The Roma
A Traveling History
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
“A deeply sympathetic picture of Romani life over the centuries.” –Wall Street Journal
“A spellbinding tale of resilience and survival in the face of widespread bigotry and violence.”—Boston Globe
A unique, deeply personal portrait of the nomadic Romani people and their on-going journey that sheds new light on their history, where they have traveled and settled, and what it means to be Romani today.
The word Roma conjures images of free-spirited nomads, creative and easy-going people who choose to eschew social conformity for personal independence and a life on the road. Few know these people’s long, tortuous history of being harassed, expelled, deported, demonized, enslaved, and murdered. The Roma is a fascinating history of this people observed from within their world that moves away from stereotypes and the tragedy that has defined them. While Madeline Potter does not overlook the deeply held racism and oppression they have endured, she instead celebrates the Roma’s strength and endurance, their ability to resist and survive.
Blending memoir and archival research, her sweeping, heartfelt traveling history moves across Europe, from Tudor England to Romania where she was born and raised; from sixteenth-century Spain to modern Sweden; from Nazi Austria to twenty-first-century France to uncover the interwoven stories and struggles of Romani communities past and present, and what the future may hold for both nomadic, and settled, families on the continent.
The Roma illuminates the overlooked history of Romani individuals and communities throughout the world. By reflecting on her own experiences as a Romani woman, and the stereotyping, marginalization, and racism she has endured, Potter creates a full-bodied, far-reaching history of a people often maligned and misunderstood, and pays tribute to a culture and its traditions.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
English literature PhD Potter debuts with an elegant and impressive history of the Roma people. She traces how governments have sought to eject, eradicate, and assimilate the Roma from Tudor England to Nazi Germany to the "new wave of fierce prejudice and discrimination" that followed the fall of the Iron Curtain, when many Roma migrated westward. She also spotlights Roma activists who made efforts to fight back, like Steve Kaslov, a little-known figure who spearheaded a Roma civil rights movement in the U.S. in the 1920s. Along the way, Potter weaves in profiles of Roma lives (musician Django Reinhardt; boxer Johann Trollmann) and of those whose lives intersected with the Roma, such as composer Franz Liszt—who "strove to connect with the Roma through their music"—and novelist Henry Fielding, who wrote a pamphlet baselessly denouncing a Roma woman accused of theft. Potter also draws extensively on her personal experience growing up Roma in Romania and later moving to Britain. These recollections lead to some of the book's most unsettling moments, as when she writes that "after completing my PhD, I started adding ‘Dr' to my name when booking hotels: it felt like a badge, making me respectable and reassuring people that I'm not a thief... Often it's made no difference. ‘Where did you steal your PhD from?' I was once asked sarcastically." The result is a powerful call for equality.
