This article was posted in NPR by the Associated Press today, "At Home With Toni Morrison". I read Beloved in high school and really loved the book. So when I was looking for information on NPR for the Korean War and noticed this article, I was really intrigued. The book would be great to add to a library for Junior English "literature circles" as an American author study. The material could be cored between the English and U.S. History teacher, a socratic seminar or philosophical chairs discussion could take place about the themes of war and racism. History students could read the novel to make connections to the build up of the Civil Rights Movement.
Last year, I taught APUSH and remember teaching the bias of the "glory days of the 1950s", and how post WWII was a magical time for the majority of Americans. I appreciate from a historical perspective Morrison recognizes that war and racism was raging on simmer and about to explode in the 1960s. I think I may put this on my summer reading list!
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