Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE 2020

At the dawn of the twentieth century, black women in the US were carving out new ways of living. The first generations born after emancipation, their struggle was to live as if they really were free.

These women refused to labour like slaves. Wrestling with the question of freedom, they invented forms of love and solidarity outside convention and law. These were the pioneers of free love, common-law and transient marriages, queer identities, and single motherhood - all deemed scandalous, even pathological, at the dawn of the twentieth century, though they set the pattern for the world to come.

In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman deploys both radical scholarship and profound literary intelligence to examine the transformation of intimate life that they instigated. With visionary intensity, she conjures their worlds, their dilemmas, their defiant brilliance.

Summary

Chapter 1: The Promised Land

* Summary: Introduces the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration (SSA), founded in 1920 to train social workers to address urban poverty and inequality.
* Real Example: Story of SSA graduate Ruth Finer, who went on to become a respected social work researcher and advocate for low-income families.

Chapter 2: The Saints

* Summary: Chronicles the early years of SSA, when its faculty and students were guided by a strong belief in social justice and a commitment to serving society's most vulnerable members.
* Real Example: Profile of Muriel S. Batson, SSA's first African American graduate, who dedicated her career to fighting poverty and racism.

Chapter 3: The Heretics

* Summary: Covers the post-World War II era at SSA, when scholars like Jane Addams and Ernest Burgess challenged the "scientific" approach to social work, advocating for a more humanistic and empowering perspective.
* Real Example: Story of Louis Wirth, director of SSA's research center, who coined the term "social disorganization" to describe the negative effects of urban life.

Chapter 4: The Revolutionaries

* Summary: Describes the 1960s, when SSA became a hotbed of social activism and radical thought, with students and faculty protesting against war, poverty, and injustice.
* Real Example: Account of the "Chicago Eight," a group of SSA students who were arrested during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Chapter 5: The Survivors

* Summary: Traces SSA's resilience and adaptability through the tumultuous 1970s and 1980s, as it faced budget cuts and conservative political opposition.
* Real Example: Career of Alice Kemp, an SSA graduate who became president of the National Association of Social Workers and a leading advocate for social welfare policies.

Chapter 6: The Renaissance

* Summary: Explores the resurgence of SSA in the 1990s and beyond, with the emergence of new research paradigms and the increased recognition of the importance of social work.
* Real Example: Profile of Michael Sherraden, SSA professor whose research on asset-building policies has had a major impact on welfare reform.

Chapter 7: The Legacy

* Summary: Concludes by examining SSA's enduring legacy and its continued role in shaping social work education and practice.
* Real Example: Story of SSA graduate Maxine Waters, who went on to become a prominent Congresswoman known for her advocacy for social justice.