Jacqueline Jones

Jacqueline Jones (born 1948) is a Truman Professor of American Civilization at Brandeis University, Massachusetts, United States. She is an expert in American social history in addition to writing on economics (also feminist economics), women, and class.

Background

Born in Delaware, Dr. Jones was the daughter of the head of the Delaware state school board and attended the elementary school now named after her father. She has held positions at Wellesley College and Brown University where she has taught the history of African Americans and women. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison which she obtained in 1976 after spending time at the University of Delaware. In July 1999 Dr. Jones was named a winner of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a grant given to extrodinarily devoted and creative inviduals in various fields as an incentive for them to continue their work. Although she could use this grant to take time off from her teaching at Brandeis, she has decided to wait to begin her research and work through the grant saying in an interview at Brandeis "I think I will take time off in a few years, but I really like being here on campus, being around my colleagues, teaching" Throughout her career, Jones has also been awarded a Ford Fellowship, a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history.

Ideas and awards

In 1986, one of her most notable publications, "Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present", won her the Bancroft Prize. In "Labor of Love Labor of Sorrow", Dr. Jones demonstrates her extensive knowledge of the history of the South from 1830-1915. Her study begins as a study of African Americans and the hardships they faced during the times, but then develops to include commentary on the impact of class and gender on the women in the South at the time. The book goes one to debunk ideas about African Americans and also blend ideas about the hardships of women and blacks into one clear interlaced picture that centers over the black working class woman. Overall, the book is both a historical and feminist writing and stays true to painting a real picture of the country at that time. Dr. Jones noted upon her winning of the MarArthur fellowship that finishing her Bancroft winning inspired her to write her third book, "The Dispossessed, America's Underclasses from the Civil War to the Present", a book which examines poverty in America across races and genders (Brandeis Faculty Guide). That book would go on to win her the Choice award for Outstanding book as well as a finalist standing for the Lillian Smith Award for non-fiction. Recently, Jones has finished a historical book about her home state in the 1950s. Although her expertise is history, Dr. Jones' books delve into everything from economic policies and their effect on workers to the educational history of America. Her understanding of women's history has gained her recognition outside her own field in feminist circles and she continues to reach more people as her areas of study expand outward still. Her more current book, "American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor", was a History Book Club Selection and in 2002 she was named a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As her career has developed, Dr. Jones reflected in an interview that she "... [is] writing about issues of race and class and how the United States has changed over the years, how different groups have viewed each other and interacted, how certain groups have been assigned certain kinds of work (Brandeis Faculty)." In that sense, history is about people as many of her books would indicate and she continues to find more stories to tell and more ways to show the lives of people from the past. In doing so, Dr. Jones has become a leading figure not only in history but in many other fields as well as her work has expanded there. Her many awards and honors, have not only brought attention to herself but also the subjects of her writings which are, in some cases, still in their infancy. Today, Jones continues to work at Brandeis University as a history professor.

Publications

*Jones, Jacqueline. "Creek Walking: Growing Up in Delaware in the 1950s". University of Delaware Press, 2001.
*Jones, Jacqueline. "A Social History of the Laboring Classes: From Colonial Times to the Present". Boston & London: Blackwell Publishers, 1999.
*Jones, Jacqueline. "American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor". W.W. Norton, 1998.
*Jones, Jacqueline. "The Dispossessed: America's Underclasses, from the Civil War to the Present". Basic Books, 1992.
*Jones, Jacqueline. "Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family From Slavery to the Present". Basic Books, 1985.
*Jones, Jacqueline. "Soldiers of Light and Love: Northern Teachers and Georgia Blacks", 1865-1873. University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

References

*http://www.answers.com/topic/jacqueline-jones#after_ad1
*http://my.brandeis.edu/profiles/one-profile?profile_id=30
*http://www.brandeis.edu/facguide/faculty.php?emplid=605a4d0c45f865ee79036fb08e4b96c4e1d578bd