When History Is Personal

Mimi Schwartz

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781496206305
• eBook ISBN: 9781496207296
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

When History Is Personal contains the stories of twenty-five moments in Mimi Schwartz’s life, each heightened by its connection to historical, political, and social issues. These essays look both inward and outward so that these individualized tales tell a larger story—of assimilation, the women’s movement, racism, anti-Semitism, end-of-life issues, ethics in writing, digital and corporate challenges, and courtroom justice.

A shrewd and discerning storyteller, Schwartz captures history from her vantage as a child of German-Jewish immigrants, a wife of over fifty years, a breast cancer survivor, a working mother, a traveler, a tennis player, a daughter, and a widow. In adding her personal story to the larger narrative of history, culture, and politics, Schwartz invites readers to consider her personal take alongside “official” histories and offers readers fresh assessments of our collective past.
 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Part 1
• My Father Always Said
• The Coronation of Bobby
• Love in a Handbag
• When to Forget
• “It’s Just Like Benheim”
• Part 2
• First Thanksgiving, 1962
• Off the King’s Highway
• A Trunk of Surprise
• What’s a Rally to Do?
• Close Call
• At the Johnson Hair Salon
• Echo across the Road
• Part 3
• Story on a Winter Beach
• Go Away, Bear
• Writing with Carly
• My Z Man
• Who Will I Be in Your Story?
• In the Land of Double Narrative
• Part 4
• Ad In, Ad Out
• On Stage and Off
• Lessons from a Last Day
• Lyrics and the Way We Love
• A Vine of Roses
• Fix-It Fantasy
• How the Light Gets In
• Acknowledgments
• Source Acknowledgments
• About Mimi Schwartz
• Illustrations