhere. So many institutions that we know today were founded for the nefarious reasons of keeping Black and African-American people "in their place" and it will come as a surprise to literally no one who is a logical person that asylums operated for that purpose.

The author presents a slew of facts and anecdotes in such gripping detail that despite the horrible accounts, the book was hard to put down. The pain and trauma of so many years of abuses by those in power are hard to stomach, but Segrest's scholarship is top-notch.

The Milledgeville Asylum was founded in December of 1841, then called the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum. Within a century of its founding, Milledgeville housed 10,000 patients and held claim to the title of being the largest insane asylum in the world. Yet few people outside of the state seem to have heard of this place, and Segrest aims to change that.

I had no idea prior to reading this book of the originas of psychiatry - that psychiatry came from successful attempts to ensure that even though slavery was technically illegal, Black and African-American residents would still be held against their will. The author connects this terrible history to our modern world in a succinct and now-obvious way: the majority of psychiatry beds in the US are in prisons and jails. These same prisons and jails house a highly disproportionate amount of Blacks and African-Americans. The correlation is pretty hard to miss.

What's more, it was here at Milledgeville that the foundation would be laid on which the many eugenics theories would be built. Segrest discusses the basis of these policies and practices at length, and how the conversation by the 'experts' of the time gradually changed in order to accommodate the changing country. Slavery was good for the "Negro brain" because the constraints of slavery allowed for fewer cases of "insanity" among African-Americans. Basically, the psychiatrists believed that slaves were unbothered by stress due to their position as slaves. Sure, I am guessing that being a slave was not stressful at all. I would place my standard eye-roll here, but the subject is too horrific and infuriating.

Naturally these psychiatrists determined that emancipation would be terrible for all the "unstressed slaves" and wouldn't you know, in the eras following the Civil War - through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and so on and so on, the conversation gradually became about mental illnesses then passing on to the next generation because it was hereditary and not the trauma after all.

Patient were subjected to all kinds of terrible procedures that had zero to do with healing. Forced sterilizations, lobotomies, the ice baths, it's all here and well-documented. Naturally these procedures were performed almost exclusively on women and African-Americans, because we all know that white dudes NEVER have mental health issues of any kind, and especially did not in the decades that Milledgeville was in operation.

Today roughly 200 buildings still stand on the 2,000 acres of land where Milledgeville was once a bustling and busy place. It is largely abandoned, but there are people working to preserve this history and I truly hope they are successful. These stories can never be forgotten, so that the thousands of nameless men, women, and children who died there are not forgotten either.

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4 Stars

I cannot think of a for fitting subtitle than the one for this book. An American Tragedy, indeed, well-deserving all caps, even. This collection of Coates' articles written during President Obama's years in office are a sobering and heart-wrenching look back at a groundbreaking presidency, only to be followed by such a ginormous shit-show that it is hard to believe we are talking about the same America. Sadly, we are.

Prior to this read, I was familiar with Coates' work and had enjoyed several of his articles for The Atlantic, though some of these were still new to me. And truthfully, I am having a very difficult time putting into words all the emotions I felt while reading this one. As a result, this might actually be one of the worst reviews I have ever written because no matter how I try, the words I write don't properly convey how important this book is. I might as well just stand on an actual soapbox on a street corner, banging a drum and shouting at passers-by that they MUST read this book. What I CAN say is that if you are looking for the voice of this generation in regards to writing, speaking, thinking about race, you can stop now; Coates is that voice, that writer, that thinker. Not only are the articles fantastic, but it is the in-between stuff that really pops. Coates prefaces each article with further writing, discussing his frame of mind at the time, what was going on when he penned that particular articles, and his reflections on it now that President Obama's time in office is receding further and further in the rear-view mirror. It is interesting to read of how his writing and thinking evolved over the course of Obama's two terms, and how that impacted him as a whole. You can certainly locate each individual article online, but please trust me when I say your time and money spent on the book would be well worth it. In fact, I wish this would become required reading in high school and beyond - especially two of the most powerful essays in a strong collection of work: "My President Was Black" and "The Case for Reparations". The latter is especially eye-opening, even for those who think they already have a solid grasp on how deeply racism is embedded into every day life in America, even in 2018. ESPECIALLY in 2018. 

In the final essay, the epilogue really to eight years of President Obama, comes Coates' final thoughts entitled, "The First White President". The title alone really makes one stop and think, with Coates providing his thoughts on why the statement is so infuriatingly accurate, and I thoroughly agree with his argument - that trumplethinskin's "entire political existence hinges on" a black president coming before him. he truly won for no other reason than being a white male, it really is that simple. This grossly unqualified candidate lead the way on the birtherism 'movement', and has demanded multiple times to see President Obama's transcripts, because OF COURSE a black man could not really be intelligent enough to attend an Ivy League school (sometimes when I type, I roll my eyes so hard I am worried they will roll right out of my head). If this line of thinking from trump makes you uncomfortable, good. It should. His thoughts, words, and actions are so normalized at this point, I fear we may never recover. 2020 can not come fast enough, and we must do all we can in the Midterm elections to right this ship before we reach the point of no return.

In addition to the aforementioned articles, Coates touches on a number of other topics as well in his selection of work from each year of the Obama presidency. One of my other favorites was a piece on Michelle Obama, her upbringing, and message sent in conjunction with that of her husband's. Also addressed at length is the epidemic of mass incarcerations and the impact that has on Black families - another fantastic piece that is timely and horrifying.

Basically what I am trying to say here is that the collection is superb. Even those articles from the earliest years of the Obama Administration are just as important now as they were then. We are also lucky enough to be able to go back to those articles now, with the knowledge we have gained in the time since they were first written. This brings another dimension to Coates' writing that we should be thankful for. In these articles, as well as the prefaces he has included for each of them, Coates writes in such a persuasive way, yet still allows himself to be completely open and vulnerable. He does not have all the answers, nor does he claim to. But to understand one another and work toward building a better, more inclusive future, his words provide a wonderful starting point - if everyone is will to take those steps and begin that journey.

I highly recommend this book to pretty much any and everyone. The unfortunate part is that those who might need it the most in all likelihood will never pick it up. Therein lies the problem. But the rest of us can and must pick up the slack and keep moving forward.

John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery: Selections from the Diary

I received this ARC for free via NetGalley from Oxford University Press in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4 Stars

I have to confess my complete lack of knowledge about some of the earliest presidents after Washington. I vaguely thought both John Adams and John Quincy Adams were the only two among the first ten or so who never owned slaves and were staunchly against slavery. I could've sworn I read that previously. But as I started this one, I quickly found that was not the case at all and early on his career, JQA was actually a supporter of this cancerous practice that still impacts our country today. In fact, at around 49%, the books states "The Adamses rented slaves during their years in Washington DC...". This is quite a different picture painted of a man who, in the last years of his life, was so well-known for his opposition to slavery. He was even called by one of his political rivals, Henry Wise, "the acutest, the astutest, the archest enemy of southern slavery that ever existed." This is quite a contrast to how JQA even viewed himself, as he often criticized the abolitionists who didn't think he was going far enough to denounce slavery.

The editors did an excellent job with this volume, first introducing the journal, their purpose for choosing the entries they did, as well as their process for doing so. Throughout the text they also gave summaries and their own insights into many of the entries, explaining the larger politics of the time and events going on while JQA wrote what he did. They also provided commentary in comparing what he was writing in his diary versus what he was saying publicly on the issue of slavery. JQA left the most extensive collection of personal writings than any other statesman in the history of the US. These diaries give us one of the most complete pictures of any of these early politicians and the complexity of evolving views on a myriad of issues surrounding the young nation, slavery being at the forefront.

While I read this as a ARC on my Kindle, I definitely think it would best be read in a physical format. Throughout the text the editors reference other entries which are similar and it is just a bit more difficult going back and forth between them. There were also tons and tons and tons of footnotes. One must also be prepared for the mental exercise needed in reading a text like this. It will take some time, as sometimes reading what those who lived 200 years ago can be consuming. To quote one of my fave movies, National Treasure, "People don't really talk that way anymore." And it's true. I must also make note of the huge undertaking it was for the authors/editors to tackle such a project. JQA left behind 51 volumes to peruse, not a project that can be done in a few weeks. And if you care to browse any of the 51 volumes for yourself, you can find them online for here.

JQA is a certainly an early politician worth getting to know better. He was deeply involved in those early decades of our nation - and how could he not have been, given the fact that his father was a Founding Father. JQA was not only a president, but he later served in the House of Representatives for Massachusetts. Time and again, he filled important roles within the government, also serving as a diplomat and Secretary of State. He literally gave his life serving his country, suffering a stroke on the House Floor after voting during a debate. Adams was a contradiction though, because while he opposed slavery later in life, he was also not keen to discuss it all that much either. He never identified with abolitionists though because he thought their demands were too extreme. So many proposals were put forth in how to handle ending slavery and what would become of all the freed men and women. Adams wrestled with this constantly, all the while worried that as the divide between the north and south grew, it would only lead to war and the potential destruction of the fledgling country.

The book is very involved. There were times I did not know if I would finish it, but it is worth the time. Definitely recommended for those who have an interest in the time period, as well as politics.