An interesting study on the social upheaval caused by early interracial social and intellectual exchange. It offers a glimpse of how parts of the American population are truly isolated and what happens when attempts are made to bridge that isolation. Carla Kaplan provides an excellent background and examples in the six women she profiles in this book. ( )

Gave me an insight that I didn't think existed at this time period in America . ( )

Thoroughly enjoyed and learned a bit about the Harlem Renaissance. I found the book interesting in part because of its unusual focus on the white women drawn to Harlem and black people, culture, and issues. As the author acknowledges, these women fall into a category of dismissal and disparagement (and this continued into the Sixties if not also to today). The author not only recognizes but explores the complicated motives of the women she writes about. There were also complicated motives on the other side of the color line and, in all, Kaplan does a good job of presenting a complex and nuanced story of the period. She also makes some interesting connections between the struggles of blacks and of women for civil rights.

I'd like to explore more about the Harlem Renaissance. It is a period in which I recognize many of the names without knowing much about the individuals and their roles.

Plus, I just love that crazy Nancy Cunard... ( )

This history and group biography of several of the strong minded but sometimes misguided white women who inserted themselves into the Harlem Renaissance is a fascinating look at the rich culture of the time, black and white. Though the 1920's is thought of as an era of freethinking flappers, views of race were rigid and and punishments for crossing the color line were harsh. These "Miss Anne" white women wanted to help bring about a paradigm shift, but they met with a lot of resistance from both sides then, and are largely forgotten today.

Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance is a scholarly book with end-notes and a bibliography, but it is anything but dry. The women's stories are told in sensitive but unvarnished detail and their lives are varied and highly interesting. I picked up the book because I wanted to read about forward thinking novelist Fannie Hurst and rebel British aristocrat Nancy Cunard, but the other women profiled include organizers, educators, and authors whose struggles, choices, personal lives, and public personas are just as compelling. ( )

This book is a keeper. Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance by Carla Kaplan is an amazing piece of research and was difficult to stop reading. The term “Miss Ann” was brand new to me.

Most often, the women who were called "Miss Ann" thought it was a curse that they were white. One woman, Josephine Cogdell Schulyer pushed for "intermarriage as a solution to the race problem". She married a black man herself. She was able to keep her marriage secret from her parents by visiting them without her husband and her daughter. She really wants to make her mark in the world but after marrying, she pushed that aside and concentrated on homemaking. She found herself without women friends and her marriage was a disappointment. Her story is heart wrenching and very sad.

This book is set in the 1920s and 1930s in Harlem mostly. Carla Kaplan concentrated on lives of six women who qualify as "Miss Anns" but their lives were all different. The author picked these women because their lives had the most documentation. But there were many white women who flocked to Harlem and their stories will never be told.

Harlem at that time seemed to be big experiment. Whites wanted to go to Harlem so they could shock their friends and relatives with amazing tales. Blacks and Whites danced and drank together. It seemed that Whites could loosen up there. Harlem was exploding with Black art, poetry, literature, dance and acting. Duke Ellington played to an all White audience in the cotton club but usually blacks and whites played together in the nightclubs.

The black people who lived there saw them as intruders. Celebrities like Tallulah Bankhead and her friend came in drag. Jimmy Durante was there so many recognizable celebrities and politicians came. Writers told of their experiences there. There were even tour guides. It took the Great Depression to end the Harlem Renaissance.

This book is full of history that I never read about Harlem and Miss Ann.

I received this book as a win from First Reads and that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in my review. ( )