With about 50 students, professors and university staff eagerly listening to and jotting down his every word, history professor Ira Berlin discussed his new book The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations in McKeldin Library last night.
Berlin's book, published last year, poses a framework that aims to reconstruct the traditional views of African-American history by integrating the past with this generation's newest immigrants. Berlin has been has written prolifically on the topic of the history of African slavery, and was awarded the Albert Beveridge Prize in 2002 by the American Historical Association and the Ansfield-Wolf Award for his book, Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves.
He began last night's discussion by explaining how he came to the idea for his newest book.
"The idea arrived with a bang — I know the place, time and circumstance," he said.
