Born to Belonging: Writings on Spirit and Justice

Politics & Social Sciences

Segrest, Mab

Social Sciences

Rutgers University Press

Veteran activist Mab Segrest takes readers along on her travels to view a world experiencing extraordinary change. As she moves from place to place, she speculates on the effects of globalization and urban development on individuals, examines the struggles for racial, economic, and sexual equality, and narrates her own history as a lesbian in the American South. From the principle that we all belong to the human community, Segrest uses her personal experience as a filter for larger political and cultural issues. Her writings bring together such groups as the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina, fledging gay rights activists in Zimbabwe, and resistance fighters in El Salvador. Segrest expertly plumbs her own personal experiences for organizing principles and maxims to combat racism, homophobia, sexism, and economic exploitation.

Against a backdrop of nine generations of her family's history, Mab Segrest explores her experience as a white lesbian organizing against a virulent Far Right movement in North Carolina.

Memoir of a Race Traitor

History

Americas

South End Press

My Mama's Dead Squirrel: Lesbian Essays on Southern Culture

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Firebrand Books

From Publishers Weekly This collection brings together essays published over the past eight years by lesbian-feminist organizer and editor Segrest, who is the granddaughter of a KKK member and is a former English teacher in a Southern Baptist college. Intending "to explain the place of the lesbian writer in the world, looking . . . within my family, with other women, in global struggles," she writes for example of her mother who is so indifferent to housekeeping that she overlooks a dead squirrel on the sofa. Other pieces discuss dominant Southern literary groups like "The Fugitives," which Segrest compares with the tradition of Southern lesbian writers traceable back to Angeline Grimke. Although determined to maintain an inclusive perspective, in this case Segrest's lesbian viewpoint narrows rather than leavens her subject matter. DecemberCopyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A scathing and original look at the racist origins of psychiatry, through the story of the largest mental institution in the world Today, 90 percent of psychiatric beds are located in jails and prisons across the United States, institutions that confine disproportionate numbers of African Americans. After more than a decade of research, the celebrated scholar and activist Mab Segrest locates the deep historical roots of this startling fact, turning her sights on a long-forgotten cauldron of racial ideology: the state mental asylum system in which psychiatry was born and whose influences extend into our troubled present. In December 1841, the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum was founded. A hundred years later, it had become the largest insane asylum in the world with over ten thousand patients. Administrations of Lunacy tells the story of this iconic and infamous southern institution, a history that was all but erased from popular memory and within the psychiatric profession. Through riveting accounts of historical characters, Segrest reveals how modern psychiatric practice was forged in the traumas of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. Deftly connecting this history to the modern era, Segrest then shows how a single asylum helped set the stage for the eugenics theories of the twentieth century and the persistent racial ideologies of our own times. She also traces the connections to today’s dissident psychiatric practices that offer sanity and create justice. A landmark of scholarship, Administrations of Lunacy restores a vital thread between past and present, revealing the tangled racial roots of psychiatry in America.

Administrations of Lunacy: Racism and the Haunting of American Psychiatry at the Milledgeville Asylum

Reference

The New Press

Back in print after more than a decade, the singular chronicle of life at the forefront of antiracist activism, with a new introduction and afterword by the author “Mab Segrest’s book is extraordinary. It is a ‘political memoir’ but its language is poetic and its tone passionate. I started it with caution and finished it with awe and pleasure.” —Howard Zinn In 1994, Mab Segrest first explained how she “had become a woman haunted by the dead.” Against a backdrop of nine generations of her family’s history, Segrest explored her experiences in the 1980s as a white lesbian organizing against a virulent far-right movement in North Carolina. Memoir of a Race Traitor became a classic text of white antiracist practice. bell hooks called it a “courageous and daring [example of] the reality that political solidarity, forged in struggle, can exist across differences.” Adrienne Rich wrote that it was “a unique document and thoroughly fascinating.” Juxtaposing childhood memories with contemporary events, Segrest described her journey into the heart of her culture, finally veering from its trajectory of violence toward hope and renewal. Now, amid our current national crisis driven by an increasingly apocalyptic white supremacist movement, Segrest returns with an updated edition of her classic book. With a new introduction and afterword that explore what has transpired with the far right since its publication, the book brings us into the age of Trump—and to what can and must be done. Called “a true delight” and a “must-read” (Minnesota Review), Memoir of a Race Traitor is an inspiring and politically potent book. With brand-new power and relevance in 2019, this is a book that far transcends its genre.

Memoir of a Race Traitor: Fighting Racism in the American South

Community & Culture

Dreamscape Media

Today, ninety percent of psychiatric beds are located in jails and prisons across the United States, institutions that confine disproportionate numbers of African Americans. After more than a decade of research, the celebrated scholar and activist Mab Segrest locates the deep historical roots of this startling fact, turning her sights on a long-forgotten cauldron of racial ideology: the state mental asylum system in which psychiatry was born and whose influences extend into our troubled present. In December 1841, the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum was founded. A hundred years later, it had become the largest insane asylum in the world with over ten thousand patients. Administrations of Lunacy tells the story of this iconic and infamous southern institution, a history that was all but erased from popular memory and within the psychiatric profession. Through riveting accounts of historical characters, Segrest reveals how modern psychiatric practice was forged in the traumas of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. Deftly connecting this history to the modern era, Segrest then shows how a single asylum helped set the stage for the eugenics theories of the twentieth century and the persistent racial ideologies of our own times. She also traces the connections to today's dissident psychiatric practices that offer sanity and create justice. A landmark of scholarship, Administrations of Lunacy restores a vital thread between past and present, revealing the tangled racial roots of psychiatry in America.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Segrest, Mab. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Segrest, Mab

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Segrest, Mab. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Born to Belonging: Writings on Spirit and Justice

Born to Belonging: Writings on Spirit and Justice

Memoir of a Race Traitor

Memoir of a Race Traitor

My Mama's Dead Squirrel: Lesbian Essays on Southern Culture

My Mama's Dead Squirrel: Lesbian Essays on Southern Culture

Administrations of Lunacy: Racism and the Haunting of American Psychiatry at the Milledgeville Asylum

Memoir of a Race Traitor: Fighting Racism in the American South

Administrations of Lunacy: Racism and the Haunting of American Psychiatry at the Milledgeville Asylum

Administrations of Lunacy: Racism and the Haunting of American Psychiatry at the Milledgeville Asylum