To Turn the Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism

To Turn the Whole World Over explores Black women's internationalist politics and global visions throughout the twentieth century. The book brings together essays from multiple scholars examining how African American women engaged with international movements and built transnational networks. The collection focuses on both prominent figures like Mary McLeod Bethune and Amy Jacques Garvey as well as lesser-known activists who traveled, wrote, and organized across borders. It traces these women's involvement in anti-colonial struggles, Pan-Africanism, peace movements, and cultural exchange from the 1920s through the 1960s. The contributors examine personal papers, organizational records, and published writings to reconstruct Black women's roles in building international solidarity. Key topics include their participation in international conferences, creation of cross-cultural alliances, and development of global Black consciousness through journalism and advocacy. This groundbreaking anthology reveals how Black women's internationalism challenged both gender and racial hierarchies while imagining new possibilities for global cooperation and justice. Their border-crossing activism offers important historical context for understanding Black women's continued engagement with international movements today.

Readers appreciate how this essay collection illuminates lesser-known Black women activists and their international work. Multiple reviewers note the book fills gaps in both African American and women's history by documenting cross-border solidarity movements. Readers highlighted chapters on Eslanda Robeson's anti-colonial work and Amy Jacques Garvey's Pan-African organizing as particularly insightful. Several praised the inclusion of primary sources and photographs. Some readers found the academic writing style dense and wished for more narrative flow between chapters. A few noted overlap in content between essays. Ratings: Goodreads: 4.29/5 (17 ratings) Amazon: 4.7/5 (12 ratings) From reviews: "Outstanding scholarship that centers Black women's global activism" - Goodreads reviewer "Important but dry reading at times" - Amazon reviewer "These essays recover crucial histories of Black women's international organizing" - H-Net review

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🌍 Author Keisha N. Blain is a co-president of the African American Intellectual History Society and has been named one of the top 100 most influential historians by History Today. 📚 The book features essays on previously overlooked Black women activists like Eslanda Robeson, who traveled extensively through Africa in the 1930s documenting anti-colonial movements. ✈️ Many of the women featured in the book used creative methods to build international networks, including beauty culture and hair care businesses, which served as covers for their political organizing. 🗣️ The title comes from a quote by Mary McLeod Bethune, who declared in 1943 that Black women's mission was "to turn the whole world over" by fighting for global justice and equality. 🤝 The book reveals how Black women activists connected domestic civil rights struggles in the United States with international movements against colonialism, creating powerful transnational networks decades before the internet age.