{"product_id":"remembering-reet-and-shine-michael-schwalbe-9781578066759","title":"Remembering Reet and Shine: Two Black Men, One Struggle","description":"\u003cp\u003eMatthew Mason and Anthony Atwater, two working-class African Americans who lived and died in the American South, led double lives. To family and the black community, they were local men, fathers, and companions. In the dominant white world, where they earned their wages, they were known by their nicknames, Dr. Reet and Shine. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In this dual biography, Michael Schwalbe finds these monikers to be both endearing and degrading. Like other black men of their era, Mason and Atwater created personas. Mason became \"Dr. Reet,\" a witty entertainer to his white employers. Atwater became \"Shine,\" a streetwise stud who was skilled in love and violence. Each persona seemed like a solution, but bore unanticipated costs. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Grandson of a slave and born to a sharecropping family in 1911, Mason worked for fifty years for an all-white aristocratic fraternity, though most of his children would go on to professional careers. Atwater, born in 1933, showed great promise as a child and had ambitions to be an engineer, but by middle age had brought himself close to ruin. Both men struggled with alcoholism, both men created personas to help cope with the strains of their lives, and both men emerged from years of emotional turmoil to find peace. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Mixing biography, memoir, and journalism, \u003ci\u003eRemembering Reet and Shine\u003c\/i\u003e delves into the southern past, following Mason and Atwater as they age, decline, and die. It also explores the great contradiction of American manhood that arises between the expectation of control and the reality of powerlessness. This moving account does not herald heroes or saints, but raises the profile of ordinary men trying to reconcile the demands of manhood with the limits imposed by social forces beyond their control. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMichael Schwalbe is a professor of sociology at North Carolina State University. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sociologically Examined Life\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eUnlocking the Iron Cage: The Men's Movement, Gender Politics, and American Culture\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Michael Schwalbe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1578066751\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781578066759\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Press of Mississippi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/29\/2004\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 252\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.18lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.42h x 6.32w x 0.96d\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Michael Schwalbe","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43991623926015,"sku":"9781578066759","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_bb67a493-f1af-4f19-bead-027b2eefa121.jpg?v=1683311327","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/remembering-reet-and-shine-michael-schwalbe-9781578066759","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}