sarah reviewed Dispossessed Lives by Marisa J. Fuentes
how to do history that's been marginalized out of the archival records
5 stars
If you're interested in historiography and how one might go about telling the history of enslaved women in the Caribbean, this is the key book to read. If you're looking for a straightforward history of this topic, you're not going to get it here, not because Fuentes isn't telling it, but because it can't be told in the ways that current archival research strategies allow. It's a slow academic read meant to be a field-changing book, and it's that. I was more interested in the methodology than the subject per se, and am still thinking about how I can use this book to talk about feminist bibliography issues, and haven't fully thought it through yet. And I'm calling this done even though I still have parts of a couple chapters left because I have to move on.