Summary of Necessary Trouble by Drew Gilpin Faust: Growing Up at Midcentury

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Summary of Necessary Trouble by Drew Gilpin Faust: Growing Up at Midcentury

 

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Necessary Trouble is a memoir about growing up in a conservative Southern family in postwar America during the 1950s. The author, a white girl from Virginia, faced polarized national alliances, nuclear threat, and destabilized social hierarchies. Despite her upbringing's expectations, she found resistance necessary for survival. Through her love of learning and involvement in civil rights, student, and antiwar movements, she forged a path that would eventually lead her to become a historian.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Aug 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9783755451242

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Summary of

Necessary Trouble

A

Summary of Drew Gilpin Faust’s book

Growing Up at Midcentury

GP SUMMARY

Summary of Necessary Trouble by Drew Gilpin Faust: Growing Up at Midcentury

By GP SUMMARY© 2023, GP SUMMARY.

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Author: GP SUMMARY

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This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Drew Gilpin Faust’s Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury designed to enrich your reading experience.

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Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.

PROLOGUE

As a historian, I aim to share a story about an era that few living humans can remember. History is about choices and how individuals make them within their circumstances. This era was marked by rapid transformation and powerful reactions in American life, opening doors and paths that were unimaginable. It was a time when ideas and movements challenged assumptions about race, gender, and privilege. Despite these changes, it seems like a foreign country to many who continue to work towards a more enlightened and just future. The strangeness of this world can encourage us to appreciate some progress, but it also reminds us why we don't want to live in such a world again.

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

The author recounts their family's Christmas Eve experience, where their mother passed away. Her parents gave her a posthumous mourning band as a gift, and the family woke up in a house filled with presents and grief. The snow surrounded the house, making it difficult to get in or out of the long driveway. The family remained silent as the storm grew stronger, and they played games like poker, hearts, Monopoly, Sorry, and Clue.

The news from Charlottesville was not good, as the mother had survived the surgery but had experienced an interruption of blood flow to her brain. Her prospects for survival were unclear, and her full mental function seemed slim. They waited for news, and the author's reluctance to speak was a message enough.

The author had returned home from college and prepared for the confrontation with her mother, who had been threatening her with a letter of invitation from her parents. The author argued that she had to have a letter of invitation from her parents before she could go, but she never responded. The larger argument that was their relationship never settled, and at a reception after her funeral, a neighbor grabbed a handful of her hair, accusing her of killing her. The author realized that she had had to fight with her mother in order to survive, and that her failure to fight for herself contributed to the tragedy that was her life.

The author recounts the story of their mother's death, which they believe makes no sense. The family narrative about her mother's death is based on the belief that colitis led to a perforated intestine, resulting in blood clots that required surgery. The author's family had grown used to her emaciated frame and lack of appetite, but they never complained or made any overt reference to her health. The author wonders if her mother was an adult anorexic, as she was five feet nine inches tall and weighed no more than ninety pounds at the time of her death.

The author's family was a family where anything difficult or unpleasant was avoided and denied, rather than recognized or addressed. The author's mother had never been educated or expected to work, and the conventions shaped her upbringing and social constraints left her living her life through her children. The author's mother, Catharine Ginna Mellick, was born in 1918 in Plainfield, New Jersey, and her father was in the army. In 1931, the author's mother wrote to Mira Hall, founder and headmistress of a school for girls in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, seeking admission for Cath. The school was hailed by Fortune magazine in 1932 as one of the nation's ten best private girls' schools.

Despite her efforts, Cath managed to pass the English exam, but she never did through spelling. Miss Hall characterized her as a student of mediocre ability, not superior academically but rather outstanding in other qualities. Cath completed only three years at the school, departing before graduation and accumulating sufficient credits to qualify for further study at Finch Junior College, where she applied but was rejected in 1937.

In 1936, Cath, a young American woman, enrolled at Villa Collina Ridente in Florence to become a lady. Edith May, a Wellesley graduate, founded the establishment to provide women college graduates the opportunity to engage with international problems and perspectives. However, by the mid-1930s, the Great Depression forced May to shift her focus to younger girls from prosperous families. Cath and seventeen other young American women attended concerts, museums, and academic lectures on subjects such as the League of Nations, Anatole France, and Botticelli.

Despite her interest in Europe and Mussolini, Cath returned to the United States and had no formal education. She spent six years before marrying her father and spent her time engaging in various activities, such as parties, friends' engagements, weddings, horses, and family. However, gathering rumors of war and emerging realities of international conflict cast shadows over her background, education, cultural interests, and refinement.