Afro-American and East German fiction point to significant parallels in the pattern of social development among members of both groups, despite the diversities of race, culture and polemical political systems, factors traditionally viewed as barriers. This work compares the social development of contemporary Afro-American and East German counterparts by means of literary analysis.

The history of race relations on two continents is enormously enriched by this comparative study

The essays assembled in Crossing Boundaries reflect the international dimensions, commonalities, and discontinuities in the histories of diasporan communities of colour. People of African descent in the New World (the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean) share a common set of experiences: domination and resistance, slavery and emancipation, the pursuit of freedom, and struggle against racism. No unitary explanation can capture the varied experiences of black people in diaspora. Knowledge of individual societies is illuminated by the study and comparison of other cultural histories. This volume, growing out of the Comparative History of Black People in Diaspora Symposium held at Michigan State University, elaborates the profound relationship between curriculum and pedagogy.Crossing Boundaries embraces the challenge to probe differences embedded in Black ethnicities and helps to discover and to weave into a new understanding the threads of experience, culture, and identity across diasporas. Contributors includ Thomas Holt, George Fredrickson, Jack P. Green, David Barry Gaspar, Earl Lewis, Elliott Skinner, Frederick Cooper, Allison Blakely, Kim Butler, and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn.

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