Description: Describing how Woods, Latimer, and Davidson struggled to balance their complicated racial identities--as both black and white communities perceived them--with their hopes of being judged solely on the content of their inventive work, Fouché provides a nuanced view of African American contributions to--and relationships with--technology during a period of rapid industrialization and mounting national attention to the inequities of a separate-but-equal social order.
Brief description: Rayvon Fouché is an assistant professor in the department of science and technology studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Review Quotes: Fouché takes an interesting and challenging approach to examining the lives of three black inventors . . . In debunking some of the myths, including financial success and race pride, Fouché humanizes them and examines the greater significance of their work in the context of American sociological and commercial history.
--Booklist