Nell Irvin Painter's latest book— Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present – Read more about the book – Buy it from Oxford University Press or from Amazon.com – Read the table of contents and preface

Nell Irvin Painter's latest book, Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present is being released by Oxford University Press in October 2005.

Here is a magnificent account of a past rich in beauty and creativity, but also in tragedy and trauma. Eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter blends a vivid narrative based on the latest research with a wonderful array of artwork by African American artists, works which add a new depth to our understanding of black history.

Painter offers a history written for a new generation of African Americans, stretching from life in Africa before slavery to today's hip-hop culture. The book describes the staggering number of Africans--over ten million--forcibly transported to the New World, most doomed to brutal servitude in Brazil and the Caribbean. Painter looks at the free black population, numbering close to half a million by 1860 (compared to almost four million slaves), and provides a gripping account of the horrible conditions of slavery itself. The book examines the Civil War, revealing that it only slowly became a war to end slavery, and shows how Reconstruction, after a promising start, was shut down by terrorism by white supremacists. Painter traces how through the long Jim Crow decades, blacks succeeded against enormous odds, creating schools and businesses and laying the foundations of our popular culture. We read about the glorious outburst of artistic creativity of the Harlem Renaissance, the courageous struggles for Civil Rights in the 1960s, the rise and fall of Black Power, the modern hip-hop movement, and two black Secretaries of State. Painter concludes that African Americans today are wealthier and better educated, but the disadvantaged are as vulnerable as ever.

Painter deeply enriches her narrative with a series of striking works of art--more than 150 in total, most in full color--works that profoundly engage with black history and that add a vital dimension to the story, a new form of witness that testifies to the passion and creativity of the African-American experience.

* Among the dozens of artists featured are Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Beauford Delaney, Jacob Lawrence, and Kara Walker

* Filled with sharp portraits of important African Americans, from Olaudah Equiano (one of the first African slaves to leave a record of his captivity) and Toussaint L'Ouverture (who led the Haitian revolution), to Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X

Read more about Creating Black Americans, including Reviews, as well as her other books.

Nell Irvin Painter in Spring 2004.

About Nell Irvin Painter

Nell Irvin Painter is a leading historian of the United States. Until her recent retirement from teaching, she was the Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University. She was Director of Princeton's Program in African-American Studies from 1997 to 2000. In addition to her doctorate in history from Harvard University, she has received honorary doctorates from Wesleyan, Dartmouth, SUNY-New Paltz, and Yale.

As a scholar, Professor Painter has published numerous books, articles, reviews, and other essays. Her most recent books are Creating Black Americans and Southern History Across the Color Line. Six earlier books are also still in print.

Professor Painterís prominence has been recognized by her selection to be the President of the Southern Historical Association for 2007 and the President of the Organization of American Historians for 2007-2008. The Southern Historical Association promotes research in the history of the United States south. The Organization of American Historians, which draws its members from around the world, is the largest learned society devoted to the study of American history.

Professor Painter has also served on numerous editorial boards and as an officer of many other professional organizations, including the American Historical Association, the American Antiquarian Society, the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and the Association of Black Women Historians. She is currently a Councillor of the prestigious Society of American Historians. For a full list of her publications and professional activities, see her curriculum vitae. It includes links to the full text of some of her articles and reviews.

As a public intellectual, Professor Painter is frequently called upon for interviews, some of which have appeared on public television and in numerous film documentaries. Widely sought after as a public speaker, she is represented by the Greater Talent Network. (For more information, visit their website or contact Edna Schenkel at ems@greatertalent.com or at 877.662.9200.)

Professor Painter is also widely known as a mentor of younger scholars. She has advised more than twenty dissertations at four major universities. She has also mentored numerous other young historians and scholars in related disciplines, at universities across the United States, advising them in detail on how to improve their book manuscripts and how to manage their careers. In 2000, the American Historical Association awarded her the Roelker Mentorship Award as recognition for this work.

Professor Painter's work is interdisciplinary. In addition to traditional courses in American history and African-American studies, she has taught the social construction of gender, race, and personal beauty. Her most recent book, Creating Black Americans, published by Oxford University Press, shows how African Americans have drawn on art and history to develop their identity in the United States. She is now completing two additional books, to be published by W.W. Norton: The History of White People and Personal Beauty: Biology or Culture?

The Legacy of Nell Irvin Painter

In April 2004, Princeton University celebrated Nell Irvin Painter's contributions to history with a two-day conference entitled "Constructing the Past, Creating the Future: The Legacy of Nell Irvin Painter."

See Conference Schedule (as a pdf).

See text of Conference Review, as posted on the Princeton University home page.

Sixtieth Birthday Tribute

Nell Irvin Painter's parents, Frank and Dona Irvin, celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary in 2000.

Nell Elizabeth Irvin was born in Houston, Texas, at the Houston Hospital for Negroes. While she was still an infant, her family moved to Northern California, where she was educated in the Oakland public schools.

Nell's father, Frank E. Irvin, was trained as a chemist and worked for many years for the Chemistry Department of the University of California at Berkeley. Her mother, Dona L. Irvin, worked for the Oakland Public Schools after her daughter left home. Her older brother, Frank Jr., died during a tonsillectomy at the age of five.

After her retirement from the Oakland public schools at the age of 65, Dona L. Irvin turned to writing. Her first book, The Unsung Heart of Black America: A Middle-Class Church at Midcentury, published by the University of Missouri Press in 1993, recounted the story of the Methodist church in Oakland in which Nell grew up. Dona's second book, I Hope I Look That Good When I'm That Old, which tells about her coming to terms with aging, was published in early 2002. To buy this book, or to browse in it electronically, visit the website of the publisher, iUniverse.

On April 19, 2002, Frank and Dona Irvin celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

By entering higher education, Nell followed a family tradition. Her grandfather, Dona's father Charles Hoswell McGruder, was a professor at Straight University in New Orleans (now part of Dillard University). Nell's cousin, Dona's nephew Charles H. McGruder, III, is now head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western Kentucky University.

Nell Painter’s husband Glenn Shafer teaches business at Rutgers University. Her step-son Rick Shafer recently completed a masters degree in labor studies at Rutgers and is seeking employment where he can use his computer skills to work for organized labor. Her step-son Dennis Shafer is studying classical saxophone at the Boston Conservatory. Glenn's sister Janet Shafer is a graphic designer working in both web and print media. Janet designed this web site.

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This page last updated 09/15/2005