Overview

This book is a work of political archaeology. It focuses on the people and events at a particular colonial farm in Germantown, Pennsylvania; their stories provide a micro and macro view of economic, social, demographic, and agro-ecological change. Cresheim Farm shows how one mostly unknown but strategically placed piece of land—home to an extraordinary array of people, including early anti-slavery and anti-Nazi activists, the first woman editor of the Saturday Evening Post and a robber baron—can tell, affect and reflect the history of a nation. The writing is historically grounded and academic, future-oriented, deeply researched, and immediate. Cresheim Farm serves as a lens through which to observe and understand social forces, such as the launching point of freedom and democracy movements, white privilege, slavery, and genocidal westward expansion. The past lives on in all of us.

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9781032330259

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This book is a work of political archeology, an exploration of the sedimented politics of a place, seen over a long period of time.... Where do we come from? {and} Where does our knowledge come from? Or, How can we know what we know? These are the deep questions that this book proposes. --From the Foreword by Howard Winant, coauthor of Racial Formation in the United States

In the great tradition of Alexis de Tocqueville and Gunnar Myrdal, Antje Mattheus sheds a brilliant light, along with original and compelling insights, onto American life and culture - this time, from the intriguing vantage point of a single homestead, a historical farmhouse in the city of Philadelphia. This fascinating book is a must-read! - Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Yale University This book is a work of political archeology, an exploration of the sedimented politics of a place, seen over a long period of time.... Where do we come from? {and} Where does our knowledge come from? Or, How can we know what we know? These are the deep questions that this book proposes. --From the Foreword by Howard Winant, coauthor of Racial Formation in the United States

Author Information

Antje Ulrike Mattheus grew up in post-World War II West Germany and came to the US at 18 to be an organizer for the United Farmworkers Union. She has worked with a range of community, academic, direct action, and anti-violence programs to address white supremacy, race, class and gender inequalities. She has innovated grassroots adult education and empowerment programs and co-founded White People Confronting Racism, which has been conducting anti-racism workshops for white people since 1995. She enjoys restoring old buildings.

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